Please Watch & leave your thoughts in comments for me….
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http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/v20495800ZTdR4Rzn.flv
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Chinese (Mandarin) version
http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/v20495800ZTdR4Rzm.flv
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I would like you to take 12 MINUTES and 28 SECONDS out of your lives to please watch this video, then scroll down to the comments sections and leave me five thoughts that come across your mind after watching this video. It is my special request to everyone who visits this blog.
I would appreciate this very much.
Tsem Tulku
I don’t own any of the content of this video. All content is owned by the film owners (possibly PETA).
“Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.”
I feel shocked, disgusted and…………guilty because I still eat meat…….
Thanks Rinpoché
Dear jean Louis,
Please promote this video and show to as many as you can. May I humbly ask you to stop eating meat. There’s so many other things we can eat. Much appreciation, Tsem Tulku
Thanks a lot for your answer, Rinpoché. I will promote the video and try to eat….less meat and more consciously ( may be reciting manis while eating thinking of the animals..) and hoping one day to stop but strong habits are hard to overcome………….. what do you think?
Thanks again for your kind and warm presence on the net
I’m very grateful for this
Jean-Louis
Querido Rinpoche no soy vegetariana,al ver el video estos son los pensamientos que han venido a mi mente:
Soy una persona con muy poca compasion a pesar de conocer el dharma.He recibido varias veces la iniciacion de chenrezing y me estoy planteando de como he podido tener meritos para recibirla no me lo merezco.He sido demasiado comoda,no me gusta matar ni hacer daño a los animales pero creo que eso no es suficiente deberia haberme documentado del tratamiento que sufren los animales que nos comemos y no lo he hecho,me arrepiento de ello.Me estoy planteando hacerme vegetariana pero en mi entorno nadie lo es.Tendre que cocinar carne para mi marido y mi familia ademas ellos la cocinaran para mi.¿como solucionar esto sin ofenderlos?.
En el video no salen peces.¿Que opinas de comer pescado?.
Being vegetarian and watching this video, I wonder what kind of people exist in this world??? We really need to seek some methods to make these people understand how important the animals life is as it is important to killers themselves.
May all these animals be reborn in the western pure land of Amitabha Buddha. My prayers to all these souls.
OM AMI DEWA HRIH!
Dear Rinpoche,
I have just written a blog post on your post of Dog Meat Trade. I have made my stand in October 2009 to become a full vegetarian. I have not looked back since.
And now, I come across this post and video.
These are the 5 thoughts that come to my mind:-
1) Mankind’s cruelty never fails to shock me. There is no end to the cruelty humankind inflicts onto other beings.
2) Mankind obviously thinks that they are all born with the natural right to feast or feed on all life forms. These people actually believe that all animals are born to serve mankind, and it is all natural.
3) The absence of compassion in the way people treat animals is chilling and most horrifying – at every level. It is really torture house and not only slaughter house. Where is the civility in the treatment of animals?
4) The segment of the world which endorses meat eating is really not interested in facing the truth. They are really living in denial because they are so attached to just satisfying themselves and their appetites.
5) The word humanity no longer means anything humane – it is tarnished with countless acts of cruelty that perpetuate itself since beginning of time.
I sincerely pray to the Buddhas that this meat eating culture is not a tradition that we will continue to pass onto the succeeding generations.
We are far from being an evolved and highly conscious society.
being vegetarian is not religious anymore… it’s a must to stop this madness.
Very good point…being vegetarian is not RELIGIOUS. Being vegetarian is having a conscience to stop all the senseless animal abuse and slaughter. We have to stop being the real animals by being compassionate and kind to all living creatures. Making this planet less violent and more green is a duty of all denizens of this planet whether you are religious or not. Stand up now an make a firm stand about going vegetarian. Do not let any meat pass your lips consciously again.
Share this video with as many as you can continuously. Thank you for being a human. Tsem Tulku
sad for them…
disgusted: at others and myself for increasing slaughter due to supply and demand.
worried: for their suffering mostly;
but also people not caring just because they cant see what happens before they reach a dinner plate.
helpless: for not being able to stop this idea that people have in thinking “lower life forms” have no value and or do not suffer.
compassion: what we all need most.
Gosh I’m glad I’m vegetarian…
My thoughts are:
1. This must be the hell realm for these animals – and if it’s not as bad as hell, i dread to think what hell is like. Better get our act together so we don’t end up in the three lower realms.
2. How greedy and materialistic some people are – all this is about making money. People will go to any extent to make money – that’s why the overcrowding, the sick animals etc. Free range animals are expensive to maintain. Ironically, people prefer to buy cheap meat – and are not aware or do not want to be aware of the poor quality of food they are ingesting which will lead to sicknesses in future. Most meat these days are shot full of antibiotics and god only knows what other medications and growth hormones to make the animals fatter, grow faster – to make more money for the farmers. Sad.
3. OK – milk isn’t good either. Time to switch to something else for cereal/coffee/tea.
4. Pigs are one of the most intelligent creatures – when subject to the conditions in this video – can you imagine what they go through. What kind of life they and other animals like baby cows lead – from birth, the only thing they have to look forward to is death – so that people can indulge in their desire to eat meat.
5. Amazing how the farmers are so insensitive to animals as sentient beings – how they can just throw them around, keep them in atrocious conditions and then kill them so inhumanely. i wonder who is the real animal.
Can’t bear this cruelty anymore.
I was savoring wagyu beef a week ago and now I regretted it. I pledge not to order animal based food consciously. (Coz I don’t want to be a troublesome vegetarian.)
Saving animals is never troublesome. It is better to be ‘troublesome’ to save animals then not ‘troublesome’ to eat them. If others are offended you don’t eat meat, that is their problem. Have compassion for them and ignore them gently but have compassion for animals and go vegetarian. Show this video to everyone you know and promote it please. Tsem Tulku
A question to ask yourself:
What’s worse?
Allowing ALL THAT PAIN IN THE VIDEO TO CONTINUE?
or saying to someone at dinner that, with respect, you wish to not eat meat but will make do with any other meat dishes at the meal? Like Rinpoche said, if someone is offended that you don’t eat meat, that really is their problem. Is that a real friend, who doesn’t respect your wishes not to harm another being?
There is no meal or restaurant in the world that is 100% meat. There will ALWAYS be something that is vegetarian, even if it’s just vegetables or rice. Isn’t that little “sacrifice” over one or two meals worth it to save a lifetime of suffering for the animals?
Rinpoche & Paris,
You have great point, I was just referring to events like weddings, when food are fixed. Ofcourse I will join the vegetarian table if they have such arrangement. If not, I’ll just pick the veg and rice that is served like Paris pointed out
The ‘trouble’ that I’m referring to is when vegetarian food is hard to get and I make all the fuss about going vegetarian.
Farming animals especially those like chickens , duck or pigs are blatantly cruel and very inhumane. The first time i saw this , it was a real eye opener didnt ever cross my minds that could be how they come from. I felt very very very disgusted and pity these animals that need to suffer tremendously so that we human can have our kobe beef or foie gras and others fancy name for animal meats and parts.
We all should be vegetarians for the sake of these animals , for our own body and for the environment.
dear rinpoche my heart so much cry.how to we save them?we need to do some thing.lucky we human if not we can have pain like what hapaning in the video.if we fallow vejeterian many animal can save.just moment see video ofter that we go out eat chiken how to we can save them?i need to requst for every one pleee become vegeterian .thank you rinpoche for opening people mine.i dont like to eat meat anymore.and i dont like people eat also.but i cant tell. who s know may be nest life animal.pleople kill us like this video.thank you so much.
That is a hell realm manifestation on earth. Our entertainment and medical industries have resonance with other realms too. So does the educational system, the political and the social institutions.
Must be why a buddha teaches 24/7, the work is endless.
Dearest Rinpoche,
I watched the cruel treatment meted to these poor defenseless animals with great sadness and revulsion. I find it hard to understand how as humans we can lose any sense of compassion to animals. How did we get that way?
I feel the pain and anguish of the animals. I have never connected the eating of meat with the terrible suffering these animals have to go through to fill my stomach. I am disgusted that I still eat meat. This video has forced me to face the ultimate decision to be vegetarian. This has weighed heavily on my mind these past few days – partly due to my selfish attachment to this diet and also to consider my husband who still eats meat. I try to absolve myself by buying eggs and meat from farms that raise free range animals and as much as possible where they are humanely raised. I will become vegetarian today. Although I will still have to prepare meat for family members (I have invited my husband’s family to celebrate Thanksgiving with us), I will always remember that these animals gave their life in support of another and to pray that they will have a better rebirth.
Rinpoche, this will be a challenge for me and may I never forget that I follow your guidance on the Path for the benefit of all sentient beings. Please be patient while I learn to be a better person!
With much love
Yee Ling
Dear Yee ling, When you have to you prepare the meat. But for yourself…you do not need to eat it. Stand up for the sufferings of others and animals.
tsem tulku
Dearest Rinpoche,
No matter how many times I watch this, it’s still the worst nightmare. Nothing is scarier than taking lives in this way. I can only use “inhumanity” to describe how I feel about it. These animals never get to see sunlight, except the day on their way to the slaughter house. The moment they are treated as food and money, these situations never stop. This video given me enough reason to be a vegetarian, I hope others would do the same. I think the reason why people are still eating meat is because they are avoiding the responsibility that they are the reason of these killing. This is totally an ignorance and in denial. They don’t think this planet is being “consumed” by them, they don’t think all this global warming, earthquake, tsunami etc has got anything to do with them. I’ve been asking myself all this while: If I get the chance to rebirth again, what if the future world is not suitable for us to stay anymore?
Dino
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you again for yet another reminder. My heart feels heavy with sadness even as i am writing this. My 5 thoughts are as follows:
(i) I regret that for over 4 decades i ate meat and have been directly contributing to animal’s sufferings for so long…WIHOUT EVEN GIVING IT A SECOND THOUGHT as if it was my birthright that other beings should suffer for my pleasure. I regret being ignorant for so long. I am sad that i did not even spare a thought about animals although i sort of knew what was going on in the meat industry;
(ii) I regret that even after giving up meat a few months ago, i did not do nearly enough to spread the word (and it would have so simple by just forwarding emails and links) and try and get my friends to think about what we have been doing….to the animals and to ourselves. I shall correct that immediately;
(iii) I am equally sad for the people who have to mistreat and slaughter the animals as part of their livelihood. Most are so de-sensitized that they feel no guilt, no pain, no remorse, no compassion, no pity, no disgust, no regret. Those of us who do have a choice of what we do as a career, and what we now decide NOT to consume as food after KNOWING…we are very fortunate and blessed and may i never waste this blessing;
(iv) Even as i stop eating meat, i should also stop using leather products for that is too, an encouragement for the cruelty to continue.
(v) The way of the world is not Buddha’s way and yet everything we do and touch ( no matter how benign our intentions are) is directly or indirectly promoting samsaric suffering and we cannot seem to escape. We are trapped. There is not much we can control in the world…but we can control what we eat and decide what we will no longer eat.
Thank you for the message and reminder Rinpoche.
Dear Tsem Tulku Rinpoche,
1) Samsara is not a pleasant place.
2) It is made of suffering,
3) due to ignorance.
4) We have to take responsibility,
5) and let compassion unfold.
Thank you for raising awareness to unpleasant truths.
Christoph
This video breaks my heart.
I really did not want to watch that but because you asked i did (though i could not look at certain bits)
Five thoughts,
I am shocked by the lack of feeling for other beings shown by the people in the vid. They must see animals as things and not beings.
Slaughter houses are truly horrid places, not somewhere that any being should die.
I have worked on farms repairing machines and i have never seen any cruelty as shown in the vid being done by farmers or workers. On the whole the animals are well cared for, fed and watered and in the case of a goat farm i was on, give toys to play with as they are very inquisitive animals, obviously being farmed is not ideal though, but i feel based on my own obsevations that Peta like to make things out to be worse than they are. Maybe they feel the end justifies the means.
The poor treatment shown is i feel a result of people not wanting to pay a fair price for their food in shops and restaurants, cost cutting gets passed down the line till it reaches the end, the animals, in the case of the birds shown they are given growth stimulants so they don’t cost to much in feed and housing before being killed (i think they are alive for six weeks or so…), they grow too quick and their legs can’t carry their weight, then they can’t reach the feeders or water, their beaks are cut off to prevent them pecking each other because they don’t have enough space in their cages or sheds….
If people are going to eat animals at least they should be treated well and with respect for the time they are alive.
I could not eat an animal i had met, and seen the intelligence of, they are all surprisingly bright with their own personalities no different to our pets or family come to that, so have been mostly veg since october last year and don’t really miss meat, i am finding new dishes that are now become my favourites, there is much to chose from nowadays.
Jon :-/
Dear Rinpoche thank to your loving kindness to share this documentary to us.
As long as food scarcity is not a concern in today world,it is ridicule for us as human being to sacrifice animals just for meat/milk/egg.Sacrifying these animals also is a mean of killing our mothers who are suffering in the cyclic existence.
We should feel regret on this matter as we are not different from animal in terms of body shape,organs,blood circulation,breath.What made we different from animals is that we have the mind.Nevertheless we did not act in the way by having a conscious mind on the welfare of animals.
I had some experience working in dairy farms as well as chicken slaughter house,i was in tear when i see all the animals to line up during milking time.They are force to eat supplement/food in order to milk more.However,the extensive supplement/food will jeopardizing their health.Their knee will swollen and they left isolated in separate cage,another word to say is waiting for slaughter/die.Same story with chicken slaughtering process.i wish i could do something on the spot but just manage to dedicate some prayer for their good rebirth.i wonder the tycoons will realize they are creating heavy sins among the 5 heinous actions.
This video can serve as a teaching aid to make people go for vegetarian.Scientific proven that being a vegetarian can be one of the best way to resolve today global warming and environmental problems created by human’s greed. But most importantly,it show us on respecting each other and not to take other life easily,including animals.
Last but not least,i personally think that this video show the suffering of being born in lower realms for countless eons. It REMIND us to grab the precious time and life that we have now by involving in more dharma works. As life in uncertain,but death is certain,we do not have much time to self-cherish on oneself happiness without thinking of others’ sufferings.We certainly do not want die by regret.
Again,i humbly thank for rinpoche enlightened thought and teachings that will definately open up our mind and lead us to the attained state.May buddha bless rinpoche to continuously spread the teaching to ten direction and benefits more.
With folded hands and much prayer
Sim
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing the video.
Yes, human is selfish.
For those who can’t help to indulge into eating meat, they just care about their taste buds and nothing else. I feel bad for those people who claim that “no meat no life” or “if i don’t eat meat, i think the life is meaningless” or “if meat is not mean to eat, why does it so tasty?” In my thought I ask “so your meaning of life is eating meat? You only feel you are alive when you are eating meat? And so your life is just about eating something tasty?” That is so narrow-minded, selfish and sorry to say, stupid. They didn’t see the bigger picture but only “me me me me me me…..”
So if people say eating your own mother is super tasty and feel so good, will you do that??
Please use brain to think instead of taste bud that every beings has mother like you and me, would you like to kill yours or others people mother just because it’s so tasty??
For those who kill the animals and running the live stock business, they only see the money and how much profits they can make from the meat, that animals are not life but their value is their body. This is so pathetic that nowadays people are too materialistic to the level that only profits and nothing else. When you are so rich and have a lot of money, that money actually exchanged from blood and your bad karma. I am not a Buddha or fortune-teller, but i know that you won’t feel happy with that money.
Do they hear the yelling after they pull out the knife from the animals? No, i think they only hear the sound effects of cashier machine after every slice.
The video is a true reveal of what’s happening EVERYDAY because of our demand for meat. Please believe that YOU can make a change by just choose to be a vegetarian. And please believe what you believe, sometimes our action should not be controlled by “other people also doing it ma”.
Yes, it’s hard in the beginning, you can start step by step. Yes, i did miss the taste of meat in the beginning, but to save quater of chicken a day then 1 chicken in 4 days, and to save a fish in 2 days, i rather eat the things that i didn’t like. Because i think life is more important than taste and feeling good. Yes, my body was weak in the beginning, but then i found out that strength is not depending on you eat meat or not, it depends on the balance nutrition. And to my surprise, vegetables and vegetarian food is not that bad after all.
But I still have to admit and confess that i am selfish too. Although I have been a vegetarian for about 1 year, I still consume egg and sometimes milk, I understand it leads back to the tragedy in the video, I am trying to cut down and at the same time finding replacement for the nutrient.
Thanks Rinpoche to tell us the truth and made me realize I should stop doing this bad karma action. I don’t want to reincarnate to be a pig, yelling when the uncle pull off my tail. It’s so painful!
I could not complete the 12 minutes at one go. I had to stop the video 3 times before I could complete. Upon seeing the cow cut and the blood draining while it is still alive made me want to vomit.
This meat industry is cruel and inhuman. I find it appalling to see how inhuman they treat this animals. Such complete barbarianism and disrespect for another living life. They probably think that since they will be in the slaughter house eventually the animals can be treated like that. Then how about those humans will incurable illness who are to die only a matter of time, why not treat them the same as these animals? Why have hospice and all the facilities to await death? Human like animals are living life.
Given the conditions these animals are bred, and how USDA gives approval even though the cow is inflicted with cancer, made me realize we are eating infected meat. Now, we know why people get mad cow disease or other sickness!
I feel the pain for the animals. And I feel the guilt that I am not completely vegetarian. I will start now keep meat off my plate.
I am compelled to share this video with many of my friends.
Dear Rinpoche
It was just a few days ago when I had nightmare of people killing puppies. It was so real and made me feel so distraught…I’m getting ready to have bad dreams again tonight. It’s ok, cos it’s just a dream for me. But for these animals, they go through real torment…associating myself with that pain is a good reminder for me to continue being a vegetarian and to promote vegetarianism.
My thoughts are:
1) People have pets and adores their pets, be it dogs, cats, birds, fishes but somehow, there is a disconnect between their pets and the food consumed. It’ll help if people can consider how just like their dogs can feel happiness when loved, and sadness when the master is away, what more a cow or a pig or a chicken would feel their whole life?
2) ALL these pain are caused because of us just to satisfy and please our senses! What is wrong with us? Where is the justification for it?
3) Some say it’s because it’s healthier to eat mean! That’s TOTALLY RIDICULOUS! There are too much information available today for us to keep this up. We are only fooling ourselves and in total denial if we think this way.
4) So what’s there to eat?! One must be crazy to make such statements!
5) Just STOP cruelty!
The video is a good shocker because most people take the meat on their dinner place for granted. The incredible pain and suffering created just for enjoyment is scary because I can’t imagine what it is like to be on the receiving end. I am indeed glad that Rinpoche shared these videos. It is really from watching such videos that I decided to become vegetarian. These days, I don’t even notice that I don’t eat meat anymore.
Dear Rinpoche,
It was a very painful 12 mins clip to watch. Short but it has definitely make me NOT regret to be a vegetarian.
My 5 thoughts as below :-
1. How cruel and COLD the slaughterers are. From this clip,there is no emotion at all. What kind of the karma do they have to be born into this kind of situation.
2. Together, the slaughterers, industry owners, meat retailers, restauranters and meat consumers are gathering cumulative bad karma, most do not even realise this. This is indeed the age of degeneration.
3. Even those of us who are vegetarian but still consuming milk and eggs…time to change and luckily there are ready alternatives.
4. What were these suffering animals in their previous lives, to have caused them to be reborn into such a painful and HOPELESS existence. It reminds me of the ever powerful Law of Cause & Effect.
5. Here itself, Rinpoche has provided an easily tool for us to show people and explain why they should should consider vegetarianism.
Thank u
Su Ming
It’s very sad that these animals are so ill treated…
The hens need 36 hours to lay an egg in such poor surrounding? I eat 2 eggs for breakfast… that’s 72 hours of suffering for the hens.
And.. the piglets at the end of the video are so cute… and yet, i ate them!
One more thought to add ie if we who have the capacity and the means to speak out in defence of this cruelty do not, who will? The animals cannot speak for themselves nor defend themselves.
Will we one day too find ourselves in similar or worse situation and how do we beg for those who can, to defend us? Death awaits ALL of us, and just as the animals that have suffered pass on, we too will pass on to an unknown fate. There are fates far worse than what we have witnessed in the videos…awaiting.
Yes, sad. I hate to see it but it is good to be informed. Thanks!
Dear Rinpoche,
Below are my thoughts after watching the above video:
1. I was very sad looking at the Animal being slaughter, beaten and killed by the people. I can really feel the pain and the suffering they went through especially when there are crying.
2. I’m lucky that i cannot take Beef and Seafood due to having Skin Sensitive problem, BUT i feel shame and bad on myself of eating Chicken, Pork and Fish.
3. Imagine that i were one of the animal inside this video, it will definitely painful for me go through all this slaughtering process and being put into a cage for no sun and moon. Thought come in, STOP Eating MEAT & Be Vegan.
4. We all are human, even a small cut in our hand, we already cry and scream, imagine all these animal being killed to fulfilled our daily needs. Thought come in, everyone (including animal) deserve to be love and be taken care off.
5. i promise myself to cut down on Meat consumption and slowly become vegetarian.
Thank You & Take Care…..
What I also noticed while watching the video is that:-
1. The nasty people hitting, throwing, scalding and injuring the poor animals don’t seem to feel anything for the animals. They have somehow become very cold towards the sufferings of the animals and perhaps are suffering very much themselves that they can’t feel.
2. I wonder what is the cause for the poor suffering animals to be reborn in that state and to die in such a horrible death. Perhaps, they were also once hungry meat eaters themselves who thought nothing but eating meat.
3. The farm animals are so badly treated, it may have contributed to the many of the major diseases in the world right now. The fear and suffering of most of these animals would have produced untraceable compounds that would build up in the human body and thereby develop into an illness.
4. If any humans were abused or imprisoned in a similar situation as any of these common farm animals, there would be outrage and it would be big. However, the plight of these poor animals are displayed on so many videos but have garnered so little support.
5. The solution to such massive industry of torture and killing is actually very simple and that is to go vegetarian. The industry like all others is build on the public’s demand and from the looks of it, people are still very much hungry for their meat and many are oblivious of how it arrive on their dinner plate.
Dear Rinpoche,
that was the most traumatic and sad 12 minutes of TV viewing I have ever come across in my life. It is disgusting, extremely saddening and shocking but also absolutely necessary that we watch this. Thank you for giving us this much needed reminder. My few thoughts:
1) Even though I’m already vegetarian, watching a video like this strengthens my resolve never to ever have meat on my plate again. Whatever occasional craving I may have had for a bit of chicken is now completely removed when I look upon all the suffering that goes into just one meal – it’s just not worth it.
2) It occurred to me that eating a piece of meat isn’t just food. It is consuming an entire process, lifetime and experience of intense and prolonged suffering. With every bite, we would also be consuming fear, pain, helplessness – why would we want to eat that? Just think of all that anguish and negative energy we are contributing towards and then putting back into ourselves.
3) ALL THAT PAIN that another being goes through is just to satisfy a few mere minutes of transitory pleasure on our tongues. That’s all it is! It isn’t even about nutrition because there’s so many other things we could be eating. It’s JUST to satisfy a totally selfish sense pleasure. Again, it’s just not worth it.
4) I can’t help but feel so angry at the people who believe that it is okay to continue doing this… and there are many. It is sad that people say, “Oh but the meat is already there at the supermarket and I didn’t do the killing so it’s okay”.. no, it’s NOT okay. For all those people who think that way: You create the demand, so there will always be a supply. You make it okay for these animals to continue being brutalised and for living beings to go through such intense suffering their ENTIRE LIVES. You can’t even stand it if your finger got cut accidentally – so why do you think it is okay to inflict this pain, 100000x more on someone else?
5) There just is NO excuse for not going vegetarian, especially after watching this video. Whatever excuse you make is just a cover for you wanting to continue eating meat. WHAT ON EARTH could justify inducing so much suffering on someone else? I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND.
6) Lastly, thank you Rinpoche for posting that photo of the monkey petting the cat. Like Sharon said, videos like these make us wonder who the real “animal” is. As the photo shows us, animals treat each other with infinitely more kindness than humans do.
So I sat through the length of the video once. When it was over, the tormented squealing of pigs during the the bludgeoning reverberated in my ears while flashes of cattle dangled upside down with their throat slit added a queasy feeling in the gut. Nah, I didn’t click the replay button. It’s not ‘The Sound Of Music’ you know.
Was the video vile and disturbing? Most certainly.
Going on a full vegetarian diet tomorrow? Maybe not tomorrow, but it definitely reinforce a strong desire to thread in that direction since we’ve already started taking baby steps towards crunchy greens for main meals.
There was another thought that went through my head. I was wondering why humans, animals and insects ate meat since time immemorial? Was it to balance the order of nature so that vegetation and plants would not be completely used up since if everyone and everything were to consume only plants, why then were carnivorous instinct existent in the first place?
I’ll post this on my Facebook and see if I can appeal to the conscience of some of my buddies if not, maybe to motivate them to reduce their meat intake and balance it off with a healthy portion of veggies.
Thank you Your Eminence.
I have started going vegetarian since May last year. But for the past few months, occasionally I have slipped and would eat some meat.
I wish I haven’t……..
My thoughts are:
1)In the name of money, people loses the basic human qualities and could become mass murderers. I could not bear the cruelty human did to the animals in the slaughter house.I will never want to creat the karma to be working in a slaughter house of any kind.
2)If we can play back the abuse and slaughter scene in our head before we are about to order a meal, I guess that would make it easy for everyone to say “NO” to meat. So being a vegetarian is not that difficult.
3) On top of that,the meat as seen from this video was not really healthy. First, most animals are shot with antibiotic and growth hormones, and the amount of distress and duress they underwent before they were killed left much toxins in the meat. So on that point, most of the meat that we are buying and will be consuming from the market today is definitely not desirable. Think of one’s health, all the more reasons to go VEGETARIAN.
4)Another way to make oneself to become a vegetarian is to visualise the animals that we are killing are actually our own children, would we have done the same? Beat them up in the head and then slit their throats and let their blood drain over their face? And then let them scream and struggle in severe pain? There is no difference between the animals and us. We all have feelings.
5) Spiritually, I would not like to be reborn in the animal realm. I must practice compassion and make a conscious choice of never to hurt any animal. Going vegetarian is the way! We all have a choice and can help to reduce sufferings and to make planet earth a better place for everyone.
Next time you are about to order your roast chicken, fillet migeon, or barbeque pork ribs, REMEMBER THIS VIDEO AND THE SUFFERING these animals went through just to please a moment of pleasure for your senses.
How sad when i saw this powerful video, towards the ending hearing pigs’ screaming for RESCUE! sound like human’s voice…. brought me tears.
5 thoughts came across my mind
1) Must promote vegetarian, no more excuse eating meats.
2) Farmers are inhuman and very cruel, they seem addicted to kill , they are human with no heart, so sad.
3) So fortunate that i came across dharma , to practice care and love . dharma is so so important in this degenerate time
4) Human attachment and selfishness create these hell scenes for animals
5) I sincerely pray that never be parted from dharma in this live and future lives.
My heart felt for the animals. I imagine if I were one of the animal. I used to think it is very natural for human to eat meat as we are the higher form than animal. My perception has changed over the years especially after knowing Kechara. I stop denying that slaughtering animals was a bad action and I found the answer that I wanted over the years (I stop finding excuse to justify my parents’ wrong doing for a living). Ms Temple Gardin (diagnosed with autism since young), a doctor of animal science who undestand the feeling of animal. She could sense the feeling of animerals before they were slaughted. She said although we couldn’t avoid slaughthering the animals for food, but at least the animals deserved to live better and being treated better.
I have watched these type of video clip several times. In fact, these non free range aniamals have some kind of pre-mature smell and taste which is quite unpleasant and doesn’t taste good at all. I understand Rinpoche’s teaching and we must spare kindness to animals out of compassion and respect their lives, but I must admit that it is quite difficult to change our mindset and habits. I have tried to reduce meat dependable diet for a year plus, but it was quite hard to change our diet. We were brought up since young with the perception that meat was good for us, but somehow later theory told us otherwise. How naive we are!!!
It is quite difficult to change our diet, especially with our children, maid and husband. It could cause unpleasant moment as man has more meat craving than woman. My children are so use to meat diet and sometimes they will fuss about the food. However, Human tends to have very short memory and has the tendency of forgetting what they have watched. I have let my children watched this video before in youtube, they are very worry and tried to have less meat diet, but only for few days. It is ashame that I can’t stop immediately, but old habit die hard, I need time to deal with old habits. I tried to inffluence my children tried to minimise the meat eating by reducing the number of consuming them, eg. be mindful of what you eat, let’s tried to cut down eating meat to once a day or alternate day per week. Hope we can acheive a full vegetarian one fine day.
I begin to admire some of the hindus who have been vegetarians from old to young since decades ago.
DEAR RINPOCHE,
THANK YOU FOR UPLOADING THIS VIDEO FOR US TO SEE WHO REALLY WE ARE INSIDE. WHAT WE HAVE DONE TO THIS ANIMALS BECASUSE OF US. DON’T KNOW HOW MANY ANIMALS HAS KILLED TO FEED US. VERY PAINFUL TO SEE THIS VIDEO.
If WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE WITHOUT BEING TOURTUED SO DOES ALL ANIMAL ON THIS PLANET.
WE ARE BORN ON THE SAME PLANET AND THEY HAVE THE SAME RIGHT TOO ONLY THEY CAN’T SPEAK. THEY CAN FELL PAIN LIKE US.
ANIMALS KILLS ANIMAL TO SURVIE .. THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND.WE ARE NOT ANIMALS. WE DON’T HAVE TO DEPEND ON ANIMALS TO SURVIVE.WE WOULDN’T EVEN PRICK OURSELF OR SONS AND DAUGHTERS WITH NEEDLE OR KNIFE FOR FUN.
BUT WE WANT TO KILL SOME OTHER ANIMALS JUST FOR HAVE GOOD DINNER AND LUNCH …. HOW CRUL IS THAT …
THANK YOU, KB
Dear kb,
Promote this video to Nepalese friends and to Nepal in general. Do your best to help the animals. Tsem Tulku
Rinpoche,
Thank you for posting the video. Having seen it, my thoughts are:
1. How cruel humans can be – animals don’t do this to one another, let alone to other species. They don’t come up with processes to torture one another or other species, or to imprison them.
2. Humans don’t treat one another very nicely either. Animals won’t eat other animals that are sick, diseased, etc because they know it’s not good for them. So why do humans approve of meat like that being sold to other humans? Why do governments not protect their people better?
3. In this instance, it’s not necessarily a good thing to be born as a human. We are given the ability to help others, but many choose not to. And even then, some choose to cause pain instead. Sometimes as well, these people don’t have a choice or they feel like they have no choice – if they don’t work in these places, they can’t earn a living, there’s nowhere else for them to work, etc. By their karma they are forced to cause pain.
4. Being surrounded by pain, and causing pain to others desensitises people and makes them believe what they are doing is okay. The people in the video looked so at ease doing their jobs. Even the whole process of killing the animals has become so mechanised, so people don’t have to see the ugly truth of what they are doing.
5. How selfish humans can be – just because we want to satisfy our tastebuds, we are willing to turn a blind eye to how others are treated, and find means of justifying our behavior. But even science tells us anything with nerve endings can feel pain.
Hi Tsem Tulku. I’ve seen the whole video and I guess this can’t be topped by anything terrifying I ever seen before. Still, I don’t know… is my compassion graet enough? If I would feel it all, would I loose my mind never sleep again or have a psychosis? I don’t know. I recemtly still ate Bio-Eggs and some yoghurt. Becasue I am not a student who is as good as you when you did 100 prostrations a day in your youth, would you have the kindness to do a little offering so I will completely let go of milk and eggs? I love you so much and I am terrified of the thought my possible lack of compassion could disappoint you. I really love animals – alive – without discrimination. Love, and hoping I am a good friend, Knut
Rinpoche, I can’t watch. I have seen this before. I was a vegetarian for a decade. One time I was riding in the car with my mom in Illinois, and a truck full of cows went by… and I had such an awful feeling of fear that over took me.
I know it’s really important for my vows to be vegetarian, I will do my best. I started eating meat when I was homeless in LA because I just had to eat what people donated to the shelter. I will go back to being vegetarian because I can’t even look at the video. Its so sad.
Thank you Terri for being a vegetarian. Promote it and do it from the bottom of your heart and all the way. Be a voice for these voiceless animals. I beg you to do it. Tsem Tulku
I feel horrified and a coward at the same time. It’s 2 weeks that I have been thinking about becoming vegetarian again ( I was for 2 years in my 20s) and I ve been contemplating this idea thanks 2 u.
I was born in the countryside and for many years (not anymore) I remeber I would run to the remotest room covering my ears not to hear the pig screaming when sacrificed for Christmas.
I have a furcoat that I love, and I do not feel strong enough to give up wearing it this winter……
But I will not eat meat anymore.
PS. I shared it on facebook.
I will not buy any new furcoats.
Dear Raluca, Thank you for sharing on FB. And yes, never buy fur coats….that is a wonderful way to start.
Tsem Tulku
I was drinking milk and eating french fries, thinking I was doing so well for myself when I started this video. I am really surprised, why doesn’t meat and milk and eggs instantly make us puke? I’m not even talking about the moral/ethical issue here. I mean, really, how the hell can our bodies digest this stuff?
Another thought occurred to me.
This video appears to have two kinds of beings, animals and demons. There were perhaps one or two human beings in the video at all.
THIS IS MY KARMA?!?! I AM CHOOSING TO COLLECT THIS TYPE OF KARMA?!?
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME.
I will stop soon, Rinpoche, I promise.
I don’t want to ever be a demon. I probably deserve to be a cow a few times. I would rather be slaughtered than to slaughter. Also, I can’t believe how hard it really is, just to remain human.
If we don’t make a real effort–BYE BYE HUMAN–HELLO, HELL.
IT’S BS THE WAY WE TREAT OURSELVES, all the bad choices I make that I KNOW BETTER. I’m so angry… #$#*^@#$%&*&^%*%$@#%&Y$
There is a charity in Britain that rescues battery hens.It is called The British Hen Rescue.It is run by a group of women that rescue thousands of ex battery hens every year. I am very privileged to have eight of these hens and to see them develop into healthy hens that I hope will have a long happy life.
Hi Rimpoche, thank you for sharing so much on your blog, I´m from Peru and what I just saw on the video was amazingly cruel, and I really want to start being a veg but my attachment go in the other way, so I’ll try my best to overcome this.
Thank you really much …
Dear Tsem Tulku Rinpoche,
A PS to my comment above. It may not seem directly related but I feel it is, especially thinking of your other post today on how hurting others is a sign of weakness as real strength shows in kindness.
It’s a little story about a little tiger and his friends that I wrote for my favourite little Karate Do student. The story illustrates how through lack of awareness, and with the best of wills, we may create suffering for others, and how we can avoid it by becoming more aware. You can find it at:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/good-inspirations/the-three-little-friends-and-father-bear/154396467914212
I hope you will enjoy it. A lot of good inspirations and a lot of good energies for your Dharma work !!!
Christoph
Dear Rinpoche,
I’ve been told by people on many occasions that in the Bible, Jesus tells us that we hold dominion over God’s creatures. Well, yes, that’s what’s written in the book, but why on earth people equate “dominion” with the right to ill-treat, abuse and cause suffering to any beings baffles me.
I think a huge problem lies in ignorance. We can wonder about how cruel people can be, but these people, sadly, aren’t conscientious of the consequences of their actions. To some, a cow is merely a commodity, a sheep simply exists for wool and meat and even dogs are viewed to only to be fit for consumption by some.
If there was some way of delivering proper education to people, some way to get an effective message across, it could start to alleviate the problem slowly but surely.
I’m not sure that some who tell meat-eaters they’re “wrong” or (in some cases) “murderers” is an effective tactic, because people get defensive and close themselves off to implementing any sort of change.
Perhaps the approach you adopt (showing videos, blogging on the subject etc.) is the best way forward. Any problem, it seems, can be resolved if it is constantly chipped at. This issue won’t turn itself around overnight as we all know, but if people keep chipping away in the right way, maybe eventually things can be turned around.
I will share this article on my band’s Myspace page, Rinpoche. We have 21,000+ people that it could potentially reach and hopefully raise greater awareness. Thank you for sharing.
Kindest regards,
Sandy
Dear Sandy,
I hope very much you will SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF NOT HARMING ANIMALS OR EATING THEM tirelessly and for the rest of your life. I hope you will do countless writings on this and create any awareness you can everywhere. I sincere hope so and pray so. I thank you ahead of time. Tsem Tulku
I seen this video from your web http://www.kechara.com and seeing again. But it is great to post it hear to ensure everyone reads, digest the video and give their thoughts. I have to break the norm as we have been brought up eating meat. Each time I try to just choose vegetarian dishes when eating with friends, I have to bear their comments that I am odd & eat so little without meat. However, I will continue to propagate to more to reduce and eliminate meat and be vegetarian.
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you for sharing this video with me. Here are five of my thoughts:
1. I am glad I have been a vegetarian for so many years. I hope some animals have been spared from immense suffering as what have been shown in the video due to this conscious choice to become a vegetarian.
2. I will make a more conscious choice when purchasing accessories and to avoid products that resulted from animal cruelty. This is rather difficult especially in terms of shoes and bags. But I will try to find other alternative whenever possible.
3. My thought goes to the animal shelter that I am currently helping since the dogs are consumming gigantic amount of meat for food. My friend argued that the dogs need meat protein to survive and not all dogs can be turned vegetarian. I will continue to do research to see how the dogs nutrition can be fulfilled without causing other animals to suffer.
4. My thought goes to my dog, Gizmo. I have tried my best to turn him into vegetarian, while substituting his protein need with eggs. Several weeks ago, his fur started falling, and based on the vet recommendation, I am giving him Vi-Sorbit vitamin that have pork content. Once this is finished, I will replace his vitamins with another alternative that have no animal content.
5. My thought goes to the vegetarian food industry. For humans – There are so many delicious food choices out there that being vegetarian for more than eight years now, I don’t feel miserable compared to my meat eating days. For animals – though there are holistic vegetarian food dog in the market, it appears that the taste is not so appealing yet for dogs. So I am still complementing vegetarian food for my dog with gourmet food made from carrots, kidney beans, eggs, bean sprout, potatoes, and brown rice. Being a beginner dog owner, I always worry whether my dog gets enough nutrition, whether I am doing an injustice by turning him into a vegetarian, or whether I am shortening his life span because he is supposed to be a meat eater (as one dog breeder told me). The answer is still that I need to do more research to provide my dog with great tasting food but free from the result of animal cruelty.
Much love
Valentina
Most of us will try to avoid this video to deny that these suffering exist so that we can still enjoy the so called good taste of a piece of steak or a burger or a pork chop.
It took me a lot of courage to watch this video. I even had to close my eyes a couple of times as it makes me sick to see how these animals were abused. It makes me want to vomit. It is so disgusting!
It makes me realized how fortunate we are to be born a human, yet the inhuman actions we took to satisfy our appetites and taste buds are beyond comprehension. I cant imagine the intensity of pain and sufferings that the animals have to endure.
How can all these animals that are sick and diseased be fit for human consumption? How can we say that the diseased meat taste good? How can the authority approved of such meat in the market?
Karma will catch up with us. We have a lot of dead animals inside our bodies as we have been eating meat since young. This karma of killing animals to satisfy our appetite and taste buds will catch up with us and we will have to suffer the consequences in one way or another. Maybe a rebirth as an animal to be sent to a slaughter house?
I have gone meatless for sometime but I was still taking eggs and milk thinking that it is alright. It never crossed my mind that these animals have to go through so much sufferings too until I watch this video.
Thank you Rinpoche for this eye opener video to promote Vegetarism!
May it inspire more to be vegetarian!
it’s bad to know i am one of the killer. i nearly want to stop watching it halfway…but share it b’cos it’s the truth everybody should know…
Dear Rinpoche,
This video is an eye opener. I have been avoiding videos on animal cruelty for the longest time as I am not willing to see what is being done to the animals. I knew that it won’t be a nice sight. I am ignorant and that what I don’t see doesn’t mean that it does not exist. And by knowing, means that i would have to do something about it. That’s the reason why I have not watched the videos on animal cruelty posted by Rinpoche previously.
It is difficult and disturbing to watch the animals suffer and die in such inhumane manner. My heart goes out to them and may they take rebirth to higher realms. I did not realise that this is how the industry treat the animals. Humans are cruel just to make money. The animals deserve a better life even though they are bred to feed the humans. Those sick animals (as a result of cruelty) that were consumed by humans will harm the human body i.e. diseases. And in the end human suffers as well. It’s a cycle.
All in all, we should not treat animals in such a manner as they are also a living being which has feelings. They deserve a better. I shall start to reduce my meat intake and i believe one day i will become a vegetarian.
Thank you, Rinpoche for sharing.
Dear Rinpoche,
I received an email from Patsy for this video link.
I can’t finish watching the video, is too sad.
(I apologize for my poor english)
I had one son around 8yrs that suddenly claimed he would not eat meat that had any bones in it, so here I am taking the meat off the chicken so he would eat!!! Well today that son of mine is a vegetarian has been over 20yrs. Of course this story was before chicken Mcnuggets and boneless skinless chix breasts!!! The thing is we are not children here, I was just telling my grandson today,that instead of taking college just to get a job: he should try to take up something to benefit all beings. We need to create a new and different world where we don’t depend on animal flesh. It is a new age, we have so much technology, something new every day. Surely we can do this!! However out of compassion, it is not lost on me ” to lead by example” If there is a movement towards a society that is completely meatless, then we all have a responsibility to learn how to bring this about even though difficult .
I grew up in a family where sponsoring the slaughtering of animals annually and the meat given to the poor is considered a meritorious act and are encouraged if one has the means. However, now I feel that instead of continuing that practise it would be more ‘humane’ to help the poor by other alternative such as dry food donation, money, getting them jobs or shelter, like what KSK is doing.
It hurts so much to see the video but when I stepped out of the house and surrounded by all the ‘tantalizing advertising’, the tastebuds automatically drools and craving to eat arises. I have cut down eating of beef as its a big animal and one can really feel the pain and torture when its being slaughtered.
Now my diet is mainly on fish and chicken. I would want to stop eating these in the future as well.
I saw a documentary TABOO, an expert mentioned that in the past the tribes would do a lengthy prayer ritual just to slaughter 1 animal and we looked at that as really weird, uncivilised culture. But now the expert said due to demand for poultry, prayers no longer accompany the slaughtering of animals and its done so mechanically and secular. Who is more uncivilised??
Many people asked me why I am a vegetarian. Look at the video that Rinpoche posted how someone who had watched this still can continue to eat meat and I feel really disgusted. I have been a vegetarian since last year wesak day and I will continue until the end of my life. I will forward this to my friends.
My 5 thoughts:
1. How much suffer those animals have to take to fulfill human’s craving of having “good food” on their plates?
2. We human continue the cycles of torturing and being tortured by each other because we created and continue creating the karma of torturing and killing the animal.
3. There’s no consciousness of love or kindness towards living beings.
4. People think that animals are born as their food. They meant to be eaten.
5. There’s no strict rule nor control of handling the animal correctly in the farm hence workers do not care either.
Imagine if you are born as one of those animals you saw in this video. How would u feel…….
Dear Rinpoche,
Here are my five thoughts after watching this video:
(1) Their suffering is completely unnecessary but totally caused by the inHUMANity of HUMAN.
(2) We can eliminate their suffering very easily while without making us or our planet worse off, simply by not demanding any part of their bodies as our food or drink.
(3) I was one of the slaughters by eating meat in the past and definitely I will experience the torture and pain as they did in this life or in future lives if I still need to be reborn in one of the six realms or I keep being lazy towards Dharma practice.
(4) The human body that I’m having now is extremely precious and I’m already an extremely lucky sentient being.
(5) I must send this blog message link to my friends NOW.
Thank you very much for your teaching.
Kind regards,
Lawrence Wong
Dear Rinpoche,
1. Meats in non veg restaurant and fast food outlets are served presentably but few of us really see or know the going on before the meats are delivered to these eateries. This video gives a different view to those who have not watched it before and it serves as a reminder for those who have watched.
2. Worse still, there are people killing animals in the name of sport, fur trade, leather goods, etc. Some animals are killed for their ‘exotic’ meats using medicinal powers of the meat as cover. Some animals are smuggled via bad conditions to be sold as pets. These are just to ensure the cash register keeps ringing.
3.I do not think there is a good method to kill animals for food. The end is that the animals are killed. The debate may be about humane methods of killing but the result is lost lives.
4. I spoke to Angel to find more food recipe where meats are not used in cooking. This is for her and our maid to cook less meat for our children.
5. I do not just want to watch this video and cringe at the tortures and leave some nice words but when the video is over, forget all about it. I want to do something.
Hence I will share and educate my children more of not eating meat by starting to cut down meat in my home and they may share this with their schoolmates. Hopefully, children may influence their parents because parents do listen to their kids more nowadays.
It will be not hard for my children as they are fortunate to be in Manjushri Kids Class, every Sunday at 2PM in Kechara House, and they also participate in the Kechara House Animal Liberation Day monthly event.
The education and events held will help them greatly to live virtuous lives as they are growing up. From them, the next generations after may follow suit.
Some people live to eat, others eat to live. The taste and flavour last only a few seconds, passing my taste buds before being swallowed. I now choose to ‘Eat to Live’, practicing awareness by eating less meat, for a start, and cutting off meat from my dinner table at home by end of this year.
Dear Rinponche,
This is my second time seeing this video, and i am ashamed to admit I still eat meat … although i have reduce my consumption quite a lot after viewing it for the first time… how easy it is for us to will ourselves to forget and say it’s okay and program our minds to ignore what we have seen..
After my second viewing… I just think it’s…
1. Disgusting how we human’s can bring ourselves down… it’s bad enough to kill another living thing for food, but to torture and scare them before you do the deed… that’s just being a bloody sicko…
2. I belive that if we were to kill another living thing for food, we should do it in the most humane manner… like the native red indians do. They treat their food animals like a blessing from mother earth with respect, honor and praise for the number of lives the animal will sustain… “these ah moh’s really need to learn from the indians they subjugate”
3. I think it’s quite hard to stop what’s going on by just feeling bad about it… and doing nothing. To stop we have to take responsibility and ownership individually… If we want to stop this from happenig, we/I as consumers need to stop the demand for these produce.
4. But to ask the masses to go full vegetarian immediately is quite difficult… especially for a carnivour like myself… but what we/I can do it is to cut down the intake and portions of farmed meat gradually… maybe replace with sea food? … (technically you can’t really torture a shrimp or anchovies like a cow or a pig right??)
5. But ultimatly, as carnivour’s we have to wean our selves out of protien rich meat diet to stop the senseless killings of all these animals.
Thank you again for shocking my mind back from the numbness state I’ve created for myself to “make things OK”
yours sincerely,
Kenny
1. Animals are like humans. Friendship between different species of animals is rare but it does happen. Friendships between individuals of warring nations are equally rare but they do exist, for example between Israelis and Palestinians.
2. In Genesis V.27-28, it is said that “God created man in his image” and to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Indeed man has this power over the animals but he has a choice, to be cruel or to be kind. We have seen much cruelty, but we have also witnessed a lot of kindness, for example the creation of animal sanctuaries, saving the sea creatures from the oil spills etc etc. Only man has the power to do this. This reminds me of Lama Tsongkhapa’s 27 Verses on Mind Training: we have a choice between selfishness and selflessness. The former is detrimental to the universe while the latter will probably save us from total destruction.
3.We must have more animal sanctuaries in Malaysia. Create the cause for a KH animal sanctuary by becoming vegetarian!
4. Help the NGOs that are taking care of stray animals. Donate generously to their causes.
5. Do not create a demand for wild animals by frequenting exotic food restaurants or buying their body parts. This will stop the poaching and the killing of wild animals for food and medicine.
my thoughts on this topic:
1. ABUSE
We have the power to help beings that are helpless and we use this power to abuse them.
Plain and simple revolting act of abuse.
2. DELUSION
We are delusional when we buy animal products, when we cook them, when we eat or use them.
Delusional = even the exposure of the facts do not deter us from our mis-conception.
The facts? they are in this video.
Our delusion? we still enjoy fried chicken, we REJOYCE at the sight of a fried chicken!
Plain and simple delusional thoughts.
3. SUFFERING
Check the video again and you’ll spot these two hens comforting each other, head to head. It shows these creatures are not industrial goods like iron or salt, they are conscient living beings experiencing fear and suffering and seeking for comfort. This quality of them = they are sentient beings JUST LIKE US.
Their suffering is un-deniable.
4. HELL REALM
Just in case some people still have doubt about the existence of the hell realm, just watch the video again.
Who created this hell realm? …. that’s right.
Plain scary!
5. SO EASY TO SOLVE
In this instance, the solution is not difficult, it is reachable by ANYONE, it has never been easier to solve a problem as catastrophic as this one, as revolting. The solution is for us to stop using animals as industrial goods, to stope abusing them, to stop killing them for the pleasure of our taste buds or because we like to wear fur-coats or leather jackets.
We can all solve this, everyone.
Plain and easy, no-one has an excuse.
I have been vegetarian for slightly over 2 years now, and the purpose of my doing so is to reduce further suffering to animals as much as I can. As I watch this video again, the suffering that each animal goes through really tears at my heart. How is it that humans can cause so much pain and suffering to these animals yet turn a blind eye towards it?
Underneath the outer exterior, Buddhists believe that all sentient beings are our mothers, have been our mothers or will be our mothers in the future, regardless of the shape and form that they take on in this life. Would you do something like this to your mother? Or would you want this done to her?
I think everyone who refuses to acknowledge that we are indirectly causing the suffering of so many creatures purely to satisfy our tastebuds should spend a day in an abattoir or slaughterhouse. Perhaps even try your hand at killing a cute piglet or lamb and look into their terrified eyes as you are doing so. If that doesnt change your mind or give your conscience a jolt, i do not know what else will.
I am so fortunate to have Tsem Tulku Rinpoche as my teacher, who has guided so many to adopt a vegetarian lifestlye, thereby reducing the amoung of horrible negative karma that we collect through the simple act of eating. May many others adopt a vegetarian diet please!
Dear Rinpoche,
1. I’ve watched this video a couple of times and every time it disturbs me to see how cruel we can be to other beings just to feed our attachments.
2. I’m so glad that I’m a vegetarian. It is through Rinpoche’s love and guidance that made me see the cruelty we perpetuate if we continue to eat meat. I am guilty of being a carnivore for the last 37 years.
3. We definitely need to have more vegetarian restaurants in Malaysia, be it high end restaurants or food court stalls so that they are easily available for everyone.
4. We must educate the public with videos, photos and write ups, just like the movement for stopping the consumption of shark fins.
5. I’ll start educating my friends.
Regards,
JP
I could not sit through the entire video properly. It’s too sad and leaves me disturbed & guilty (since I eat meat). My immediate thougt is to reduce eating meat and hope for the perseverance to stick with it and hopefully stop altogether. Thank you Rinpoche for the video, it will serve as a subconcious reminder always.
There has got to be better regulations set by authorities to prevent such cruel ways to feed people. Even by the law of nature a carnivor does not kill like this. There is no necessity to kill like this, it’s sadistic.
i wonder why it’s so hard to give up an attachment but i hope to learn and learn soon.
We can’t stop everyone from eating meat but we can lobby against such cruelty. all of us can do our small parts like posting on blogs and other sites to stop violence. I’ll definately look into ways to create awareness on this. thank you again
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing this video with all of us. It was very insightful because it tells us the truth that all of us have been hiding from.
I feel that I am extremely lucky that I do not have to suffer like this in this life. The animals were so helpless. after seeing this video. I am worried that I will suffer similar process in my future lives. It is so scary.
How inhumane people can be by killing for the money and the sake of their appetite. I feel very lucky and fortunate not to be in that position which is causing so much pain to the animals in such cruelty. It is a living hell in there. I cannot imagine how the people there can bear with such activity and cries daily. I wonder how they feel and am sure that they don’t want to be there as well but they have no other choice but to make a living out of cruelty. I feel for them, the animals and the workers.
Every creature in this universe deserves a right to their lives and should not be taken away by anyone anyhow. Animals in this video have no control at all to their lives. They started their lives to be separated from their parents and later endure physical and emotional torture. They were forced to be ‘machines’ and when they are no longer producing, they will be sent for culling. Imagine all the emotional torture before going through the pain. Sad.
People have been very selfish and ignoring the tremendous sufferings of the animals just because they want to eat it. Many people have been ignoring this fact that despite all the good food they have been enjoying. Or some might not even thought of this.
This is real imprint for me. Every now and then, it will ‘motivate’ me to be vegetarian instead of taking meat. Every drop of meat on the plate will remind me of the sufferings that all cruelty in life. I will spread this video around to plead my friends to go vegetarian.
Thank you again Rinpoche for sharing this truth to all of us.
Thank you Rinpoche for this post. It reminds me that everyday, the dishes laid on the plates infront of me have come arisen from the suffering of others – both the people involved in the industry, and the animals. I have yet to fully become vegetarian (due to my parents’ disapproval) but I have over the last couple of months, reduced consumption significantly and have slowly lost the craving for meat.
My thoughts from watching the video are as follows:
1.) The effects of meat consumption has become evident today with the rising cases of diseases and illness that mankind has been presented with. Rising cases of say, cancer, can be indirectly attributed to meat consumption from the antibiotics and stimulants that have been injected into the animals and passed on down the food chain to humans; with the amount being more concentrated as you progress further down the food chain. The hygiene in the farms and slaughter houses is questionable which then brings to mind a question : “how clean is the meat that people are eating?”.. do we know what lies beneath the layers of fat and muscles? Maybe that is why bacteria and viruses are more virulent today.
2.) Thinking about it, for the past 22 years of my life EACH piece (even if I only have one) of chicken/steak/char siu etc I’ve eaten, a life has been lost and sacrificied cruelly. I have killed so many lifes. I am ashamed.
3.) Alot of people avoid watching videos like this, because they do not want to acknowledge the fact that we are eating another living thing that is just like us. They do not want to think about it or know about it. Selective knowledge is staying in denial, it is a false way for us to tell ourselves that it is okay. We have the perception that animals are there to fulfill our pleasures, to keep us alive because we need them to – how utterly selfish.
4.) Because humans are supreme, it doesn’t mean that we can mistreat, torture and kill other living things. All animals possess what we have – heart, lungs, nervous systems, senses, brain, organs, feelings, liver, kidney.. What if one day our predator arises. How would we feel then when we are locked in cages, awaiting death, unable to help ourselves or voice our opinions. We can’t even stand the thought of being in jail, then what about these animals when they are cramped in cages? Whilst we are able to, we have to stand up for those (animals) who can’t stand up for themselves.
5.) It’s not that we can’t give up. It’s because we don’t want to, because it’s hard. As long as there is demand, the supply will be there. There is no fixed time for us to start being vegetarian, you have to start now. Prolonging it is feeding our attachments.
6.) I feel sorry for the people who have to work in the farms or slaughter houses. Maybe they don’t have a choice and because of karma, they are in that situation. To stop this, we have to educate and help them as well, not only blame them.
Again, thank you Rinpoche for slapping me in the face with this truth.
yes carmen, i agree with you, who are we to blame these people that kills while we are still eating meats, we are the cause that encouraging them to kill more…
All of us started eating meat not because of choice but because of the lifestyle of our parents/people close to us. Over time through habituation, eating meat became an integral part of our life, including mine until I met Rinpoche.
In one of Rinpoche’s dharma talks, Rinpoche suggested that we can start cutting down on eating meat slowly, if we can’t give it up totally immediately. By not causing death for our meals, we have something meritorious to dedicate to our parents and loved ones’ long life and good health. I followed by starting to be meatless once a week and gradually increased the frequency. I finally became full vegetarian 2 years ago.
It was tough initially even for me, who is not much of a “food” person but the benefits for modifying my eating habit were too great to succumb to the temptations. I often visualized myself as a chicken in a cage on the way to the slaughter house and how fearful I would be, and other times as a pig too. I felt their fear and sufferings, and using that to remind myself not to inflict such sufferings to them when I craved for meat. It took me 3 years to become full vegetarian.
Contrary to general perception, I am healthier now with a vegetarian diet than ever before. I feel physically stronger because I replaced meat with more nutritious substitutes and also mentally happier because I stopped causing harm and suffering to other harmless beings. This video reminded me feel that I must not only refrain from meat but also be a spokesperson for them…educate and encourage others to stop eating meat too!
It is sad to see those people working in the slaughter house. They look so satisfied doing their job, not knowing that they creating so much sufferings to the poor animals. So much negative karma created by them in order to satisfy our appetite.
Ignorance leads us to create harms to others. Knowledge and awareness lead us to the right path. This video gives us the knowledge and create the awareness of the sufferings we bring onto others and ultimately to ourselves. What we need now is self-discipline to go vegetarian!
Thank you, Rinpoche, for guiding me to become more sensitive towards the needs and sufferings of others. May I always have the merits to serve you and to be guided by you.
Thank you Rinpoche for giving me the gift of a laptop computor. It has been very useful to me. There was a reason why you ask us to join the blogging retreat. I don’t even own a computor nor do I know how to type. If I have not learn up I would have miss a lot of general knowledge. I am now going to comment on why we should go on vegetarian and avoid cruelty to animals by killing and eating them. (1) If we call ourselves Buddhist then we have to think of the Karma we will create and its repercussion. (2) Dharma is also very important as one of the precepts we take in Refuge is not to kill. (3) While watching the video I can feel myself in the animals place suffering before it was killed. (4) All living beings and animals are almost the same as we humans. Our blood are the same red colour. I am glad Rinpoche have told me to go vegetarian as I do not want to have more karma as we may not have time for purification.
Thank you Rinpoche for putting this up. A few things came into my mind while watching this video:
1. Many people are not aware of or couldn’t care less about the suffering the animals go through as WE VIEW THEM AS ONLY FOOD and nothing else. This is very scary as they are beings with feelings that can also feel fear, pain, and love for their loved ones too.
2. Some choose to eat only meat from free range farm, but it still doesn’t justify eating meat as WE HAVE A CHOICE now to not eat meat.
3. No matter how tasty meat is, they are still the FLESH OF DEAD ANIMALS – killed because we want to fulfill our desire of eating meat.
4. Some choose organic & free-range farm products to lessen their guilt, still, eating meat ENCOURAGES KILLING OF THE ANIMALS at just a fraction of their natural lifespans, often in HORRIFIC WAYS.
5. Being vegetarian is better for:
a) the animals
b) the earth/environment
c) our health
Despite knowing the facts, PEOPLE CHOOSE NOT TO DO IT because they love the taste and will find any reason to justify it.
Dr. David Brubaker at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future:
“The way that we breed animals for food is a threat to the planet. It pollutes our environment while consuming huge amounts of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides and drugs. The results are disastrous.”
Dearest Rinpoche,
Thank You again for posting and sharing the video with me and my love ones. My comments after watched.
1)Reason to be a vegetarian is to discourage killing or taking more lives. It’s hurting.
2)To discourage killing and taking more lives, firstly I’ll cut down eating meats each day. And eventually be a vegetarian.
3)I have discussed with Henry, will start work out new vegetarian recipes for my maid to cook at home.
4)Will get my kids to watch the video later, when they came back from school.
5)I will ask all my friends to watch the video.
Love, angel
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for your kindness and teachings. I’ve been a vegetarian for more than a year now after understanding more of the Dharma that you’ve taught us in Kechara.
Whenever i see meats served on a plate, it is as if i could see the actual animal standing there alive on a big nice field freely… Looking at their beautiful faces, i convinced myself not to eat them no matter how delicious they taste, cos they don’t deserve it. We are all living beings on earth, just like friends. We should love all as how we love our children and pets animal. If we think our children, cats and dogs do not deserve to die like this, so as the chickens, the cows, the pigs, the fishes, even a life as small as the anchovies! We all are living beings that want happiness…
Here are my thoughts:
1) We should think of others more then ourselves. Stop selfish actions that is causing others or even ourselves to suffer.
2) Practice love and compassion.
3) Acknowledging what’s done wrong, and change for better.
4) Many people think that they’re just eating, they didn’t kill, the animals are already dead anyways… Please think twice, if there’s no demand, there’ll be no supply.
5) If samsara is designed in this way for us to create more karma, then we should forgive what’s created in the pass and put a stop to commit more karma in the future… so that all sufferings would eventually come to an end.
Thank you once again Rinpoche With folded hands.
May the holy Dharma reach all.
Here are my thoughts on the video.
1. These are really more examples on how animals suffer so that we can indulge ourselves in this fake pleasure.
2. I really did not know that they actually provide sick animals for us to eat.
3. I thought that the cow and veal slaughter was really disgusting and horrible that is why I stopped eating beef.
4. I think that the way that they kill the animals is too evil, even if they want to kill them (not that they should), they should at least do it painlessly.
5. Chickens have to suffer the most because they are so massively produced and slaughtered. Same goes for egg laying hens, they have no space and no comfort zone whatsoever.
I really wish that less of these things will happen. So,I will dedicate certain days to be vegetarian and I will be vegetarian eventually.
I always cover my eyes when I watch horror movies. I did that when I watched this video clip. Yes, it’s a HORROR show !
It’s horrible to see the cruelty we inflict on the animals. We justify these heartless & highly mechanized methods in our quest for maximum business profit and economic growth. To satisfy our greedy demand for food, farmers and ranchers are absorbed into meat giant producing factories that treat animals like robots and machines.
What if our deceased loved ones – mother, father or children had taken rebirth into the animal realm, would we still want to eat bacon, hamburger or KFC?
What if I take my next rebirth into the animal realm ??? OMG !
Thank you Rinpoche for always so direct in waking us up to the hard truth. This video shall be replayed in my mind every time when I have a flicker of giving up my vegetarian diet.
Hello all,
I watched part of the video, but decided to stop, as I have seen it before, and it is all very painful.
I would like to comment not from a religious or philosophical but from a common-sense perspective (not that they exclude each other!!): Empathy with the animals’ suffering is only one aspect, in my opinion, to why it is problematic to consume meat.
In a world that struggles to feed all of its people, it is plain crazy to waste perfectly good calories that could feed humans directly on feeding animals in order to produce much less calories (i.e. meat). And with populations increasing and developing countries becoming wealthier, the demand for meat will only continue to increase – and so will, almost proportionally, world hunger. That is one reason.
The second reason is the impact of methane gas on global warming. No joke – 100 million tons of methane gas a year are produced in animal agriculture from livestock digestive processes. So by going vegetarian one can even influence global warming!
I suppose, overall, there are enough good reasons for everyone to pick one that convinces them to stop, or at least to reduce, their personal consumption of animal products: philosophical, religious, political, environmental – all evidence points in the same direction.
Dearest Rinpoche,
I am really happy to be here again, not only for the job that I have now but most of all to aviod eating meat meat meat…
To watch the video really reminding me how I cut the chicken and cook. But I cannot turn back the time also cannot tell how deeply hurt I am now… and sorry to what I have been done to them.
I am not fully vegetarian yet but I am trying my very best to do so… Thank you Rinpoche.
After watching this video and others which reveal the true situation behind what we eat,I must thank Rinpoche for encouraging me to stop eating meat one year ago.I still feel really regretful that I have been a party to such cruelty for most of my life just so to satisfy my greed.Its a lame excuse to defend by saying we did not know or using the many other silly reasons which meat eaters put forward to justify their selfishness.
If it is within our control, if we have a choice to put a stop to any kind of suffering,it is our sacred responsibility to do so, period.
Since becoming vegetarian,I have never felt healthier in my body and in my mind. Even my chronic gastritis is gone.
Most importantly, I felt good in my heart that I am not contributing to animal cruelty. As a Buddhist, at least it made me less of a hypocrite, and not have to struggle with my conscience when I pray for the welfare and happiness of all living beings, the object of our love and compassion.I feel liberated. If I can change my eating habit at my age and experience the benefits , I hope my example and others above, will encourage more to switch over.
Rinpoche is also my DIRECT cause for vegetarianism. (I still eat corpses 2 days a week, but I have promised to end soon.)
i) I want to stay vegetarian for the rest of my life,
ii) Eating vegetables protects the environment, animals and has tremendous benefits,
iii) Lets make our stomach less of an animal grave,
iv) Domestic animals bred for slaughter are like beings in hells,
v) May many beings be saved from such hellish rebirths
om mani padme hum
Dearest Rinpoche,
Arrggghhhh I cannot even begin to describe what I am feeling right now. Its a mixture of pain, hurt, anger, disgust and extreme sadness. My hair is standing on ends. It completely reaffirms my commitment of being vegetarian. Before joining Kechara I was a pescatarian for a couple of years already but after taking refuge towards the last quarter of 2009 I made a promise to be a full vegetarian and I have stuck to it.
What struck a core with me was just a few weeks before I took refuge, when Thierry and I were talking about being vegetarian and lives being culled for our eating pleasure, Thierry (who has been vegetarian for years now) said to me “there really isnt any different from eating a fillet of fish, shrimps or anchovies… in fact you are actually killing more lives just to feed your hunger”. It was then that it clicked how much I had deluded myself into thinking it was ok to eat fish, etc as they dont “suffer” as much. Well, at the end of the day, suffering is just part of it, the killing is far worse as we actually “enjoy” eating that dead animal.
I am happy to be vegetarian and it really isnt difficult. So I beg those of you who have watched this clip, please stop deluding yourselves into thinking we NEED to eat meat. It is just one of many delusions we have and will continue to have if we chose to fight what is right. If we still try to convince ourselves that we still need to eat “carcasses”, just think of what Rinpoche has consistantly and vehemantly been a champion of…. and that is compassion! Compassion towards us, towards animals and towards life. Surely if there is one simple thing we can do out of respect for Rinpoche, this would be it… something really close to Rinpoche heart? It is really a no brainer, just be vegetarian!
I sound almost like an ad in the papers or a tv commercial but hey, this is one “ad” that speaks the truth and not bullshit (pardon my expression)!
Just check yourself… if you cringed or even turned away from the video for one second, you know its wrong! Sure, these are extremes but the whole point is that it exists. How do we know for sure the animal that is served on our plates did not go through that? Can you be completely certain??? And just look at the end of the video clip, the shot of the cute piglets in the end is beautiful! Thats how a living being should be… FREE!
Much love… Andrew
i felt like fainting when i saw the INTENSE SUFFERING of the animals! (1) How terrible to be reborn in the lower realms; every time i face temptations to do evil actions, i must restrain myself by thinking of the suffering of beings in the lower realms! (2) Being MOVED by what i saw, i should be MORE COMPASSIONATE. (3) i realise meat-eating is simply NOT BENEFICIAL – the meat of sick animals can’t be good. (4) The immense suffering of the meat-yielding animals is completely due to the GREED of human beings! (5) People should make effort to ABSTAIN from meat to their best ability. Thank you Rinpoche, for so PATIENTLY creating endless situations to awaken us. “Kam-sia Che-che!”
Dearest Rinpoche, many thanks for the video. My thoughts after watching …
1) I am so thankful and felt so blessed as I have stopped eating meat from 1996 and gradually stopped seafood by 1998 and have been a full vegetarian for 12+ years now.
2) For those who have watched this video, with the compassion they have felt for the animals, hopefully they will cut down on their meat intake and if there is less demand, there will be less supply hence less suffering for these animals.
3) Hopefully this video brings an awareness to people eating meat that they are consuming diseased and dead animals and imagine the amount of toxins in their bodies.
4) I have asked my son to watch and am crossing fingers that this video will invoked the compassion in him and that he will become a full vegetarian. Because of my vegetarian diet my family has to eat what I cook at home and that has reduced their meat intake.
5) This video has also reminded me to practice and do more dharma work, to purify my soul heart mind and body further and hope not to be reborn in the lower realms.
Thank you once again Rinpoche, with folded hands …
I felt very disturbed after watching this video. Being brought up since young in such a way thinking that meat and poultry are part of our daily nutrition we need to sustain our livelihood. Little did I realised that these killings been on-going for years while I unconsciously indulged eating away flesh of dead corpses to satisfy my eating habits and desire. Come to think of it, I’m just like a walking person with a ‘graveyard’ tummy, full of these animals. The very taste bud for meat have causes harm to these poor animals…….I shall start avoiding eating meat and poultry as of today as much as I could as watching these killings is so unbearable…
i am sorry i managed about 6 minutes. i have seen this before but i had to restrain the rising anger within me…….i have been a vegetarian for over 25 years, and have raised my (very healthy) children in this way. i waited for them to reach puberty before i showed them videos such as these. i guess my anger should not be directed at the abusers but at their ignorance. although i was dubious about the internet to begin with i think it has its good side in that it brings to light what otherwise would remain hidden and thus maintaining the ability (in this particular case) for ignorance. however, i have my own chickens for eggs, this year we had many babies, i do not know what percentage will be boys or girls. with the girls- they can only ‘cope ‘ with one boy to so many girls , around 1:8, we have three cockerels already which means we have to seperate them, which also means they get less time in the real outside as they will fight and fight nasty. the done thing is to gas to death baby boys and feed them to pet snakes or owls. i also lived where there was a whole flock of chickens totally free, but the fox managed to pick off the girls first leaving a bad ratio of boys to girls and boys to boys and it was viscious and sad. if i was merely a shop consumer of eggs (and milk for that matter) i would not have this problem- but the problem itself still exists for free range egg producers or myself who started with a couple at home. my neighbours are quite happy to eat the boys, my only other alternative is that when they grow thet will fight each other to death(if you have ever been to where ‘people’ have cocks for cock fighting- you will see why). if there is anyone with experience out there who has a compassionate solution for my dilemma please, all advice gratefully accepted. one could say that i should not let the ladies get broody but then i also feel i am denying them a natural right, although until i sort this out i will have to do just that.now i am rethinking the whole thing about eggs and milk. suggestions?
Now a days even Dalai Lama eats meat, I do not see anything wrong eating some once in a while if the animal has been raise in a farm not in a cage. What is the purpose of the chickens, pigs and cows?
His Holiness the Dalai Lama does not eat meat. You can do a search on the youtube, where the Dalai Lama advocates us to not eat meat. I just saw the video.
In Sera, Drepung and Gaden HH Dalai Lama has asked the Monastery not to serve any meet over a decade ago. So in these monasteries meat of any kind is not served or cooked in the monastic kitchen. I am from Gaden so I know for sure. It’s beautiful.
Thank you. Tsem Tulku
Please see this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2qOA3Whu9s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TugeQEUrjuk
This is another beautiful video to see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw_qqwS6FTc&feature=related
Dear Rinpoche,
I have finally gotten around to watch this video. Actually this is not the first opportunity that I have to watch this video but I have avoided it. Until now….!
My thoughts are:
1) These animals are our mothers in our past lives and if we are going to eat them, then, we are eating our mothers.
2) We should not eat animals/meat because they are our mothers and also their have suffered so much already. I really feel for these animals.
3) The people in the meat industry are so cruel. Maybe circumstances put them in that situation to rear and slaughter. But they always have a choice. The business owners are the real devils. I pity them. They should stop.
4) I will stop eating meat as best I can. I promise.
5) We should practice well so that we will not be reborn as an animal or worse. I go for refuge with the Guru. I wish to develop the realisations in the four truth or the 12 Links and practice the 6 paramitas. More importantly develop compassion as a start. Start now!
Thank You Rinpoche for constantly reminding us to generate the mind of compassion especially for these animals. Here are my thoughts after watching this video.
Everyone including children (under parental guidance) should watch this video so that they are aware of animal cruelty. Not many realize the many sacrifices, indescribable pains and sufferings that animals have to endure to produce the meat for human consumption. In the video, the animals were subjected to all forms of torture prior to their eventual death.
The question that comes to my mind is: “How could any human with conscience eat meat or still continue to eat meat after knowing animals had suffered so much just to fulfill their meat eating habits?” Humans can still survive without meat. Humans need not kill for their food. Killing creates heavy negative karma as we know.
Due to ignorance many people consume meat. Young children will grow up eating meat way into adulthood if they were not being educated about the disadvantages of eating meat and the harm it brings to animals. We can’t blame the parents entirely because they themselves are unaware about animal cruelty and are meat eaters! There is this lack of awareness of cruelty to animals.
People seem to think that it is natural to eat meat because animals are being raised to produce meat and milk for human consumption. For many, it does not matter how the animals were treated or abused in the food production process. How inconsiderate!
It is not difficult to stop eating meat. It is a matter of whether we want to stop or not. People like to eat meat because they had acquired the habit of eating meat. Every taste is an acquired taste. We can totally abstain from meat after we train ourselves long enough. Many meat eaters still don’t realize they are eating a corpse! And meat is made with components found in urea! Yes, meat and urea are basically amino acids! These carnivorous are happily eating urea!!! How disgusting!
Energy supply is scarce but the consumption is so high in our modern world. When there is no demand for meat, no resources are utilized towards the supply and production of animals for their meat. Hence, the world could have a better utilization of energy.
We must support organizations like PETA.org to create awareness and educate more and more people to stop eating meat. When there is no demand for meat, then naturally animals will not be killed for their meat. Hence we should go vegetarian! As vegetarian we can still get all the essential proteins from other sources. We don’t need so much protein from meat. Giraffes and elephants rely solely on plants and yet their bodies are so big! That proves eating meat does not produce meat.
As Buddhists we MUST and not just try to observe vegetarianism on short term basis. We know and are clear about the heavy consequences of killing. If we want to liberate ourselves from samsara, we must have compassion for these animals. If we eat them now, in the future we will be eaten up by them! Our goal as Buddhists is ultimate liberation and enlightenment, what is the point of working so hard to create merits on the one hand and on the other hand continue to create heavy negative karma by consuming meat? It is illogical and does not make sense at all!
Karma will catch up at the moment of our death. How could we have a smooth and peaceful transition through the death process to take the next good rebirth if we are creating so much negative and heavy karma of killing from eating meat? We are most likely to die a horrible and fearful death! And that affects our next rebirth – we could end up being reborn in the three lower realms.
We know that even if we become vegetarian, we cannot be 100% sure we have not killed animals. In the process of growing our crops, farmers will kill animals living in the soils. Hence, vegetarianism does not 100% prevent us from killing but it reduces our killing compared to when we are meat eaters. That’s the nature of samsara. Being born as humans has its disadvantages. Humans have to eat to survive compared to formless beings that do not need to eat to survive.
For a start all of us can make a difference to the welfare of these pitiful animals. It is so simple as giving up meat. I have become vegetarian many years ago after having taken the Buddhist Refuge. Have you the meat eaters become vegetarian yet?
OM MANI PADME HUM
Rinpoche,
I cannot watch these videos they make me too sad. I know you mean well to post this, but I cannot watch it.
http://walkingthepath.info/?page_id=392
Dearest Rinpoche,
after watching the video I felt sad that I’ve actually played a part in the killings. As a consumer. But ever since watching earthlings and showing it to my family, we’ve managed to go a lot lesser on the meat. It feels terrible to see the sufferings of these animals. I tried to imagine myself being there, among those ready to be slaughtered. They must have felt,
1)KIDNAPPED (Taken against own free will)
2)CONFUSED (Why? Why am I being dragged away)
3)VIOLATED (Locked up, handled, prodded and abused)
4)FEAR (So much of fear, seeing one by one of my friends getting murdered by these humans)
5)Full of GRUDGE (Why, Why, Why?! What have I done to deserve this??!! Who ever gave them the right to do such things to us?!! Why??!!)
I felt so much fear and pain. Especially watching the cows being tied on one leg and hung up to bleed to death. That is really a painful and slow way to die. Lost my appetite for the double cheeseburger now. There is just so much GRUDGE in the meat that we consume into our system. So much FEAR, CONFUSION, and HATRED. I believe we are what we eat. If we choose to be a carnivor, then we choose to give, and in turn receive, FEAR, CONFUSION and HATRED. This is certainly not a situation anyone would want to be in. Therefore, it would be great if more can understand and start to go vegetarian, even for a day, a week, a month, and hopefully, eventually, fully. May I be a full time vegetarian very soon.
Thank you for sharing and caring Rinpoche.
With much love and respect,
Joe
Dear Rinpoche, these are my thoughts after watching the video
1) Although over the 1-2 years i have reduced my meat consumption dramatically (1-2 meat meals a month and only when a friend buys the meal to avoid the ackwardness), i naively thought that dairy products and eggs were okay because the animal isnt killed. WRONG!!! i’ll need to reduce intake of those from now on.
2) when i saw how the cattle and pigs were prodded and forced into the auction ground/pen it made my heart bled, because the suffering of being oppressed is extremely painful. Since i was young i hate seeing beings oppressed and i could feel the pain and i hate it, especially on others and now i can reduce it by not supporting these industries.
3) It feels so illogical and unreasonable to end a life which is still precious even in that form for the sake of our ‘health’ and ‘nutrition’ which is nothing more than an excuse to taste the flesh of others.
4) From a Buddhist context to ‘try’ and practice the Lamrim and Shantidewa’s way of life of a bodhisattva from one end and the other end, consume items that come from the pain and suffering of others is hypocritical.
5) This video (and exercise) have bolstered my efforts to completely stop meat at any condition and every time i look at meat and is tempted to eat it i shall recall how they come from…
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this exercise with us.
I must honestly admit that I watched the video with half my eyes closed and occasionally turning away from my PC. It’s inhumane, cruel and having no mercy at all on those poor animals! I wonder who on earth would want to have a job torturing, killing and butchering those animals! Here are my thoughts:
1) We often watch Nat Geo and cringed when the lion kills another animal and tore the flesh apart, have we wondered what we looked like when we are savouring a piece of steak on the dinner table? I am sure we looked no better than the lion, that’s for sure!
2) We must spare these poor animals from suffering. They have heartbeats, just like us. We have no right to take the life of another.
3) As Buddhist who believe in rebirth, we do not know what we are eating from the meat that is on our plate – it is a disgusting thought!
4) I am glad I go vegetarian on most of my lunch hours now, and have reduced intake of meat much. This is not just from the religious viewpoint, but also I feel healthier and calmer.
5) I am working towards being a complete vegetarian, and I know by doing so, my conscience is clear and I will be a happier person, knowing I have not taken the life of another!
I want to thank Rinpoche for reminding us with this video and for creating a wonderful Dharma environment for us to grow in.
As a vegetarian, I do not feel any less responsible for all the atrocities in this video than any meat eater or even the people whose job it is to impart this cruelty. Even if I were vegan I would not feel less responsible. Even if I buy everything at the most pure natural food store in the universe I am supporting an infrastructure (landlord that receives rent for the store space, for example)that is directly dependent on businesses and people who are associated with the atrocities.
Tears came down my face looking at what the animals had to go through. But I have equal sorrow for the people who work at these places. What does working in such an environment do to a person? Perhaps the more desensitized they get the more covert the effects of the stress are in their lives… I’m sure that despite all of that they benefit beings just as much as anyone.
If I practiced vegetarianism that has as it’s goal separating myself from these people and their actions (the workers as well as the owners and operators) I would just add another dangerous delusion to my life.
So then why am I vegetarian? I have the luxury of being one right now. Maybe it’s my way of sending out some energy for the will to the truth to all the so obviously suffering parties.
And yet, and yet…
Very very compelling post. I too point out the fact that even a VEGAN contributes to suffering. But it is NOT ON THE SAME LEVEL. You receive a blood drop in the bucket of suffering compared to the slaughterhouse CEO who is basically drowning in the blood of Karma. Remember, as long as you are in Samsara, you will suffer, and you will cause others to suffer.
So It’s just a simple matter of becoming a Buddha. Then your hands are clean. Only way.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing this video with us. I am really sorry i did not manage to finish watching till the end. i feel sad watching how the dogs suffered. This show also reminded me of my younger days that i took fishing as my hobby and killing just for fun. I am ashamed of my past actions and to discourage killing and taking more lives, I have cut down eating meats especially live sea foods. I am not fully vegetarian but I am trying my best to take vegetarian once a week.
I have never been able to understand the concept of halal, to observe how animals in the markets in Pune/india are slaughtered in front of each other, tied in ways that would give any one hell. I gave up chicken, mutton, beef and pork about 5 to 6 years ago, and eat fish rarely. Unfortunately, my husband insists i cook it. However, i have a problem because i rescue dogs, cats, and kites and i need meat/meat products to feed them. It is hard to put the two issues seperate
This video once again remind us how cruel human can be, when we talk about how scary spirits are… but when look at this, what make us different from them? In fact, we are more scarier than them, i definitely will facebook it and email it to as many people as possible. this action of cruelty must STOP!!!!!
People used to think being vegetarian is because of religious, but in fact, it is not, it is actually helping to save lives being slaughter by our selfish desire, and being vegetarian is a way to make us become more healthy.
1. how much negative karma they created that brings them together again in future life and continue to kill each other, with this cycle of negative karma, it will speed up the degeneration process and bring deaths to even more lives.
2. no demand = no supply, just imagine if everyone be vegetarian for a day, how much lives we can save, how many lives can be freed, how many lives can escape from these cruelty?
3. beside certain unavoidable occasion, i will not consume meat, when i keep eating meat everyday, what makes me different from these people? vegetarianism is becoming stronger cause i have no right to bring more suffering to other lives.
4. not only meat, animal’s fur has become one of the cause of this cruelty, stop buying fur items, we can save countless animals.
5. simply just imagine if I’m in the animal’s situation, HELL!!! is what i can say, when people ask ” how does hell look like?” show them these videos is the best explanation tool for their understanding.
Being vegetarian is not easy for me as with my great attachment of consuming, but when think about how these animal suffers, i know i can do it…
Dear Rinpoche,
This is the ALL TIME HORROR movie! I must confess I only managed to watch it until it was shown how horns of baby cows being cut off heartlessly!
My thoughts:
(1) How can human beings inflict such amount of sufferings onto other living beings? Have these people no heart or no feelings? Are they even fit to be a human?
(2) By the economic rules of demand and supply, WE are responsible for these intense sufferings simply because WE are at the demand side of the equation, hence the supply!
(3) By the virtue of point (2) above, WE who eat meat ARE the SAME MURDERERS in the video,
(4) Be a Vegetarian Garden, don’t be a pet’s cemetery! (I stole this line from Paris)
(5) From now on, I will stop to eat meat. Each time I slip or being weak on this course, may the video be my constant reminder.
Humbly yours
Siong Woan
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for this video. Wondering how these people feels when they torture and kill these helpless animals…人之初，性本善。and be able to live and eat as normal day after day. I believe they arent so daring when they first hold a knife and do the slaughtering. But now they are used to and trained on killing everyday, it has become part of their lives.
i am not full vegetarian but on no meat meals….meat can only be eaten with all the flavourings but vegetables can be eaten raw. I hope these ppl who are in their slaugthering jobs will realise its not right to do so give up their job soon. Thank you again rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche:
1. For my experience, this is the most critical condition in the farm, frankly to say that it still happen in some of the farm in Malaysia as if the worker are mainly foreign worker.
2. I watch this video for second time, but I decided not to continue as I know what is going on for the rest of it. What I can say this is not my training to be cruel to animal in my previous vet training. Our role is to help to save those sick animal and reduce their suffering whenever it is.
3. There are too many unpredictable cruelty can be happen in the farm, especially when an animal are fall into sick and can’t bring any profit to the farmer. Culling weak animal is a common practice anywhere, so always educate farmer to be more humanistic to their farm animal and concern animal welfare is a must as well.
4. We can’t stop the livestock producing industry but we can reduce the cruelty to all the animal. By reducing meat consume is what we can do now for a single person.
5. I hope I can be a total vegetarian.
Thank you Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for giving us the link to this video. This video will definitely promote awareness animal cruelty around the world and hopefully will encourage more people to become vegetarian.
1. It was very difficult for me to complete the 12 minutes video. I can’t help cringing and closing my eyes at very scene and even at the commentary of the video even though this is not the first time I watch a video of this nature. I really can’t imagine how human beings can be so cruel and heartless. How can anyone overtly inflict so much pain on helpless creatures who can speak for themselves? It is despicable to the core to say the least but it also shows us the deeply entrenched ignorance that is so pervasive in today’s world, hence it is called the degenerate age.
2. From a Buddhist point of view, from the part of the animals, I can’t help thinking of the possible causes that these creatures had created for themselves for them to end up in such painful conditions. I am sure these creatures are not innocent in the past which reminds us to check ourselves if we are creating such conditions for ourselves in the future. Although I feel sad for the animals, I know that they are now suffering out the karma they have created for themselves from the past.
3. For the people involved in the animal cruelty, I can’t help feeling sorry for them for they do not know what scary fate awaits them in the future. I feel sorry for them for their ignorance and not have the opportunity to meet the Dharma. I don’t know how I can help but I will dedicate whatever little my merits I have to them so that in future they may meet the Dharma and be educated to not commit any more of these negative actions.
4. Having seen the video, for those of us who even have the merits understand that these are wrong doings, it is our duty to educate our family and friends so that in time they can come realize extent of sufferings they are inflicting on animals by eating meat to satisfy their craving.
5. It is my hope that in time I will be able to educate and convince my family and friends who are non vegetarian the karmic significance of animal cruelty and eating meat so they do not blindly create more negative karma and sufferings for themselves in the future.
10 years ago before long before I met Rinpoche, I felt very ill for no particular reasons for a long period of time. A friend of mind brought me to see a spiritual man and he has advised me to become a vegetarian which I did until now and if I remembered correctly some pujas were also done for me. He told me that I needed to purify my killing karma from the past which I believed even though there was no proof as I could not find any other logical explanation for my illness. My illness recovered within a few months and I am happy to say that I have never been seriously ill since then. I hope that by sharing my experience, more people will be encouraged to become vegetarian. Years later, meeting Rinpoche and learning more Dharma reaffirms my conviction that vegetarianism is the way to go if we want to be spiritual and work for the benefit of others.
Dear Rinpoche:
Thankyou for posting this video. This was the video which motivated me into becoming a vegetarian. Before this, it never occurred to me that by having a burger would cause so much sufferings for another being. It never occurred to me that by having that piece of meat which I thought so tastefully done had to go through some much torturing on mentally/physically, the pain of bleeding and the thought of not knowing. It only shown how we take things for granted in lives and we simply do not know the cause and effect. When watched a pitiful video, it is just so easy to say “ooo…poor thing… i feel so sorry..” but making an effort to create a good cause is hard for most people… When truth is slapped in your face, it is unavoidable and we must face it and acknowledge it. If not, what religion are you practicing when killing is a big no no? Since watching the complete video months before, I’ve been practising vegetarianism for months now.
I remembered when I first met Rinpoche, Rinpoche asked his students :” was it really that hard to become a vegetarian?” That sank in deep in my mind, asking myself : “yeah, what so hard about it? Just don’t order lah!” While so inspired by it, I push myself everyday to not look at KFC and MC Donald’s. Slowly, I find my craving for meat dies off slowly…
I hope people really take notice of this issue because we are buddhists. Start taking a step, step by step… make it a good habituation and eventually you didn’t even realise you have done it!
1. Killing of any form of beings is the worst. So why should we relay on killing to satisfy our meal?
2. If human think that animals suffering is ok, then why should we even talk about our own sufferings? since living beings are ok to suffer.
3. Please help those people who worked in slaughter house. How cold and cruel they can be? Imagine working in an environment like that. Total bad Karma. By us stopping meat eating would at least cut down demands on meat, and hopefully they kill less?
4. Start thinking about the benefits of becoming a vegetarian.
5. We love our pets and feed the homeless dog, we don’t even mind get down low and dirty to touch stray dogs and other animals. When turned around, we ordered a nice Chicken Caesar salad. Catch our mind there, we can actually changed our habituations.
It is hard at the beginning, therefore there is video and materials like that to remind us. And friends, we should encourage one another to take the right step. Thankyou Rinpoche again to create awareness and triggered our thoughts and remind us that we can indeed be good if we want to.
Love
Ethan
尊貴的詹杜固仁波切,
當我在指縫中看這段影片時-動物的哀嚎聲,血淋淋的屠場,慘酷的儈子手…等等的畫面與聲音一再的敲擊着我…! 我仿怫看到動物的凄慘的下場與冷血殺手的下場在交替着..好恐怖~!~ 我不知道能為它們做些什麼但是我相信吃肉不是最好與唯一的選擇!
我發愿少吃肉直到能夠完全茹素.
感謝仁波切利用各種方法來引導我們成為一個更好的人!!
Rinpoche, Thank you for posting this video, it was really terrifying and it shows that human beings are really not behaving like humans anymore, and animals are not regarded as “sentient beings”. People are behaving like uncivilised babarians, and as a result of their robotised-acts, no longer have the capablelity of feeling, perception to see, feel and to think about the SUFFERINGS & pains they have inflicted on others. My 5 thoughts to become a vegeterian; (1) To avoid killing and cruelty to animals, especially in eating them.
(2) To avoid such Karmic repercusions of cause and effect.
(3) To Keep in mind my vows to avoid the creation of sufferings and pains to others (especially those done in the video) (4) Whether we are humans, animals, insects or worms, in buddhist belief, we are all sentient beings and have to be treated as such without exception.
(5) No one can have the ominesient power to take that away from us except through our own Karmic action of cause and effect!
VEGETERIANISM WILL CREATE GOOD HEALTH OF BODY AND MIND.
尊胜佛母心咒—— 在动物耳边持咒，令闻者，最后一生为畜生。
If you recite the Namgyalma mantra into the ear of an animal, you ensure that this is its last animal rebirth. (OM DROOM SOHA)
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for this video. I watched this with pain & tear.
I am not full vegetarian but I lesser to take meat, when vegetarian day for me
I take vegetable but fry with garlic. I will share this with my friends!
Be full vegetarian and dedicate for dharma to grow and kwpc…do it from now onwards. TR
Incredibly lucky I am, not being born into a butcher family but instead having obtained a so called precious human life. By the power of the truth and the blessings of all the holy beings hereby I promise to make the best use of it I can. For the sake of all setient beings. LOVE&COMPASSION ALWAYS IN FASHION
Dear Rinpoche,
I have been on and off vegetarian but seeing the video I will be more conscious to be one.
Throughout the video, I think of murder of the poor animals. In order to profit from meat selling, the animal farmers are unscrupulous selling disease infected meat and we like idiots are buying and consuming it.
I felt a lot of pain for the indignity that the animals suffers while alive and eventually to die brutally. Not to mention the amount of drugs they are fed to grow abnormally in order to be ready for the “kill”.
Being a buddhist and knowing how easily I can be born into the 3 lower realms, it is scary to be born an animal, so I will keep my vows and hope for a good rebirth.
Right now, I feel nauseated at the gruesome scenes I have just seen.
How could people be so cruel?
I forced myself to watch the entire documentary about 2 years ago. If you want to offend someone you should call them HUMANS…not pigs, rats, maggots or whatever poor animal is imprinted in human psyche as something bad. Even if a few people become vegetarian, think of the rest who don’t give a rat’s ass about this matter. And even if all people drop dead, animals will still suffer because that’s the nature of our `lovely` samsara. And if an asteroid comes and ends our misery all together, how many other planets have beings experiencing suffering, or better yet, think of hells that are screaming with pain. What a lovely creation! I still can’t imagine how can anyone think that there’s a good omnipotent God out there; if there’s a God he’s anything but good, he’s a sadistic bastard, or maybe a bitch (why should God be a man? it seems more like a woman on pms). Is ‘nice’ to watch all this crap is samsara ant not being able to blame anyone. You can’t blame an individual for ignorance, who would want to be ignorant and suffer? If you want to blame something you won’t be able to because of interdependence, it all comes down to the point where ignorance appeared.
This is not the first time I’ve seen this horrid video. And every time I watch it, it reminds me of the whole purpose I became vegetarian.
I think if anyone after watching this, still does not turn vegetarian, or attempt to, it would be a choice of pure selfish craving.
People need to be re-educated as most of them have this concept that animals are “created for us to eat”. This is just another excuse to justify why they will not give it up. And I hear this from a lot of “animal lovers” which is a huge contradiction and selectiveness.
I’ve been vegetarian for 2 years now and it is really not that difficult when you really understand why you are doing it for.
Besides eating meat is toxic these days especially now that we know how they are being slaughtered. It is amazing to see cancer is so common these days, and when i use to work in an organic vegetarian chain, I was surprised that most of our customers were cancer patients. They have to change their entire lifestyle due to cancer. This is one of the best reasons for those who don’t really care much about the animals but about their own health.
Hope more people turn vegetarian after watching how much torture and suffering the poor animals go through just to satisfy the demand of us humans.
Everytime you sit down before you eat, you can make a choice!!!
This is my second times watched this video, while i was watching i still feel scary! Why human always so cruel when we just want to satisfy thier desire???
1. Please be kind to animal, because they also one part of in universal. They have their own right to live.
2. Start believe in Karma, put our effort be a sincere Dharma practitioner.
3. Yes, let’s us start reduce our meat dishes in each meal.
4. After be a 98% vegetarian for a awhlie, sometime my friend will think I am an alien from different planet, however I feel good than when i eat meat in front of them. Be an “ET”, sometime is no bad:)
5. I am not animal lover, now I changed my mind because Rinpoche gave each of us in KMP department a fish two years ago. First, i feel reluctant want to take this small monster. I dont knew it at all. But I “force” to take care it. Every morning, when i just arrived office, i will feed it then started my daily works in KMP.Even weekend, also came back office to feed this monster.
The bad news is not more than two or three this monster dead in the fish tank. When i saw it’s body float in the water, my sad feeling came out suddenly….then I realized after take care this small fish two, three month, my care towards animal build up unconsciously.
Then Rinpoche knew the fish he gave me had dead, Rinpoche don’t says anything about it but Rinpoche asked his personal assisstant Beng Kooi bought a bigger fish tank, of course included fishes and some decaration of fish tank to me; they accompanied me from old office to new office, now is in jamyang house which dharma house i have stay.
Rinpoche has used skillful method to make me love animal. Now I still don’t dare saying I am a animal lover but I too care and don’t harm them.
My reason to share this story because I believe we can rescue an animal live if we can change our mind in one second. I like the quote end of this video: Everytime you sit down before you eat, you can make a choice!!!
Dear Rimpoche,
Personally I felt that if anyone need to consume any animal meat for sustenance, the person who processes it should show some consideration and respect to the animal they are about to slather. As the animal is sacrificing its life in order for others may benefit from its sustenance if they are use to consuming meat as part of their diet.No living being should be treated in such a cruel manner without any feelings when they about to take another being life. But after viewing such cruelty ,I will try to avoid consuming animal obtain sustenance
Regars
Low from KSJC.
Dear Rinpoche,
I’m now a committed 5 day vegetarian week. I know I will be a full vegetarian one day.
A lot of people seem to think that some animals are here for us to eat them. We have the right to eat them. We have that superiority complex over the defenseless animals. We think that we are definately more intelligent,”civilised”, masters of the planet, so to speak. However when we get robbed or when we hear of terrible murders on the news we react back with horror. If we think about it for a minute, the thieves probably think that they are superior to us, the murderers probably value us less to be able to kill. If we live by the same right, then we shouldn’t complain as much when bad things happen to us.
All beings have the right to live, so when I give them that right, hopefully i will create the karma to deserve that same right as well. Right to live.
Dearest Rinpoche,
somehow i felt i dont want to watch this video as i can imagined it wud be painful watch… Even i cudnt finish watching it
I grew up in environment which ppl believe we as human are “precious” enough to take anything nature has provided us. I still face same issue of resistance when my friends, family or relatives know i am full vegetarian now. They would argue so much with 101 reasons its ok to get “benefit” from nature…
Anyway i wont get tired to share my experiences what made me become vegetarian. I m glad few of them started to follow my steps, altho only few days in a week in one of their meals. Doesnt matter which reason wud make them become vegetarian, just be one.
Thank you so much for your caring
Folded hands,
betsy
Om mani peme hum
Om mani peme hum
Om mani peme hum
Om mani peme hum
Om mani peme hum
I can’t say more….
Dear Rinpoche,
I have seen the earthlings video a while back but I don’t know why find it so much more disturbing watching this video again,had to force myself not to turn away.I have not watch the Dog Meat Trade yet and dreaded watching it.
I had been a vegetarian for a year now and I am so glad,watching this video has strenghtened my resolve to go on being a vegetarian.Last year I pledged to go on vegetarian for a year,after watching this video again,how can I ever stop being a vegetarian.I will also try encourage others.
We may deny all we want when we have a plate of succulent meat on the table in front of us,thinking only to satisfy our taste bud irregardless of how the meat came about but the truth is OUT THERE,in the video we saw in this case.
I used to think eating meat is no big deal as these animals were born n bred to be eaten by us human,buddhism shocked me out of this view that these animals deserved to live too,there r sentient beings,you do not harm at all.Lamrim futher shocked me out with the fact that I could be a chicken or pig in my next life n that I could be eating my mother as all sentient being has been our mother,so hard if you love kfc’s fried chicken alot…nevertheless,if we contemplate hard enough about what these chickens hav to go thru before it appeared to us on a plate,am very sure we will lose our appetite.
The myth about being a vegetarian is that you will turn into a vegetable yourself is not true,an elephant don’t need meat to be strong either.
Accumulating merits n purifying -ve karma is one of the most important practises in buddhism if you are serious in this spiritual path,but if we continue to generate -ve karma by killing for the meat to satisfy our palate alone,it defeats the purpose of purifications.
Thank you Rinpoche for creating this awareness and encouraging ppl to save animal instead.
Dear Rinpoche,
My mind went blank as I watched the video. Then my eyes teared up. This is not the first video of the same nature that I have seen. But this one has been a real eye-opener. The acts of the people were so inhumane. I could not believe how they could just shut off their eyes and ears to the screams of the animals crying out in pain as they are left to die. I cannot promise but am definitely gearing towards vegetarianism.
Elephants and horses for example only eat non meat diets, yet they are very strong and intelligent.
Do not give yourself excuses to eat meat. In this day and age, it is beyond reasoning to eat meat.
Tsem Tulku
Dear Rinpoche,
As I watched the vdo, I found myself cringing and looking away at times. Since watching that vdo, I have yet to eat meat, except for 4 fishballs (I am ashamed to say). The thought of eating it and seeing how they were treated for our consumption disgusts me. I hope that through time, I can be a full vegetarian. As Thailand will be holding a vegetarian festival which is held every year (this year on the 8th of October – 16th October), I am going to from today onwards, not eat meat till the end of the vegetarian festival. Thank you so much for sharing this vdo because you put it in your blog, I felt I had to watch it.
Best Wishes,
Green
I feel sorry for the animals, and I feel sorrier for the people who abuse the animals. E.g. If 1 butcher skin the 10 animals alive in this life time, the 10 animals would be reborn and skin the butcher alive for the next 10 life times. Directly or indirectly, we are responsible for the never ending sufferings of the butcher and the animals being butchered. In logical sense, we won’t get better rebirth or sustain any good karma collected by consuming something that is the product of sufferings of many beings of countless life times.
Under the doctrine of karma, knowing that all sentient beings, including the animals in the videos are once our fathers and mothers, and watching them being slaughtered, knowing that we are parts of the contributing factors of them being ill treated and being brutally abused, does not justify the need for us to consume meat.
Dear Rinpoche,
I feel so sad to watch the animals being tortured in such a way. This is my second time watching such a video after earthling.
I have stop eating meat for 1yr and 8mth and i never ever feel tempted to eat meat even though those dishes are place in front me including my previous favorites “Fried Chicken”.
What motivate me here is I don’t see a different of the animals and humans. The only different are the physical and their objective of living which translate to their action.
1. If we value their lives the same as us then we should respect and be kind to them. To be rebirth as an animal is already sad. We should not make thing worst and cruel.
Compassion!
2. By eating meat is indirectly one of the way killing them by creating the cause for the demand and worst case we encourage others to do the killing (contribute to the negative karma for others).
How selfish!
3. If we can have a pet and we love our pet just like our friend we can easily transfer this thought to other animals and even to all the animals. They are the same just difference by species and just like us difference by our look, height, skin colour, language and etc…
Learn not to be selective…
4. To the people who does the killing….i felt so sorry and pain for them because of they don’t have karma and merit to meet the dharma, to understand cause and effect, they have no idea what will be waiting for them from such action…beside being vegetarian & prayers to dedicate the merits to all these people we should create the awareness & encourage more people and friends towards vegetarianism!
Cause & effect….universal truth!
5. The least…if we really don’t like animals but we should don’t harm them.
Thanks for the video Rinpoche. I know we can’t change the world in a day but at least we create the awareness and the cause to save the animals and for better health.
If you have money to invest, you can also choose to do so via ethical investments, including choosing investment opportunities that do not support the meat, fur, animal testing, etc. industries.
亲爱的仁波切，
看了这段影片。。。我想起我的家人&朋友。
1。从前我的干爹在蒲种是卖野味的。我从10岁，每个WEEKEND & SCHOOL HOLIDAY就会在那里做工。每天早上，他们都会宰杀许多的小动物。我还记得那些被沸水烫的水鱼，在还有知觉的同时。。被破开他的壳。那时我真的没感觉。但是现在，我明白那时生命。
客人丰富，美味的一餐。就是这些无助的生命。
好惭愧，对不起。我为这干爹向这些无助的生命说声对不起！
2。我的朋友。我们都称呼他CHICKEN LITTLE (BENJAMIN).因为他很像那个卡通人物，而且他家里是从事家禽农场（ CHICKEN FARM )。看着这影片我想起他家外面的杀鸡场。
从前我也有到过他在KUALA SELANGOR的家禽农场。现在回想起。。。真的有点惭愧！
有些人，以别人的生命养活家人。这道理真的不知如何说好？就希望他快点改行吧！
我不敢说自己很爱动物，但是我会尊敬它们。我家里有小狗，往往都是被人遗弃的，我们就把它留下。
看了这影片，每天都会尽量少吃肉类。就从我们的早餐做起。很快的午餐，然后晚餐！很快的，就是我的每一餐！
Dear Rinpoche,
其实我没看完，听声音已经很害怕了！因为可想象的到！！其实这事情人人都知道，就是斗不过我们的欲望！！想到要把，经过这么残忍，又不人道的食物放进口里！都会毛骨悚然!!!!
1)人是世界上最残忍的动物。
2)Think before we eat,how they suffer for us,so stop eat meat.
3)Now I eat them, they will eat me back one day!!
4)我们用别人的生命，因要换回来那三寸的快感，满足欲望！而造下了重业，想想值得吗？
5)I want to a vegetarian,except meat still got lot of food very nice to eat : )!!
其实这几天我们都开始少吃肉了！（看！肉字就有两个人了！那不就是人吃人吗!),叫食物的时候，都选择不要肉！希望很快的我们就能把我们的欲望戒掉！成为素食者，这也对身体好！
Thank you Rinpoche, to remind us and we should keep in mind and no more excuses !!
人为了自己的食欲，如此惨酷的杀害动物，血淋淋的屠宰場和动物凄惨的嚎叫声，好恐怖
我会少吃肉，直到完全吃素为此，
感谢仁波切用各种方法来让我们知道吃素的好 ，多一个人吃素，少了一份惨酷的杀害
Dear Rinpoche,
1. This video indicates to me the ability for man to exploit anything even the life of others, to gain monetary wealth.
2. The animals are in very much pain and don’t have the power to do anything about. They do not even have enough consciousness from the drugs induced.
3. It is not very healthy for people to be eating meat from animals that are not well taken care of and not hygienically bred. I also do not think the antibiotics used to enhance the growth of the animals are any good for the consumers of meat.
4. If i were doing a business like this, i wouldn’t wish to let anyone know.
5. My perfect blood test results since being a vegetarian.
I hope the cruelty of animals will stop. Lets stop the consumption of meat.
Dear Rinpoche,
Watching this video on animal cruelty and abuse has reaffirmed my conviction that true compassion lies at the heart of vegetarianism.
I must begin to take the first step towards being a vegan,by not taking eggs and milk at least once a week, when i’m at home.I can’t turn my back on the great suffering of chickens being force reared and tortured to produce eggs for human consumption.Neither, can i deny the painful reality of how cows are being forced into non-stop pregnancies just to produce milk and how their young are wrenched from them at birth so that their milk can be sold for human consumption.
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you for the video. I tried to become a vegetarian many years ago but everytime I failed. Until September last year when I read about Rinpoche promoting vegetarianism and ask everyone to pledge I manage to observe vegetarian for as long as 10 months. I don’t know why I am influenced by you. To quit meat eating habit is like a drug addict trying to quit his old habits. Here are some of my suggestions to be a vegetarian.
1. Have good support from family members. In my case is my wife. She introduces a variety of vegetarian outlets whenever we go out for meals
2. Always mingle around with friends who are vegetarian. This will reduce the opportunity to dine in a non-vegetarian restaurant.
3. Take vegetarian as a spiritual commitment.
4. Always replace meat temptations with benefits of vegetarianism. Eg, less mosquito bite during sleep, weight reduction, less body odour, less drowsy after meals.
5. Always read rinpoche’s blog. I feel guilty looking at rinpoche’s photo if I were to take meat again. Furthermore, the information from the blog strengthen by determination to be a vegetarian.
We try to make our children vegetarian from young. It is better to cultivate this good habit as early as a newborn baby. My wife was on vegetarian diet even during her confinement period. She managed to breastfeed my first boy to 3 years old. This refutes many beliefs that to produce milk one has to eat lots of fish. My second daughter Norbu is almost 6 months old and she is exclusively breastfed. We will try to make her a vegetarian when we start her on weaning diet. We are just trying to share our little experience in raising children with vegetarian diet and promoting breastfeeding.
It is really good your children are not falling into all the problems associated with meat consumption. They are really lucky to have such good and farsighted parents with the guidance of a genuine teacher and from whom they in turn may learn. I hope in all future lives I and all beings will be reborn into such great conditions, the Three Lower Realms will have a “Closed Forever” sign at their entrance, people will be barred from entering there and forced to go somewhere good, and perfect beings of compassion, wisdom, and power to do good will reside everywhere.
Promoting breastfeeding is great, everyone knows how good it is for the children and you have explained that being vegetarian is not an obstacle, something people may have apprehensions about.
The same phenomenon happened to me. I heard Rinpoche talking about vegetarianism and just immediately started being vegetarian. There were a few occasions where I was tempted to eat meat but my thoughts of how Rinpoche’s wisdom and compassion and power have already helped me, even in a short time, made the determination arise to honour those characteristics of Rinpoche by listening to his advice and I am happy I did. Seeing the videos of the animals’ suffering brings home what it is all about, even, I feel at this time, the Buddhism: it seems that, at the end of the day, the real reason why we practise is for their sake. Of course, I also don’t want to fall into the Three Lower Realms, no way, but their need is so great and so terrible it calls for serious action. I hope we can save everyone together.
Coming from a Christian background in the West, I don’t know much about Buddhism, but it is clear something must be done to help these animals as soon as possible. Just seeing this video is so powerful, it awakens compassion and understanding which leads to personal change through conviction.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting this video and all the related videos.
1. This video must be shared so more people can learn and start making a choice about their food.
2. The US FDA has always been regarded as the guardian of food standards, yet wounds, lesions on the animals are allowable. So is steriod induced growth in the animals – all in the name of profit. Its scary isnt it to know. No wonder cancer and heart problems are the main killers of humans in this new century – we are consuming food that is “adulterated” even before it has been processed.
3.The cyclic negative karma created starts and intensifies from breeding to consumption.
4.As the saying goes, when the buying stops, the killing will too.
5.Animal protection groups should stand up and include the animals that are bred in the name of food.
Dear Rinpoche, these are my thoughts on the video -
1) Humans will go to any lengths for money. On our side, we dont need to buy into this industry
2) We have a choice every time we sit down to a meal whether we cause more suffering for others or not
3) Even if we are not Buddhist, causing cruelty in this way is not ethical and it is something we can all do, regardless of religion, to help lessen others’ suffering
4) How sad the people in the factories have to keep creating negative karma for themselves. In some parts, the people look like they are enjoying it which makes the karma of the action complete
5) How can torturing a human be a crime, and torturing an animal not be a crime? If an animal can love or show affection, it can also feel pain.
Dear Rinpoche,
I’ve heard of friends from Kechara talking about this video.i never had the courage click and watch it but I am glad i gathered my courage today (although i started by reading all the comments first to mentally prepare myself).
I couldn’t hold my tears and my hands were trembling. Felt helpless and great sense of guilt knowing all these years of consuming meat, these poor animals tortured so much!
While i was watching, I imagined myself as the poor animal. I felt pain and tortured as they were slaughtered alive. It’s horrible especially hearing the sounds of those poor animals screaming for help.
I stopped consuming meat for a short period of time – 6 months (I made a vow for my Grandma’s health) and found it’s not as hard as I thought but didn’t continue thereafter. After viewing this, I will choose to stop consuming meat from tomorrow. Hope more people will do so. Will try to promote to my family too.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this video. It definitely imprinted in my mind how these poor animals suffered if i ever i see meat served on a table.
I m stopping non veg rite away
Dearest Rinpoche,
I was on and off vegetarian diet but now I push myself even harder. Showed my kids the videos above and they were half a day on vegetarian diet. They didnt really understand much so I explained to them when they had questions about it.
1) All the germs, bacteria and dead corpses we actually put in our mouth and body.
2) We ignore the process these animals are forced to go through in order to land on our plates.
3) People say they love animals but they eat other animals that are ‘meant’ to be eaten.
4) I want to plant strong imprints in this life and lives to come to be full vegetarian. Sometimes, before I go to sleep at night, I keep repeating to myself – no more meat.
5) I pity the people who have to kill these animals to earn. Tremendous negative Karma but they don’t know. Worse still, they have to re-live the Karma over and over again. I would like to dedicate my merits to all those who had to kill in order to earn(survive) and not because they want to.
Thank you Rinpoche.
1)I am extremely sorry that I am not yet a vegan, though I vowed weeks ago that I’ll be.
2)The impact and effect of karma is not to be overlooked and ignored!
3)I am helpless in a way that I can’t do much to make my mind discipline as yet, what more to help these poor animals!
4)How I dislike the cover that I made to “groom” myself and not having the courage to face who I really am!
5)Where is dharma leading me? A carrier in the academic field? I wanted to go to India…
Animals’ lives are valueless to a lot of people. How to change their mindset and thinking on this?
I feel really bad for the slaughterers who have committed bad karma with lots of killings, and will need to repay the deeds later on.
I don’t take much meat, but still I’m not discipline enough to be a full vegetarian. Will try my best… have to… to lessen the slaughterings of innocent animals.
I was horrified and could only watch the video until the “cattle”. I am ashamed of my species, humans… I will do my best and get vegetarian. Thank you.