By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Oct. 5: Buddhist leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama urged his followers to to stop exploitation of animals and adopt vegetarianism during a recorded message delivered on the occasion of ‘World Animal Day’ on Sunday.
The Tibetan religious figure said that the growing consumption of meat from large livestock farms in countries like the United States are “environmentally very harmful” and that the issue is “too serious”. “It is very useful to promote vegetarianism. We should pay more attention towards developing more vegetable (in our diet),” he said.
He said that as a small contribution to the movement, he has urged common kitchens of Buddhist monasteries and Tibetan schools to do away with meat and adopt more vegetables in their diet.
The Dalai Lama while lauding countries like India that has a long-standing culture of vegetarianism also said that it is “impractical” to suggest that everyone on the earth should become vegetarians as some regions like northern Tibet and parts of Mongolia have relied on animals for centuries to sustain themselves.
The octogenarian Tibetan leader likened the animals to “ornaments” adding diversity to the planet saying that a world inhabited by only humans only would be “lonely”. “In modern times, some people really showing concern about animal rights, this is very very encouraging,” the 85-year-old extolled.
5 Responses
Should it be reconsidered whether animals belong in the “lower realm”? Many have the capability to be more sentient than some powerful humans. If you every heard a dog cry for her injured puppy or seen a whale carry it’s dead baby carcass for days, compassion, is not just limited to the human realm. If you have ever seen an ant or bee colony respond to the death of their Queen, you are quite aware of the complex social structure. Moderation in many aspects of human existence is probably something worthwhile to consider. Evolutionary, humans are omnivores. That does not necessarily mean eating a hamburger every day. If birds are able to migrate 1000s of miles without a compass, think of what humans have already lost.
Evolutionary pressures unfortunately don’t tell us anything except how to live to child bearing age in an environment of scarcity. Most humans in the developed world aren’t facing scarcity and would like to live much longer than to child bearing age. The overwhelming majority of the scientific literature clearly demonstrates that adopting a whole food plant based diet is the most effective strategy to do that.
The simplistic view is that evolutionary pressures are only applicable to child bearing age. However organisms with complex societal structures are known to raise offsprings in a group setting where those beyond child rearing age play a significant role.
Plant based diet is pandered to because if everybody ate a hamburger a day, the world would be in dire straits. Having said that, even the Dalai Lama is known to eat meat. Hence, moderation. And anyone with advanced scientific credentials are well aware that current dogma can change with evidence showing otherwise.
But the point is that once a population can successfully sustain it’s reproduction then there’s no selection for adaptations beyond that. Throughout most of our history we only lived 20-30 years. Average age of death never got above 40 until the 1800s. You can eat meat for that long without much risk, the risks don’t start manifesting as cancers and heart disease until later. The prevailing scientific consensus can certainly change, but it hasn’t, so shouldn’t we adopt behaviors that reflect it and wait? There’s really no other logical choice but it act in accordance with the best available balance of evidence, which demonstrates that animal product consumption increases disease risk.
Animals are considered to be in a lower realm because their suffering is greater. Beings in the other two lower realms suffer even more. Sadly.