Tag: Peace

SAY NO to Sharks’ Fin Soup, SAY NO to Cruelty.

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I am not advocating vegetarianism as a religious practice or mandate.  Rather I am saying, do we really have to placate our palates in such a manner that requires much suffering in other sentient living beings?

 

SAY NO to Sharks’ Fin Soup, SAY NO to Cruelty.

Before you eat or order your next bowl of Sharks Fin soup, please watch the following video past 5mins … I’ve not eaten Sharks’ Fin soup for probably over a decade now … watching how these animals are slaughtered for their fins and mostly thrown back into sea to die … mostly suffocating, as the sharks cannot swim without the fins … I feel so :(((

This is not about this or that precepts or whatever. This is about basic humaneness and non-cruelty. I screamed out when I saw the baby shark being stepped on and have its face / mouth sliced open while it struggled. :(((( *weep*

Some people comment that other forms of killing are as inhumane and cruel, if not more.  To that, I say that we then have to eat responsibly, to the best of our knowledge and ability.

Gordon Ramsay eats Shark Fin Soup for the first time!

 

Gordon Ramsey: Shark Bait

 

“Talks on Peace Very Often Are Just Talk, with No Action”

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Just came back from a Religions For Peace conference @ Furama City Centre (@Furama Hotel).  One of the message that struck a chord in me was about how talks on peace very often are just talk, with no action.  After all these years of talks on peace, and yet, we still have strife and conflict.  It seem the ones who attend conferences on peace are already advocates of peace, while those who really need a dose of it are not attending it.

While it feels that way, I think if even just one of the religious leaders were to internalise the message and bring back it back to his or her community, it would be worth it.  We got to keep it up!

Interestingly, one of the theme in today’s session was about how the individual must be at peace before the group or the nation can be at peace.  This resounded strongly with the Buddha’s words, that the mind is the forerunner of all, and only when we defeat our defilements can there be peace.

So, my dear friend, how was your day?  Is it peaceful?  Or did you get upset over the same thing again?

May you be well … … may you be happy … … ^_^

What Price Peace?

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So awhile ago, I had lunch with a good friend, Yong Hee. He asked me my thoughts about “ends justifying the means”, ie if the end is strong enough, can it necessarily justify the means to achieve it.

I thought for awhile, and later asked him in return: If someone declares that to have peace,
we need to kill everyone else (so that there is no conflict, hence peace) … is that still right?

Many of our daily decisions do not result in life and death, but on very grey areas where it’s hard to delineate right from wrong. I personally find it important to see the means as part of the end as well, i.e. the actions themselves are part of the result, and not separate from the derivative result that we are pursuing.

The other thing to also consider … as I mentioned to him is the very fact that we are even having second thoughts about certain course of actions … often these are tell tale signs that perhaps the balance is not there.

Chinese translation: http://buddhavacana.net/2013/05/29/和平的代价/