World Peace for All Beings
Today is the 19th day of my Journey Fast. Each day I pass through patches of weakness, but by hydrating with water the weakness passes fairly quickly and greater clarity and energy arises.
At this moment of the fast I am more open and empathetic to all sentient beings. Feeling their preciousness and true worth, I feel more completely their pain and suffering. Today I am focused on the billions of animals that are killed each year by the world wide meat industry. Reports are as high as 53 billion animals slaughtered. That would be equivalent to destroying the 7 billion human beings more than 7 times over! The United States is far and away the leader with over 32 billion animals killed every year. These include cows and calves, chickens and chicks, pigs, sheep and lambs, turkeys, ducks and geese. These numbers do not include fish - billions more. Also not included are wild game, cats, dogs, goats, and horses worldwide.
It is bad enough that these defenseless beings are killed but they are kept in horrific conditions, abused and violated. Chickens are packed into cages, ten to twenty thousand in a building and beaks clipped. Live male chicks are tossed in dumpsters, because they have no worth to the business. Pigs crammed into pens. Cows crammed into feed lots. Calves chained or kept inside so their meat becomes soft and white for veal. There are so many more inhumane practices.
All are pumped up with antibiotics and hormones. When animals fall down sick in the yard they are abandoned, and the bigger ones moved with forklifts while still alive. And there are so very many other horrors that are perpetrated on these innocent beings.
These sentient, feeling beings are passive and kind. They harm no one. They do not kill one another nor other species. They truly are "innocents". And yet they do not have voices to speak up for themselves. Only their cries that come just before their slaughter are heard. How can we allow and contribute to the deaths of so many harmless ones? How can we take in this meat and not see how it negatively affects not only our bodies, but our very souls? How can we keep turning away, ignoring these horrific practices? People will do anything to protect their pets, their friends, and yet go off and eat the dead carcasses of these friendly beings. Why?
Gandhi stated "You can tell the spirit of a nation by how they treat their animals". And perhaps we can extend that to the whole world. The spirit of violence is so deeply ingrained through the cultures. Perhaps, however, if we stop killing animals we might just stop killing each other.
The plight of these noble beings pierces my Heart and Soul and I send prayers of peace to all of them, with the intention of ceasing this senselessness.
When we speak of World Peace we must consider all feeling beings. They, too, deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, so that their pain and suffering ends.
In Devotion,
Greg Lynn
May Animals Be Well and Happy!!
