Plum Village, France, May 2014
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh answers questions
from his one million facebook friends
It hurts me when I hear about animal suffering.
I just don't understand how to get past it.
I try to help but feel helpless at times. What can Ido?
First of all we should stop eating animals
and we should learn how to cook vegetarian because vegetarian food can be very good
if you can cook well vegetarian food and then it's very easy for you to stop eating the flesh of animals.
In the sutra of the Son's Flesh, the Buddha said we should eat in such a way
to preserve compassion in our heart; otherwse, you'll be eating the flesh of your own sons and daughters
There is a story told by the Buddha to his monks
There's a young couple who tried to flee their country
but halfway through the dessert they ran out of food
and they knew that they are going to die
three of them - the couple and the little boy (their son)
so after much reflection they decided to kill the little boy and eat a piece of dead flesh every day to survive
it's a very terrible decision.
but finally they got out of the dessert and were accepted by the other country as refugees
so after the Buddha finished the story he asked the monks
whether people can enjoy eating the flesh of their own sons and daughters
and the monks said no. So the Buddha said that in that case,
you should eat in such a way that can help preserve compassion in our heart
otherwise you'll be eating the flesh of our sons and daughters
so many people, many children die because of a starvation, a lack of nutrition everyday
and if we continue to eat meat and drink alcohol, it is like eating their flesh and drinking their blood
because the amount of grain used for feeding animals and making alcohol is huge
so not only you have to show a compassion to animals but also human beings
because we might be also eating their flesh
And we have to learn how to eat
there are ways to eat that can preserve compassion and preserve our beautiful planet and help living beings suffer less
that is the object of our 5 contemplations before eating
and in every home, before eating, the 5 contemplations may be read so that we can learn how to reduce the suffering
not only of animals but also of living beings
and there are organisations that are protecting animals everywhere
you can join one of them in order to help, to show our compassion, help us to heal ourselves
because compassion is the kind of energy that has power to you. When you are full of anger and hatred
it's difficult for you to heal, it's a kind of fire burning always in you, preventing you to heal
but once you have compassion in your heart, the healing takes place very easily
so cultivating compassion is not only for the sake of other people but also for your own sake
when compassion is born in your heart, you are not angry anymore at him/her
so you heal yourself and you help that person heal himself/herself
so compassion has a great power of healing. That's why all of us should learn how to cultivate compassion
and compassion is very mighty, very powerful
and not something weak like people used to think
With the energy of compassion in yourself, you can do many things to help the world.