Lancement des éditions allemande et française du livre du Maître Suprême Ching Hai et Les Nobles de la Nature et l’édition polonaise de Les Chiens dans Ma Vie partie 1 / 4 – le 18 octobre 2009, Allemagne
After over twenty years of sharing her knowledge on how to live a
balance life while pursuing a spiritual path, Supreme Master Ching Hai
continues to dedicate her time and effort to uplift and enhance the
life of all beings.
In recent years, she has written and
published three animal books - The Dogs in My Life, The Birds in My
Life,and The Noble Wilds – to introduce humankind to the magical world
of animals.
Supreme Master Ching Hai shared that the books she
wrote are works of love: Motivated by her unconditional love and
overflowing compassion for our planet and all of its inhabitants,
Supreme Master Ching Hai continues to selflessly accept invitations to
share her insights and wisdom on a kinder, nobler, and
more
loving way of life at gatherings with our Association members,
symposiums, radio interviews, or via videoconferences and the like.
We
now invite you to enjoy the 5-part series rebroadcast of the
videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai at the premiere of the
German and French edition of The Noble Wilds and the Polish edition of
The Dogs in My Life at the 61 st Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany on
October 18, 2009.
The
Premiere of Supreme Master Ching Hai's Books "The Noble Wilds,"German
& French Ed., & The Dogs in My Life, Polish Ed. Oct. 18, 2009,
Germany
Even though I know some of the cruel treatment to animals,
but
it seems to be no end to the suffering and agony that we,the strong and
intelligent and capable humans,are inflicting upon the defenseless,
weak and very pure creatures of God. I just beg all the people,please
don’t do it anymore. Please find some other thing to do,some other job
to earn your food,to earn your living. Please wash the blood from your
hands, please. No matter how much
money we have, we can’t live
with this conscience,we can’t sleep with this,we can’t eat, the blood
of all the beings. knowing that they suffer so much. How can we do
this? Please, just stop all this; there are many jobs to do. Even if we
have to die,don’t inflict suffering upon others just to earn your few
meals a day. That’s really not worth your dignity and your status as
the crown of the creation of God.
Because no matter how you
torture the animals,they will die only once. Just like us. We will die
only once no matter how we die. It’s just how we live our life,how we
live our life,and how we will answer in the Kingdom of God when we face
the Creator of all these beautiful beings that we are blessed to live
with. You don’t have to believe that animals can communicate,you don’t
have to believe that animals have feeling,you don’t have to believe
that they bless us,you don’t have to believe that they are
beneficial,but just look into their eyes. Just see how weak they
are,how meek they are,just see how innocent they are,just see how
defenseless they are,then you can tell yourself that this is not right
to torture them in any way at all,with any excuses at all.
Even
the wild beast,they don’t torture their victims like this. They only
have to kill when they are hungry; they have no choice. We have a lot
of choices,to survive. Please, just stop this. Just stop doing this.
You will be sorry the day you die if you don’t stop this. I promise
you. You will be very, very sorry, I promise you. I’m telling you with
all the honor that I have in my life,that if you don’t stop killing or
torturing the animals you will be very sorry. You will be in a place
that you wish you have never been born. Please stop it. Thank you.
The poem of the Supreme Master Ching Hai『Words of a piglet』
The day I met you first
Was the day of my birth/Pink and round,me oh so plump
With Mom I gaily frolicked.
Lovingly you looked at me
Praising,『Oh, so round, what a cutie!』
Every day you came by to visit
Bringing cool water and
delicious veggie treats.
Mommy and I were so touched
Your kindness worth more than gold
I lived a peaceful life/Under your care and protection
Growing more plump with each passing day
Just eat, rest and play
So lovely was this early morn
As clouds were drifting across the sky
Cuddling together,
Mommy and I
Unaware of the befalling tragedy!
Two brawny young men
Strong like tigers and elephants/Squashed my tiny body
Flat into a cage of horror!
There was no way to escape!
O God,
what purgatory was this?
I wailed in fear and terror/Mom, oh Mom,
please save me!
Oh caretaker,please come protect me quickly!
Rescue my life,
I’m still at a tender age!
Mom was crying out in sorrow
Tears of desperation filling her eyes
The immense Heavens cannot contain
This horrendous emotional pain!
My caretaker turned away
Hands busy counting a stack of money
Haplessly I rolled around in the car trunk
Breaking heart more painful than bodily misery!
The two young men bantered:
『This piglet will be so tasty!
Tomorrow we’ll slaughter him
To celebrate the birth of the wife’s newborn baby!』
Oh, how ironic this life/My soul is shattered
Tears flow in my heart/Like blood running in rivulets.
I thought you loved me/Nurturing me to maturity
But all this was a sham
For you,it’s just profit and gain!
Tomorrow my body will be cut to pieces
My flesh and bones
turned to sheer torture
Just so people can laugh in merriment
At their happy feast and gathering.
To your children and others’ too/I wish them all long lives
So the family can stay together/Not endure the same fate as mine
I pray the whole family lives nobly
To be human in many lifetimes
And never be reborn as pigs
Paying forever karmic debts!
Alas, good-bye life
I ache for my gentle suffering mother
In tears I am overcome
Oh, Mommy!
Mom Mom
『Vegetarianism:The Noble Way of Living,』
Mrs.
Polina Marinova, As the Coordinator of the Vegetarian Society of
Bulgaria in Sofia: I conceived the idea about registering a
non-governmental organization and the need for legislative amendments
having repeatedly faced the choice of eating meat or going hungry. In
this regard,my human rights have been infringed upon on numerous
occasions. A year ago, I had to stay for a while in a hospital to give
birth, and all the meals offered there were actually meat dishes. I had
informed the hospital staff that I was a vegan in advance, and asked if
vegan dishes could be provided for me.
The reply as I received
from them was that for my sake alone, they could not make any changes.
Exactly the same things happen with our vegetarian and vegan children
who have no possibility of choice at the kindergartens they attend. The
situation is almost the same at the school canteens where, okay, there
is a vegetarian or vegan dishes, the dish looks quite unattractive and
there is no end on to such examples there and elsewhere. All this makes
vegetarians and vegans in Bulgaria discriminated people. I consulted
attorneys at law who are experienced in the area of human rights
protection.
They told me that human rights law is on our side
and we should seriously consider filing a possible lawsuit against the
state. They also indicated the possibility of launching some
legislative initiatives for the purpose of securing the equal rights of
vegetarians and vegans and protecting their equitable access to their
normal nutritional regimen.
In accordance with the text of the Article 6 of the Bulgaria Constitution, all people are born free and equal
as
far as their dignity and rights are concerned. Besides, all citizens
are equal before the law. No limitation of rights or privileges is
admissible on the grounds of race, nationality, ethnicity, gender,
origin, family backgrounds, religion, education, convictions, political
affiliation, personal and social or material status. Following this
line of thought, the rights of quite a sizeable part of Bulgarian
people are systematically infringed upon, simply because the by virtue
of their convictions or religious denominations, they have become
vegetarian and vegans. It’s absolutely imperative that Parliament pass
a law stating that all hospitals, kindergartens, creches (daycare
centers), all schools and prisons, in short, all public institutions
where catering is provided shall have vegetarian and vegan meals on
offer.
Mr. Lubomir Stoyanov,a nutritional scientist,student of
Bioinformatics and member of the Bulgarian Vegetarian Society:The UK
Cabinet Office Strategy Unit documented that 70,000 premature deaths in
the UK could be prevented annually by the vegan diet. The European
Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition found that greater
consumption of vegetables and fruit increases the probability of being
cancer-free. Similarly, the World Cancer Research Fund has, recently,
called for complete avoidance of all processed meats to avoid cancer.
The World Health Organization states that premature deaths could be
avoided through healthy ways of living and through a
healthy,vegetable-rich diet,and the American Diabetes Association is
highlighting the fact that vegetarian diets protect against the risk of
type-2 diabetes.
the Founder and Deputy Director of ?SVV (Czech
Vegetarian Society),Mr. Jaroslav ?kva?il:On one hand,I have encountered
the opinion of the Food and Agriculture organization,which says that it
is necessary to decrease the meat consumption by half just to ensure
that the current situation,the ecological situation on the planet,won’t
deteriorate further. That was in 2006. Isn’t this statement
exaggerated?
Rreducing meat production by 50% is a very
underestimate,in part because we have waited so long to change. So our
time has become too short in fact,and the situation is too dire. Just
in case you are not aware,or maybe others viewers are not,I will share
with you some of the facts of where we are today. With melting that has
caused the biggest ice loss ever known in the Arctic,scientists now
tell us that the region is warming at the rate twice as fast as the
rest of the world. As you may already know,two German ships have just
traveled through the Northeast Passage because the ice all melted,and
that is the first time in known human history that the ships could pass
through.
So the vast ice beneath Greenland is also melting
even faster than previously predicted. Many researchers are saying that
at the rate of current warming,there is almost no way for our world to
stay within the limits of a 2 degree Celsius temperature rise,which is
the maximum that will still ensure the safety of most life on the
planet. But even though our predicament is very grave,we do still have
time if we act now.
the main contributing gas from
livestock,which is methane,traps 72 times more heat than CO2 over a
20-year period. And then there is the other gases,nitrous oxide for
example,which comes from the unregulated waste contamination and
fertilizer runoff of crops that are primarily grown for livestock to
consume. This gas traps 289 times,289 times,more heat than CO2,more
than carbon dioxide. According to the most recent figures from
scientists,livestock raising is actually responsible for
more than
50% of global warming. More than 50% is coming from meat and dairy
production! Imagine that? So,with 55 billion animals currently being
murdered every year for meat consumption,you can imagine how much the
Earth would be restored if this is stopped.
one dairy farm
alone with 2,500 cows produces as much solid waste as a city with over
400,000 residents. This waste,which sometimes contains bacterial
contaminants such as E. coli,ends up in waterways that affect drinking
water and aquatic life. Along with the waste are chemical fertilizers
runoff used on crops fed to animals which have been documented by
scientists to cause dead zones in the ocean as well as toxic algae
outbreak,those green moss that grow in the water.
One such
event just occurred in Brittany,France,where a majority of the
country’s livestock and a third of the dairy farms are located. On the
Brittany coast,this waste and chemical runoff coming into the sea
causes outbreaks of toxic algae,which emit the lethal,deadly gas
hydrogen sulfide. So,recently in news we heard of a horse that died
within half a minute of stepping into the algae and now the health
concerns of over 300 people are being investigated for the same reason
around that area. Making all of this worse is the fact that animal
waste is largely unregulated - meaning that there is nothing to stop
these events of contamination that can cause illnesses or even death
for massive numbers of animals and people.
『Save Our Planet,Everybody Can Do It』
Dr.
Astrid Sieglinde Kaplan, acquired a Ph.D. in psychology and 'an animal
rights' author and artist:Experts agree that children and adolescence
who harm or kill have never learned compassion or the ability to put
oneself in someone else’s shoes and to empathize with another’s
feelings. If we are lacking in compassion,it becomes easy to reduce
animals or people and to objectify them as things without emotion. We
feel more compassion towards those beings that are closer to us; less
the more distanced they are. Because children,by their very
nature,identify with animals and because animals are living beings just
as we are,through our relationship to animals,we can teach children how
we should treat other people.
Another important point in
contributing to peace or violence in our daily lives is our food
choices. If we eat meat,we are exerting passive violence,as usually we
allow others to kill for us. This moral vacuum also provides the danger
that we place any being to a space outside of our morality,be it animal
or human,that we would like to enslave,exploit or kill. In this space
outside of our morality reigns the principle of 『might makes right』or
『the law of the jungle.』The manner in which people and animals become
victims of violence depends on their unique economic and sociopolitical
situation.
As long as there is a moral vacuum for animals,this
poses an enormous,constant threat to humans and animals. Because just
as ethics is not divisible,neither is violence divisible. That is why
the only true solution for securing non-violence and peace lies in
converting the moral vacuum in our psyche into a space of compassion.
Mr.
Wim Coenen, the partnership coordinator of EVA or Ethical Vegetarian
Alternative,a Belgian organization promoting a healthy vegetarian
lifestyle in a positive and appetizing way since the year 2000:In May
2009,the city of Ghent,inspired by EVA,chose to permanently promote
Thursdays as a day for avoiding all animal products. Many cities around
the world are following this example with Sao Paulo in Brazil,being the
biggest one so far.
Why is this Thursday Veggie Day such a
success? But I’ll try and venture a guess. First of all,our tone is
always positive. We do not judge people for eating meat,but we
encourage them to sample,to taste,eat and keep eating vegetarian
food,which brings me to the fact that no one is ever forced to eat
vegetarian ? we can only stimulate people’s awareness. But the idea of
Thursday Veggie Day is based on a motivated choice ? so,not on
pressure,not on guilt or stories of gloom and doom. In others words,we
invite people to try new things by presenting appetizing and 100% vegan
recipes in our publications and magazines.
Thirdly,we always
try to be playful and fun. And as you can see here,most of our
publications are full of colorful cartoons,humorous pictures and
content. This one being mainly colorful,not so much funny, as you can
see. Fourthly,and perhaps most importantly,we do not focus on one
particular reason for eating vegetarian food. We always present
five,not ten,five important reasons to eat less meat,and they are:
One,eating vegetarian food will be a treat for your taste buds ? you
will discover beautiful,rich and previously unknown taste sensations.
Secondly,you are taking care of your own health. The average European
eats massive,massive amounts of animal protein,and replacing these
partly or completely by vegetable proteins will help you get fitter and
helps you to prevent physical problems,like heart disease,high
cholesterol,etc. Thirdly,you’re saving the planet as we’ve heard today.
Meat production is,after energy,the second biggest cause of
global warming,an even bigger contributor to global warming than
transportation. And according to the FAO (Food and Agricultural
Organization),it’s in the top two or three causes as Supreme Master has
already said,of every major environmental problem. Fourthly,you’re
helping other people. For 1 kilogram of beef,you need 7 to 8 kilograms
of grain and 15,000 liters of water. And if we use these resources to
feed people,more people in the third world would have sufficient food
and access to clean water. And fifthly,the fifth reason we present,very
simple,you save animals,because an average person in Belgium eats over
1,800 animals during their lifetime. That’s 891 chickens,42 pigs,5
cows,789 fish,7 sheep,43 turkeys and 24 rabbits and other so-called
game meat.
It’s a shining small example like a lamp that you
know,lit the whole room up. No matter how dark it has been for 1000
years,just one lamp it would lit up. And then slowly there’re more
rooms would be lit up. Please continue,no matter how hard it is. And
please pray every minute that you have a chance. Please pray,because
this is the power that can help you to overcome all the difficulty and
the setback and the physical exhaustion also. Yes? Praying. yes?
Praying or meditation is the same kind of contemplation that will help
us to walk forward Yes? with more inner strength. Yes? and outer
radiance that convince others. Yes. And it will radiate love from your
conviction,and your good-hearted intention.
Mr. John Carmody,
has come all the way from Ireland where he founded the Animal Rights
Action Network(ARAN):Just recently we’ve convinced one of the top
department stores in the country to go fur-free and we also helped to
persuade the Irish government to support the EU trade ban on the
Canadian seal products into Europe,which was a huge achievement. And
more good news for you as well,Master Ching Hai,is that Ireland has
just recently said that they are going to ban fur farming in Ireland
within three years,and stag hunting is also going to be banned
too,which is a huge,huge achievement.
Ireland seems to be the
first in many things. Even stopping smoking, Yes. And the first in a
record of organic farming, etc. You see, it does have an effect, all
your efforts. And just now Mr. Coenen and his wife have reported to us
about their success yeah, EVA, in Ghent city. Because right after the
Ghent city declared Thursday is a meat-free day, for example yeah, then
many others are also starting similar meatless programs. Like Sao
Paulo, Brazil, and the mayors of many cities like, Hsinchu of Formosa
(Taiwan), Santiago, Philippines, are encouraging their citizens to be
veg for the planet. We also have the famous vegetarian celebrities
using their fame and name to promote the compassionate way of life.
And
according to my inner meditative knowledge, we have, at least more than
40% of the world’s population now are vegetarian or vegan. I mean, less
cruelty. yes. Let me think. We have almost 50% or something now. Oh
God, thanks, God. That counted also those who are part-time vegetarian.
But nevertheless, it’s already a very encouraging sign. Put altogether
we have like 50%, my God. Okay. And more and more schools are giving
vegetarian and vegan options for lunches, yes. Like in the US, since
2003, 40% more schools now offer regular vegetarian meals. That is 2
out of 3 schools offer regular vegetarian meals.
There is the
extinction of plant and animal species that is 100% 100 times faster
than what is natural, and it ruins our ecosystems. And there’s also the
rainforests themselves; this is important. The rainforests themselves
normally are our protectors, but as the climate gets warmer, instead of
absorbing CO2 to protect our planet’s climate, they will be emitting
back CO2 as well, and that will be harmful to us. By harming the
rainforest, by destroying the planet by raising animals, we are turning
our protector, which is the rainforest, into a harmful agent. They will
not be not helping us.
They will not be not helping us, the
rainforests, if the climate gets warmer. But instead, they’ll worsen...
they will be worsening the global warming problem, because they cannot
absorb the CO2, but they will release all the CO2 that is already
contained in their kingdom. when we burn the forests, we release black
carbon, which are particles of soot that trap 680 times the heat of the
same amount of CO2. Now, blame whom? Don’t bother blaming CO2.
Especially because they are black, you know, these soot from the
burnt-black rainforest, they hold a lot of heat.
According to
researchers in Brazil, 60% of the black carbon measured at the
Antarctic Peninsula came from burning the rainforest in Brazil for
livestock raising. Animal industries are thenumber one killer of all
killers on this planet. Forget about the war, forget terrorism, they
are just small numbers compared to the meat industry. Meat industry is
the number one killer, is the number one murderer, an illegal and a
legal murderer and we endorse it! We accept it! This is all our
wrongdoing, it’s all our fault. If the planet is to be gone forever, we
cannot blame anything else, anyone else, except ourselves if we don’t
do anything at all to change this. see?
That besides
destroying our precious forests, livestock farms also contaminate or
even completely kill our water systems. They degrade once-fertile soil,
they destroy our biodiversity, and they release vast amounts of
extremely dangerous methane and nitrous oxide, and what you call
hydrogen sulfide as well, Yeah? which are heating up the planet now 100
times, 300 times more than carbon dioxide.
So please keep your
airplane, keep your car, keep your train, keep your ship:leave them
alone for the time being ? just take out the meat from our diet. And
stop blaming the CO2 for every problem of global warming on our planet.
We are to be blamed. The meat industry is to be blamed. The meat
industry is the one we have to focus on to stop, to abolish.
We
all wish our children to grow up intelligent, loving and kind, but what
do we teach them from the beginning of their very fragile life? What do
we teach them? We push the symbol of violence into their mouth. Even if
they spit it out, we force them to put it back in again until they get
used to it. Violence is a part of our life, up to now. Violence is what
we teach our children, and we expect them to be loving and kind. Not
only violence, that piece of meat or fish or animals, stuff that we try
to stuff into our children’s unaware stomachs, that also decreases
their intelligence, decreases their loving quality, humanity. So we
expect our children to be the best, and we give them the worst. The
worst of all the worst is the meat diet. Okay? So, how laughs about
promise laughs that our children will be what we expect them to be
without a meat diet? Intelligent, loving and kind, and noble beings.
In
the USA, for example, the FBI, Federal Bureau, you know? of
Intelligence, the famous FBI of America, yes. they officially consider
animal cruelty as part of how much a criminal is a threat to society.
Many serial killers in their childhood tortured and abused animals.
They practiced this first on the animals, and later on humans. You see?
And so, the opposite will be true. yes? If we are kind and loving to
animals, we will be also be more, also be even more kind, more loving
to our human companions or human co-inhabitants. Without
slaughterhouses, we won’t articipate in the habit of killing, or even
havinghave the subconscious participation of the habit of killing, the
habit of oppressing the weak and the defenseless and innocent just for
our palate.
Or if they go on the massacring fishing boat or
the bloody whaling boat to witness it for themselves, I wonder how
anybody could ever do this for a living? But, of course, they have been
cheated into doing that. We have all been cheated into doing the things
that we should have never done, should have never even imagined.
Because our hearts are originally full of compassion and love, but we
just ignore our feeling. If you ever wondered if hell exists, just go
into those massacre houses or the boats that kill the whales and go to
the seals-massacring areas. Go there to find hell, then you’ll believe
that hell will exist. Our original God Nature is compassion and love. I
repeat again and again and again: You are not that. You are compassion,
you are love incarnate. Please return to it.
Or the sheep with
the broken bones from being transported thousands of miles to the
massacre houses. We look away because it’s not our nature to want to be
hurt, nor it is it our nature to inflict pain and agony or sheer terror
on others. Health is also another very strong motivator that we can
show other people to encourage them and inspire them. In a vegan world,
there would be no more sad news about someone’s child dying of brain
damage or paralysis due to E. Coli, the deadly bacteria which
originally almost always comes from farmed animals. There would be no
more heartache due to deadly swine flu pandemic, or mad cow disease,
cancer, diabetes, strokes and heart attacks, salmonella, Ebola, etc.,
etc. Even AIDS that we fear so much is originally also from hunting
animals to eat.
Animal diseases from the horrid, filthy
livestock raising environment are responsible for 75% of all the
emerging, infectious human diseases, and they are often contracted by
us hunting after the animals, or forcing them to stay in a crowded,
filthy place to be massacred for us to eat. This is not the way God
intended for us to live with our co-inhabitants. This is not the way we
should behave as children of God. We have been really deluded into
doing all this, and degrading ourselves thus into this level. The
animals are our helpers, our friends, and Heaven’s beloved.