Creations Magazine

Talking Our Walk

When our compassion becomes genuine and deep, our actions for the benefit of others will be effortless and free.

~His Holiness 17th Karmapa

This October/November Autumn “Transitions” Issue, Alan Cohen exhorts us to Get Real. He’s saying that in a world consumed by illusions, we must live authentically. We hold power over our lives, regardless of the insanity around us.

An integral component of being real and living authentically is offering compassion to others. However, there is a more important aspect that often goes unexamined or is simply disregarded: “Until we experience genuine compassion for ourselves and our own struggles, we are powerless to be of any real help to others.” Jack Elias sensitively explores this theme of self-love and compassion for oneself in his reflection of Robin Williams’ troubles that ultimately lead to his final “act.”

Living a completely real life also involves extending “genuine and deep” compassion to all living beings. This includes ALL animals that walk, swim, fly and crawl. To this statement, many a well-meaning vegetarian and vegan is met with an indignant, but not an all-together unwarranted, “Don’t go imposing your values on me!” This is the vegan’s dilemma – caught between the desire to promote a more peaceful and compassionate world while not looking to come off as high-handed and preachy.

This past August, we met with Dr. Will Tuttle. Author of the bestseller, The World Peace Diet, Dr. Tuttle deftly addresses the vegan’s predicament: “As far as imposing values, we would never say that someone who argues and works against rape, murder, and stealing is imposing their values on rapists, murderers, and thieves, and shouldn’t do such a thing! We would naturally be grateful for their efforts, because this is the best not only for those who commit these offenses and their victims, but also for the entire society. It is of course similarly true with our abuse of animals. Just because our abuse of animals is culturally approved and mandated (as was human slavery for many centuries), this in no way makes it acceptable.

“The only reason anyone is paying for killing, raping, and stealing from nonhuman animals is that their cultural programming has imposed these values on them. The primary reason anyone eats animal-sourced foods is that they’re simply following orders, and doing what they’ve been told to do since infancy by every institution in our culture. How ironic for such a person to say to a vegan, ‘Don’t tell me what to do. Don’t tell me what to eat.’ The only reason they’re eating and doing what they’re eating and doing is because they’ve been told to eat and do that by pervasive damaging indoctrination.

“The vegan is actually helping them to question the fact that they’ve been told what to eat their entire lives, and to become aware of and question the negative effects of this. In doing so, the vegan is acting as the most kind and helpful friend and ally. As vegans living our lives, we encourage people in their natural quest to be more healthy, happy, and free, and to live in a world that is more healthy, just, and sustainable.”

The choice is always ours. Let’s make Alan Cohen’s truth our own: we hold power over our lives, regardless of the insanity around us.

In Peace,
Neil & Andrea

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS