A little background first…

Over a year ago, I was required to take a philosophy class, I chose Eastern philosophy. The class was about Confucianism, Dao De Jing, Mohism, and Buddhism. Normally, for any class I take, I try and absorb the material as best I can and then utilize the new knowledge whenever applicable. There was no difference to this class, but this class affected my life a little bit more than just that. It changed the way I fundamentally viewed life. To be more specific, Buddhism is what took me over and I started reading tins of books on Buddhism, Buddha, and the Dalai Lama. I didn’t become buddhist, but its philosophies i tried to incorporate it into mine.

Well, with all that said, Buddhism doesn’t mean you have to be vegetarian and in fact, the Dalai Lama himself eats meat. Yak is a staple food in Tibet. Although the practice of Buddhism is more in line of a spectrum and whether you want to be a vegetarian on not varies, I chose to be a vegetarian. On top of the Buddhism my teacher, who think incorporated much of the philosophies into her own life, showed us a video of animal cruelty. Literally from that day forward I would become a vegetarian.

At that point I was still just getting started in my nutrition classes (I’m a Nutrition and Food Sciences major) and did not know as much as I do now. Whenever vegetarian is the topic in class and if it is healthy, my professor say, “think about the cavemen, were they vegetarian.” Well, also supported by the many studies of health benefits when meat is consumed, I have internal conflicts about whether to continue with my vegetarian lifestyle or revert back to my carnivorious ways.

Just to patch up some holes one might be thinking of after reading this is…
I still loathe the meat industry and the cruel acts they inflict on animals, some books I’ve read on being vegan, The China Study and The Food Revolution, and as of now, I consider myself a part time vegetarian. I really regulate my meat intake and try to buy free range meat products, but I still have not consumed beef.

Thanks again for readin,
Art