Kirin : Vegan Protector

Japan Adventures (15) : Kirin - the Legendary Vegan

At Nishi Honganji Temple in Kyoto, you can see the intricately carved and coloured Karamon Gate – which is reserved for entry by royalty. One of the special features of the gate is the carving of the Kirin on it (as above). According to our guide friend, the logo of Japan’s most famous beer (Kirin) was inspired by its design! This branding is so successful that the mention of Kirin probably calls to mind the beer more readily than the actual Kirin!

So, what is a Kirin? As summarised from Wikipedia, the Qilin (or Kirin in Japanese and Korean) is a mythical hooved Chinese creature known throughout various East Asian cultures, and is said to appear in conjunction with the arrival of a sage. It is a good omen that brings serenity or prosperity. It can walk on grass yet not trample the blades and it can also walk on water. Being a peaceful creature, its diet does not include flesh. It takes great care when it walks never to tread on any living thing, and it is said to appear only in areas ruled by a wise and benevolent leader. (I once heard that Kirins only appear in places where the people are so virtuous that they refrain even from stepping on grass.)

The Kirin is normally gentle but can become fierce if a pure person is threatened, spouting flames from its mouth and exercising other fearsome powers that vary from story to story. In the Post-Qin Chinese hierarchy of mythological animals, the Qilin is ranked as the third most powerful creature (after the dragon and phoenix), but in Japan, the Kirin occupies the top spot.

more...

Food : Vegan's Delite

Japan Adventures (14) : Ideal Natural Sandwich

In Japan, the “Subway” sandwich options are not exactly the same as elsewhere. As the comically Japlish (Japanese English) tagline goes on its serviette packaging, “The natural ideal style of eating vegetable.” Hmmm... almost makes one think Subway is a vegetarian eating place. “Natural ideal way”... Yes, keep the veggies (tomato, capsicum, pickles, olives, lettuce...) as raw if possible - that's natural and ideal.

There is an unwritten parallel but reversed dark side to the tagline - “The unnatural non-ideal style of eating animals” - by cooking and sandwiching them, dressing them with sauce, “spicing” it all up with... yes, good ol' veggies. Yes, there are meat options too - ham, turkey, beef, chicken, tuna, shrimp... Then again, there is no natural way to eat animals - if they are not found already dead - naturally, in nature. What is more unnatural than breeding and killing them under torturous conditions? Nothing else.

Anyway, the veggie sandwich options in Japan include “Veggie Delite” (which is the usual) and “Avocado & Veggie”. In some countries such as Singapore, where there is the option of adding “Veggie/ Garden Patty” - which is non-vegan though. From Subway Singapore's website...

more...

Cow : Not Your Beef

P: For your information, there's beef flavouring in the dish.
E: Well, I eat anything that God made.
P: But beef is man-made, not god-made
E: Huh?
P: I don't believe there is a God who made cows or beef. If you say cows are God-made... yes - according to your belief, but beef came from humans killing cows. So, strictly speaking, your God didn't make beef.

more...

Picnic : Cake & Grass

Below is something from four years back, that I thought would be appropriate to reproduce here, as an article categorised under Veganism - which is really more than not eating animal produce, but being mindfully sensitive to sentient beings in all areas of life. The article came to mind as some friends organised a birthday celebration in the form of sharing a (eggless but dairy) cake on a grass patch. As a subtle protest, I sent my regards to the birthday girl and went off. Thereafter, I sent the verses below to explain for my “anti-social” behaviour. For the cake part, here's why I declined: http://moonpointer.com/index.php?itemid=2054 For the grass part, here's why...

Of Loving-kindness to Our Tiny Friends
(Some reflections after a retreat in the wild_

Insects

The Buddha says in the Surangama Sutra,
“...all Bodhisattvas always refrain
even from walking on grass...”

How very touching!
It makes me want to cry.
To be reminded not to forget...
to respect even a blade of grass,
to love the tiny creatures below,
to protect their hidden homes,
to take no one at all for granted.

more...

Mockery : Mock Meat

As in the news report below, a mockery is made out of eating mock meats - to some extent. Good will for animals is duped by greed for profit? Or is it also duped by vegetarian consumers' greed for the taste of real meat too? Guess it's easier for veg*ns to shun both real meat and supposedly mock-meats. It's largely healthier anyway, to eat veges.

Also, for Buddhist spiritual cultivation, we should not be attached to the taste of our foods. If so, why do we need to choose mock meats... unless we are actually attached to the taste of real meat. Then again, it is possible to be attached to the taste of non-meat too. But if “mock mock-meat” is out there, it's safer (for the animals) to be attached to non-meat than to mock-meat! (A sidenote on dairy foods and animal feed which might contain melamine - this is no worry for vegans, who simply don't consume animal produce!)

Taipei health officials find meat in vegetarian products
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=775314

Health officials of the Taipei City government said Tuesday that they had examined 35 vegetarian products sold on the market and found that six of them contained beef, pork or chicken. The officials said that the six substandard vegetarian products, which constituted 17.1 percent of the samples examined, were not packaged and that consumers had no way of knowing their contents. These food products were sold as vegetarian fish balls, vegetarian pork meatballs — also known as Lion's head — and various other vegetarian meatballs, but actually they contained animal ingredients, probably with the purpose to enhance their flavor, the officials added.

Chiang Yu-mei, director of the Food and Drug Division of the city government's health department, said that from July 1 next year, all vegetarian food manufacturers and stores must comply with a certification system designed to protect the rights of Taiwan's more than 2 million vegetarians. She explained that the packages of the vegetarian products must label clearly to which of the five classes they belong: purely vegetarian, vegetarian with eggs, vegetarian with dairy products, vegetarian with eggs and dairy products, or vegetarian without animal content.

more...

Voice : For Animals

Meng: (flashes a chicken drumstick discount coupon) Woohoo!
Leng: Hmmm...
Meng: Okay, okay, please spare me the eat less meat stuff! Don't tell me more!
Leng: But if I spare you, who spares the chickens?
Meng: ....
Leng: And if I don't tell you more about the plight of some of the world's most abused animals, who will?
Meng: ...
Leng: The chickens won't have their shrieks heard by you. And drumsticks say no words.
Meng: So what do you want me to do?
Leng: For a start, it would be good to visit www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com

Diet : Eat Natural

Ron: Er... If there are preservatives in this food, is it really fresh?
Don: Er... The preservatives keep it fresh?
Ron: Er... What keeps the preservatives fresh?
Don: Er... Other preservatives?
Ron: Er... Are those preservatives fresh?
Don: Er... Let's eat as natural as we can!

Eating unnatural would include eating meat.
If you think eating meat is natural for you,
why are you not hunting and killing like the beasts of nature do?

Meat : Keep it Fresh

Many like the smell of freshly cut grass. But the real meaning of the “fresh” is that not yet cut. And if we like the smell of real meat,
we should enjoy the smell of “freshly” cut meat. But no – it stinks terribly. It is the nauseating smell of death and decay – unless you had gotten numb to it. It is this smell that is hidden away quickly with, most ironically, vegetarian spices.

The only fresh “meat” is that born free –
those still swimming in the seas,
those still running on the land,
those still flying in the skies.
______________________

World Food Day 2008: Vegetarianism Against Global Hunger
From: http://evana.org/index.php?id=38147&lang=en -

On 7-8 October 2008, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the United Nations marked the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights which assures everyone’s entitlement ‘to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food’. Sixty years after signing that declaration of good will, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is planning the celebration of 'World Food Day 2008' set to ‘highlight the plight of 923 million undernourished people in the world’. What went wrong? Why are almost one billion people still excluded from the most basic of Human Rights in the 21st century?

“Every child who dies of hunger in today's world has been murdered,” accused former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food [by Jean Ziegler, the Swiss Vegetarian Union and others]. Indeed, how can any society calling itself civilized accept that while worldwide every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry, around 1.5 billion cows and bulls and an astronomical number of other farm animals are being fed with a huge share of available crops? More than the populations of USA, Canada and the EU do not have enough to eat

National and international decision makers have initiated a multitude of projects and campaigns in their fight against hunger; unfortunately, nothing has improved the situation. The non-stop misery caused by hunger calls urgently for fresh strategies, of which vegetarianism must be one! In the interest of justice and humanity the present wasting of 7-16 kg of grain or soy beans, up to 15,500 litres of water, and 323 m2 of grazing land that yields just one kilo of beef cannot be allowed to continue.

[As E. F. Schumacher said in “Small Is Beautiful” - “An attitude to life which seeks fulfillment in the single-minded pursuit of wealth and materialism does not fit into the world, because it contains within it no limiting principle, while the environment in which it is placed is strictly limited.” In this perspective, meat-eating is really excess materialism, as it taxes the environment too much, while depriving the starving of food.]

Rationalisation : Pass the Buck?

A: ... [Some monks] avoid eating [laypeople-offered] meat “intended” for them by passing their plate one to the left, so the plate now in front of them would not be considered “intended” for them. Absurd!
B: Well, this is a new one for me. I have never met such a practice.
A: I have both read about and personally observed it.... I can't speak for how prevalent a practice it is, or its history or justifications, but it does go on.
B: I certainly don't believe there would be any way this [custom] could be valid.
A: ... by taking the plate of the monk next to you, the meat couldn't possibly have been killed for you, hence you are karmically blameless while consuming it. That's the rationale as it was explained to me. I agree with you - its “validity” is far-fetched.

If true, these monks should teach the laypeople more on practising compassion and wisdom for all beings by not offering animal produce... instead of passively eating offered meat obviously prepared for them and delivered to the temples. (Yes, the above case is not about food received by random alms-seeking.) Who do they think they are trying to pass the buck of cause and effect to? “Nobody” in particular? Doesn't work that way - the collective karma is still there among the group of eaters. It's really bad faith if this is not realised. The cycle of supply and demand is such that both these monks and the laypeople are the consumers who demand for meat (killing of animals) - albeit the first passively. When the buying for eating stops, the killing stops. When the eaters remain silent, the killing continues.

Related Article:
http://moonpointer.com/index.php?itemid=2331

Vegetarianism : Not Arbitrary

There is an argument that being vegetarian is not part of Buddhist spiritual practice because if so, all the goats and cows would be enlightened by now. Also, there are many humans who are vegetarians, who are not yet enlightened. This argument says that vegetarianism is but a supporting factor of spiritual practice. This seems to make it arbitrary? This is a dangerous idea - especially for the animals' lives at stake. It is also misleading for Bodhisattva-wannabes.

Vegetarianism (or even better, veganism) might not be part of the practice for self-liberation, however, it is part of the practice for Buddhahood - which is attained by perfecting the Bodhisattva path. If not, vegetarianism would not be a Bodhisattva precept, among others. How can one practise being a Bodhisattva who aspires to save all beings, while one desires to consume some of these beings everyday? It would be downright hypocrisy - to always let greed for meat win compassion for animals. Compassion is the root of the Bodhisattva path. Abstinence from eating animals alone does not lead all the way to Buddhahood, but it surely constitutes part of the path.

Hypocrisy is the opposite of sincerity,
which is an attribute of truthfulness,
which is an attribute essential for
aligning with and realising truth.

- Stonepeace

Misgiving : Ignoring Ignorance

From a vegan friend, on the karma dynamics of delusion? -

We could say that the suffering we [unknowingly] impose on the cows [and other animals, via our demand for their produce], is eventually passed onto the consumer [unknowingly]. As long as we continue to “not want to know” the suffering we create for others, we’ll continue to suffer in ways “we do not know why”... This could just be the cause and effect of not wanting to know.

Related Article:

Top Ten Reasons Not to Take Dairy Produce
http://moonpointer.com/index.php?itemid=2561

Indignation : Animal Abuse

Yi: While I am might not be vegetarian, I just can't stand the ways animals are abused. I get very pissed off. Even if they are reared and bred for food, they should still be treated with respect.

Me: Being pissed off is not enough. A way to prevent animal abuse BEFORE they become food is NOT to eat them. This is the simplest way to remove oneself from the supply-demand cycle of violence. There are millions of vegetarians/ vegans all over the world. They have already removed themselves from this cycle. If we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem. There is no such thing as treating animals with respect before killing them these days. There is no beautiful paradise for any animal that faces slaughter.

There is no case study of any perfect breeding ground or slaughterhouse. Even if there is such an animal “paradise”, it is deceitful. If humans are not agreeable on tricking any human into a good life before cutting his throat, why should we be agreeable on doing that for any animal? Then again, it is better to be sensitive about animal abuse than not at all, even if one devours animals regularly… It’s just that animal-eaters can be even more sensitive to animals by not wanting to eat them. (The Bodhisattva precepts in the Brahma Net Sutra include vegetarianism.)

To torture animals before they are slaughtered is abuse.
To devour tortured and slaughtered animals is also abuse. - Stonepeace

Poll : Why Are You Not Vegetarian?

!++3++!

Related Link:

Why Are You Vegetarian?
http://moonpointer.com/bvf.php?itemid=1992

Dinosaur : Becoming Monsters

Most kids love dinosaurs... though...
Most kids see carnivorous ones like the T-Rex as monsters... while...
Most kids love peace-loving gentle giants like the Brontosaurus.

Why then, do they grow up to be carnivores?
Why then, do they become the burger-devouring “monsters”?
Why then, do they not eat only fruits and vegetables, grains and nuts...?

Fries : What Ingredients?

A fruitless email exchange. May vegetarians and vegans worldwide be careful!

Q: From the American McD website
http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal/nutrition_ingredients.html#1 , there is beef and milk in the fries. It is however stated in the local (Singaporean) website
http://www.mcdonalds.com.sg/faq.htm that the fries are suitable for vegetarians.

But there is no ingredient list in this website, in contrast with the American one. Can I know the ingredients of Singapore McD's fries? Thank you. I am asking on the behalf of a large community of vegetarians (who avoid meat) and vegans (who avoid meat and any animal products - such as milk, egg, honey...) A clear ingredient list would solve the problem. Thank you. [Aug 28, 2008 5:09 PM]

more...