LET’S BE KIND: WE CAN STOP THIS!
We are all creatures of habits. And we are told that habits die very hard. Take the word ‘habit’ itself, for example. If we remove ‘h,’ ‘a-bit’ remains and if we remove ‘a,’ ‘bit’ remains. And finally, if we remove ‘b,’ ‘it’ still remains! And the reason we are not able to see the truth in ‘it’ is because of the crooked, lower case ‘i.’ In other words, our little pride (small ‘i’) prevents us from seeing the big truth of our habits.
In any change efforts, therefore, it is important to remember that our habits are not us. Our habits are the byproducts of the tradition we are born in and the socio-cultural milieu we grow up in. And separating ourselves from our habits is the first step in growing out of them or overcoming them.
The second factor in overcoming some of our unwholesome habits is to be aware of what psychologists call ‘confirmation bias.’ It is very hard to agree with the truth that disagrees with us; it is even harder to disagree with the untruth that agrees with us. To understand this, is to guard against our confirmation bias. Generally, the path we take in the formation of our habits is not informed by much logic or research. Once formed, we keep defending our habits, blissfully oblivious of our confirmation bias.
Confirmation bias ensures that when reason is against us, we turn against reason. We do not like to end up on the side of being wrong, given our emotional investment in our habits. Confirmation bias also dictates the sources of our search for facts, the information we select from those sources, their interpretation and the conclusions we draw from the selected evidence.
Once we become aware of the operation of our confirmation bias, we become free from it noose.
Our eating habit is also just that, a habit.
Mindful of our confirmation bias, and armed with more research and awareness, we can make conscious choices about our food—choices that are good for us, good for the environment, and good for countless innocent creatures that get killed mercilessly every day for the sheer gratification of our taste buds.
Our dignity as humans should lie in protecting those who are weaker than us. Those who have more power ought to be more kind to those who are weak. All spiritual traditions teach us not to do to others what we don’t want to be done to us. The compassionate basis of a vegetarian diet lies in the understanding that no living being wants to get hurt or to die, thus making harmlessness a universal value.
Our self is the dearest of all to us. Love of self comes as a natural endowment, as instinctually rooted self-preservation. This awareness can help foster “live and let live” way of life. The teachings of Vedānta and Buddhist psychology can go a long way to help us understand the essential oneness and interconnectedness of all life. When we truly realize the same Truth in everyone and everything, we become mindful of our total footprint on the planet. And we begin to have correct valuation of things. This leads to a profound change not just in our behavior, but in our being as well.
We start seeing the terror of the situation more vividly.
In today’s factory farming system, animals have no legal protection from cruelty, which would be illegal if it were inflicted on our pets. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats that we cherish as companions. Moreover, this cruelty to animals is not environmentally sustainable. Recent research shows that raising livestock for meat comes at a very high cost to the environment. In fact, recent research indicates that livestock industry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all cars, planes, trains and ships combined.[1]
Let’s be careful not to upset the very setup carelessly, in the name of psuedo-progress.
Throughout the history, many great thinkers have recognized the salutary effect of a vegetarian diet on human temperament.
For example, we have Einstein’s testimony:
Although I have been prevented by outward circumstances from observing a strictly vegetarian diet, I have long been an adherent to the cause in principle. Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.[2] [emphasis added]
Alan Watts, a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience, when asked why he was a vegetarian, famously quipped: “I am a vegetarian because cows scream louder than carrots.”[3] Life feeds on life, Alan Watts knew very well. But he was awakened to the deeper truth of existence—that all killing involves pain! And one should minimize the pain, as much as possible. To the list of great thinkers and immortals of pen who became vegetarian as a matter of choice, we can add such luminaries as Plato, Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi, and George Bernard Shaw.
Meet Dave Scott, a U.S. triathlete and the first six-time Ironman Triathlon Hawaii Champion (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1987).[4] During peak training times, his highly regimented routine included cycling 75 miles, swimming 5,000 meters and running up to 20 miles every single day. Widely considered to be one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world, an Ironman Triathlon format consists of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.2-mile (42.2 km) run, raced in that order and without a break within a strict time limit of 17 hours. It is reported that in his bid for super-discipline, Dave Scott took his training regimen a few notches higher and used to rinse his cottage cheese with water to get extra fat off.
What is even more remarkable is that, while training for triathlons, Dave Scott followed a strict vegetarian diet.[5]
Another great example of the power of a vegetarian diet is Hawaii legend Ruth E. Heidrich. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she switched to a completely vegan diet. With a strenuous exercise routine, a vegan diet, and an affirming mental outlook, Ruth not only overcame the cancer, she went on to become an award-winning, record-breaking triathlete.[6] Ruth has run six Ironman triathlons, over 100 triathlons, and 66 marathons. In 1999, she was named by Living Fit magazine as one of the 10 fittest women in America. She still actively competes in marathons and triathlons, having won more than 900 trophies and medals since her diagnosis of breast cancer in 1982 at the age of 47.
The following is a brief excerpt based on author’s meeting with a contemporary sage, Muni Narayana Prasad,[7] that took place on the evening of December 22, 2015:
Q: Can a Self-Realized person be non-vegetarian?
Muni: A Self-Realized person realizes that the same Truth is in everyone and sees his or her own very self in others. Therefore s/he cannot harm others, since that will be harming one’s own self. Hence, the value of non-harming, ahiṃsā.
Q: So, it cannot be otherwise?
Muni: Yes! It is so.[8]
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[1] Rob Bailey, Antony Froggatt and Laura Wellesley, “Livestock – Climate Change’s Forgotten Sector: Global Public Opinion on Meat and Dairy Consumption.” A Research Paper. Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London: December 2014.
[2] Alice Calaprice, The New Quotable Einstein (New Jersey: Princeton University Press; Enl. Commemorative Ed., 2005), 281. Translation of letter to Hermann Huth, December 27, 1930. Einstein Archive: 46-756.
[3] Retrieved January 20, 2016: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110220230000AAK4KO3
[4] Jimmy Watson, Ironman Dave Scott knows what will be on his tombstone, The Times, August 2, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/2015/07/31/ironman-dave-scott-knows–tombstone/30933751/
[5] See Dave Scott (triathlete) entry in Wikipedia. Retrieved November 24, 2015: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Scott_(triathlete)
[6] See Ruth E. Heidrich, A Race for Life (New York: Lantern Books, 2000). Ruth E. Heidrich, Lifelong Running: Overcome the 11 Myths about Running and Live a Healthier Life (New York: Lantern Books, 2013).
[7] Muni Narayan Prasad is a contemporary teacher of Vedānta in the tradition of Narayana Guru. If you travel in Kerala, you will find Narayana Guru’s statues everywhere. He led a reform movement in Kerala, rejected casteism, and promoted new values of spiritual freedom, humanity, and social equality. Although better known as a social reformer, Narayana Guru was an original thinker of Advaita Vedanta and a poet of highest caliber. He composed Vedanta Sutras, a format that has not been tried again as originally presented by Badarayana in Brahma-Sutras. Many believe that Badarayana and Veda Vyasa was the same person. The spiritual tradition founded by Narayana Guru continues till today, with Muni Narayana Prasad, who is the disciple of Nataraja Guru and Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati.
[8] Meetings with Remarkable People: Muni Narayana Prasad. Unpublished Interview Transcript: December 22, 2015.
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