Cattāri Brahmavihārā

My family is away for Christmas visiting my wife’s grandmother in Florida so I have been pretty much dividing my time between meditation, contemplation and work. Yet, since I worked from home yesterday, I was able to check out a bit of Aziz Ansari’s MSG special. Now I have to admit I’m not one for his brand of comedy (too much cursing for my precious ears) but one part of the act that got me thinking again was his discussion of the horrors of factory farming vis-a-vis the poultry and dairy industries. He was joking about the fact that most of us are apathetic to the suffering of others when something as important as sense pleasure is on the line. So, that was the seed.

And then this morning I saw a part on my Facebook wall from Ven. Anandajoti linking to Ven. Dhammika’s books, one of which was on vegetarianism. Reading parts of it I realized that I have been allowing complacency and laziness to creep into my habits of consumption again and that, if I had the ability to stop needless suffering I would. You see in a already pretty much a complete vegetarian but will eat meat if it’s offered. I do this because I don’t want to contribute to an industry which slaughters millions of animals and destroys the planet and yet I’m eating eggs and dairy which necessitate the needless killing of male chicks and bulls? Clearly there is something wrong with my thinking.

So, in silence and workout making a show of it, I intend to forego these products that cause so much pain to other beings as a way of deepening my compassion and not harming beings.