Lesson’s learned from 2006 (p.2)
Resolutions for 2007? Not much of a resolution but more of a change in lifestyle… This year the goal is to cause as little suffering as possible to all beings. This last December I was in a unique situation where its either I become morose about life and be sulking the entire new years or I could use the pain and come back to myself, to rediscover. I chose the latter and reflected upon the noble truth that have always helped me in the past.
Meditation focused on the first four of the eightfold path was much easier than last years… On the 30th of December, the fourth day, and on the fifth path I broke down…
There was so much pain and suffering that focusing on that path has brought about that I’ve spent most of the day, coming in and out of reflection, to not lose myself. In the end, yet fragile and weak, I walked through that path with greater understanding, and for the first time I could see, on to the 6th through the last.
What makes us human beings? What separates us from other beings? What makes us humans? It’s our separation and transcendence apart from the things that makes us animals. To go beyond our instincts, to be fearless, to love in so many levels. To connect with other beings who do not necessary love us, out of their fear of getting hurt. How did we develop this transcendent qualities? Millenia of being the top predator in the planet, we have lost all fear of other beings, the fear of being hunted and consumed, we have effectively developed methods to prevent others from doing so. We became experts in defense and hunted others. In exchange for all this we have developed war. All beings except humans, still live in the shadow of fear for their life and their families, not just from us but from other animals at the same time. Focusing only on one’s survival brings out the animal within us, we become feral and lose compassion, we do not love because of fear. Trust disappears.
Cannibalism is taboo, not because it is unhealthy nor illegal, but because it is immoral and develops fear. In some cases where people are faced with starvation or eating the dead, people have chosen the later and lived normal lives after wards. Nor did hey did not hunger for human flesh later on, unless the intentions of consumption were wrong in the first place. Societies where cannibalism was the norm disappeared. Headhunters vanished, great societies emptied and forgotten. There is no way to maintain a transcendent cannibalistic society, because it awakens a great fear among us, a fear that our offspring will live in a cruel world, we lose hope.
Now imagine the same thing happening to a different specie, if they have the same animal instinct that we did. Society will not advance. I will personally will opt for death if faced with a life of ignorance and bliss, caged in a room, taken care of, but not offered a way of enjoying to raise my young ones. To not be able to pass the knowledge experienced through years of living in this world. Having to live according to the whims of others appointed over me without any hope of advancement, to have my life forfeit and judged by a society by laws not of my own making. Just because a book says so. To have your mate culled and consumed by a different specie without a way to defend your family, just because they are smarter than you. How would you live, how smart would you be? How psychotic is this world that we live in?
Faced with starvation, people will hunt, beings will do what they can to survive, but we are definitely evolved and are smarter than this, Hunting as a way of life has died. It is not sustainable.
Reflecting on this, I have given up eating the flesh of Mammals, they are our closest cousins, they care for their young and develop strong bonds. It may not make any difference to the world as a whole, but it will make a lot of difference to me, how I will live my life and the choices that I make. Maybe it will change my body, health-wise, I’m going to have be smarter about what I eat, how I get the substitutes for complex proteins. I’ve tried being a vegetarian before, it just didn’t work out for me, and I don’t think I could live without sushi anyway. Baby steps. This year…. less suffering.
(pictue courtesy of: my.opera.com/Mathilda/albums/show.dml?id=98847)
