Vegan lifestyle articles that discuss ways of living in peace with humans, animals, and the environment.
My own life is immeasurably better now than it was before I became vegan because I now have the priceless joys of a clear conscience and peace in my heart.
Paul with two of his porcine companions, Tommy and Jimmy...
Sometimes people criticise vegans by accusing them of pretending to be
better than others. I believe it is a great mistake for anyone to pretend
that they are better than others, and it is a sure way to alienate them.
However, my own life is immeasurably better now than it was before I became
vegan because I now have the priceless joys of a clear conscience and peace
in my heart.
It saddens me to think that a lot of people feel threatened by the word
vegan, and I believe this reflects a misunderstanding of what being vegan
means. Being vegan is primarily about living a kind and caring life by not
harming others. Only by cherishing others, and the environment, can our
lives ever hope to bloom. A vegan diet is merely a means to that end, not an
end in itself, as some people appear to believe. It is not about losing
anything; on the contrary, it is about gaining Life itself.
People everywhere dream of happiness and peace. However, they fail to
realise their dreams because of the way they behave. Peace and happiness are
the consequences of a peaceful and caring life. They are forever denied to
those who inflict monstrous, and totally unnecessary, suffering on innocent
creatures.
As a species we have taken the wrong track in life. Not only are we not
realising our dreams but we are destroying ourselves in the pursuit of false
pleasures. We have no need of animal foods and both our physical and
emotional lives are vastly better without them. The greatest tragedy of all
is that in our fruitless quest for pleasure we are causing unspeakable,
unimaginably horrible suffering to multitudes of our fellow creatures. As we
brutalise them we ourselves become brutes. The peaceful heart and the bloody
hand do not inhabit the same body.
Last, but not least, we are not only destroying our humanity by our callous
behaviour but the very environment on which we all depend. We must therefore
make drastic changes while there is still time.
Parents who profess to care about their children are effectively stealing
their future by the choices they make today. Their lifestyle is truly their
children’s deathstyle. They are bequeathing them a wilderness. We must mend
our ways without delay, or there will be no future for anyone. Adopting a
vegan lifestyle would do much to turn this dire situation around.
If we truly care about our children we must begin caring about the
environment and its inhabitants, upon which we all depend. The funny thing
is that when we do begin to care we see through new eyes. We begin to
appreciate this wonderful world for the first time. We realise how
enormously privileged we are to have been born in the first place. When we
begin to cherish our fellow companions, and treat them kindly and with
respect, our heart softens and swells, and overflows with joy. We begin to
see the world through their eyes, and our spirit tingles as never before. As
our minds and hearts expand, sunlight floods into our lives and far horizons
extend before us endlessly. In a very real sense, becoming vegan is ‘one
small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind’.text
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