Would You Cut The Cow?

Meditation provides a wealth of novel experiences. It contains a plethora of untold wonders.

And it also provides insights unbidden.

All in all I've been meditating and doing Qigong for about ten years, and during that time I've experienced some pretty crazy things.

I've felt myself leave the body, I've had my consciousness peel away from my form and descend into my torso, I've experienced the phenomenon known in the Chuang Tzu as "the white room."

But above all else, what I most enjoy while meditating are the revelations.

Awareness arises while in the depths of concentration, and information trickles forth from the void. Then suddenly you find yourself realizing things vast and profound--elements you need improve, objectives you should pursue, situations you should avoid.

It was in the depths of meditation that a friend of mine had a realization that he should contact his estranged daughter and rekindle a relationship with her.

And it was there that I realized I needed stop eating meat.

The Blaue Ecke is a quaint three-story hotel nestled tight within the stately village of Adenau. With rosebeds outside its windows and a picturesque facade, it looks like something straight removed from the middle ages. Within its walls one can purchase a bed for roughly a hundred euros a night--but no amount of money could buy the prophetic epiphany I therein experienced.

Meditating deep to recover after a pair of days spent racing, I emerged from trance with a startling discovery.

"I'm going to be a vegetarian soon," I told my friend.

The next day I realized why.

The drive from Germany to Amsterdam is hours-long and soul-wearying. Leaving behind the green fields of the German countryside, you head interminably north along the highway towards the gray Netherlands skies.

Along that route the scenery is essentially unchanging. Farm follows farm, where placid cows rest sleepily in pasture. And whilst sitting in the passenger seat along that voyage I found myself relentlessly confronted with that view.

Then imagination wandering, my thoughts started moving in strange directions. Idly I started musing: Would I go out into one of those fields and murder a cow? Would I walk out there and cold-bloodedly slit its throat?

Repelled, repulsed--I immediately answered no.

Then I realized that unless I was willing to take firsthand responsibility for the death of those animals, I had no business eating meat.

Within a few months I started fighting an uphill battle against my mind towards reducing my consumption of animal products. And along that time I backslid again and again as my love of meat temporarily outweighed my ethical conclusion.

But eventually, at long last, that struggle I won. Meat I ceased consuming, and in the years since I gradually pared back my diet unto mostly those things that result in no taking of any life (plant or animal).

Right now I subside on rice, eggs, dairy, fruits, vegetables. I try to keep my meals consisting only of foods that are freely given by plants and animals. I don't know what it does on a metaphysical level--but it makes me feel good that I've largely removed myself from the circle of consumption through slaughter.

Is this a diatribe that everyone should become a vegetarian? No--of course not.

This is simply a plea for everyone to think through the ethical consequences of your actions.

So imagine yourself in the same situation: If you were starving and alone with nothing but a knife--if you were trapped in a field with nothing but a calmly slumbering bovine--would you do it? Could you do it?

Would you cut the cow?

a reply to: Trachel

Ever been really hungry? I don't mean late for supper, I mean so hungry your belly swells up?

You'd cut cow then, you'd eat the family dog.

Easy to philosophize with full grocery shelves.

a reply to: intrptr

Well said!

I've been that hungry and yes, I'll slit Bessies throat and enjoy months of delicious meals!

I don't feel bad when I hunt or fish, we all gotta eat. And I know several vegetarians that are repulsed at what I do, yet they have no problem with folks that buy their meat from stores. There is no comparison in what I do to factory farming. I'm much more humane.

Slitting a cows throat for food is much more humane than how your supermarket obtains it!

I'd rather chew or eat grass instead, no matter how hungry I am.
People can eat so much of the green things, and yet most of them would kill or cannibalize instead.

a reply to: intrptr

Respectfully disagree.

I'd like to think I'd die before willingly taking the life of something else to survive.

But I hope neither of us find himself in that situation.

a reply to: Trachel

I am a longtime TM practioner....Paul McCartney once said when questioned about he and 1st wife Linda being vegetarians....
"We don't eat anything that has Eyes".

I always remembered that....

It's not about the act of taking the life of an animal. It's about how it's done. Do you respect what is lost for what you gain? An animal dies that you might live. It's that simple.

And while you can eat a lot of the vegetation around you, you are not as efficient at pulling nutrients and energy out of those plants as you are at pulling nutrients and energy out of the ready made protein of animal sources. In a survival situation, knowledge of both is essential, but the high demands of subsistence living make animal protein almost an absolute must in your diet.

One does not need to be cruel, and one should always treat one's animals with respect. But they are animals. They live for the day and for the now. Even if you know they are destined for slaughter tomorrow, they have no concept of that and so don't live in fear of it.

originally posted by: ketsuko
And while you can eat a lot of the vegetation around you, you are not as efficient at pulling nutrients and energy out of those plants as you are at pulling nutrients and energy out of the ready made protein of animal sources.

I am not sure that is true. I'll give you one example, protein called edestin, which is complete protein and is considered the most easily digestible form of protein for human body. Hemp seed is full of it, around 20%. Hemp seed also has around 10% protein albumin, which is also another easily digestible protein.
Another one is spirulina which is around 70% complete protein which is pretty much highest among any other unprocessed foods. It is also around 90% digestible.

double post

a reply to: KawRider9

As a vegetarian I have much higher respect for people that do the killing themselves. Not that I don't respect meat eaters in general but factory farming is outrageously bad for everyone but the owners. Even if you don't believe that humans are the main cause of current climate change, it's bad for the environment anyway... and not just any environment, water and farmlands. We kinda need those! Factory farms should be torn down, artificial plains restored to forest and deer allowed to repopulate those areas (deer populate fast) and let people go out and get their meat themselves. Restore buffalo on the plains, let them do what they've always done roam free and get hunted.

Idealistic, I know.

Its all good. We are raised in different environments. The city is different from the farm, the desert different still.

Or the mountains.

People that live were almost nothing grows have to eat meat, like herders of goats, camels, yaks, for instance. Inuit people eat nothing but meat.

Different environments mean different mores and foods.

a reply to: Trachel

Ehh, I wouldn't exactly say milk and eggs are "freely" given. Sometimes conditions animals who give those products live under are worse than the animals who die for their meat. Just google dairy is rape and you'll find plenty on the subject provided by the vegans of the world.

I eat meat and dairy myself and would definitely slice the cow if I had to. There's no way I'm sacrificing my life for a cow.

I do believe that meat and dairy should be provided in a humane way in which the animals don't suffer though. If I had the choice I would raise my own animals but it isn't feasible for me so I try to buy "100 mile diet" style products instead of major corporate brand names shipped half way across the world from factory farms.

a reply to: Trachel

If my society only sold living animals and there were no butchery services then yep, I'd kill whatever to put that meat on my table.
Cow, lamb, pig, I'm not fussed having killed and eaten many chickens, fish and rabbits over the years, no problem.
Good luck with your new path though, I was veggie for 10 years, vegan for the first two, can't see myself ever doing that again by choice.

No. No way I could do that. And if the cow cut me...well so be it.

Absolutely I could. To echo Ketsuko, its about how its done. Done in a humane way, using All of the animal( as more 'primitive' societies do) there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, IMO. Thank the animal for giving its life so you may live.

originally posted by: 5leepingWarrior
Thank the animal for giving its life so you may live.

See, I don't believe the act of thanking the animal makes up for the killing.

I also don't believe there's an intrinsic difference in the value of my life versus other sentient organisms. As IMO, my worth equals that of a cow, dog, duck, spider, I've zero business sustaining myself through ending another life of identical value.

a reply to: Trachel

i actually was vegan for about 5 years, but i realized that even though i was trying as hard as i possibly could to buy "vegan"products, companies still sneak in ingredients derived from animals and either don't list them because the amount is "too small" to list or they do list them under different names to where you really can't tell they are animal derivatives. i don't use animal milk, eggs, butter, etc or eat any meat at all anymore. but i am not strictly vegan. i use ketchup and other things that do contain animal products. i just feel that the way they treat milkers and hens that lay eggs is completely inhumane. poultry is not covered under the humane treatment of animals act, so basically producers can do whatever they want to turkeys, chickens and other poultry, confine them however they want, feed them whatever they want, and treat them however they want with no repercussions.

Slitting a cows throat for food is much more humane than how your supermarket obtains it!

a reply to: KawRider9
Thank you. Everything we do is "humane." Please consider the following possibilities: the cow has a soul, just like we do. The cow's body has a soul just like all living things.
When death approaches a being, that being's soul, and it's body's soul evacuate the body, usually before the actual "death" occurs. No harm no foul, as far as souls are concerned...The majority of beings within creation have passed through many many lives. That's what I'm going with.

originally posted by: blondegiraffe
a reply to: Trachel

i actually was vegan for about 5 years, but i realized that even though i was trying as hard as i possibly could to buy "vegan"products, companies still sneak in ingredients derived from animals and either don't list them because the amount is "too small" to list or they do list them under different names to where you really can't tell they are animal derivatives. i don't use animal milk, eggs, butter, etc or eat any meat at all anymore. but i am not strictly vegan. i use ketchup and other things that do contain animal products. i just feel that the way they treat milkers and hens that lay eggs is completely inhumane. poultry is not covered under the humane treatment of animals act, so basically producers can do whatever they want to turkeys, chickens and other poultry, confine them however they want, feed them whatever they want, and treat them however they want with no repercussions.

Yeah, companies do sneak in strange additives and stuff if you buy frankenfoods with tons of ingredients.

But my diet sticks to foods that generally have only one ingredient--the food itself. For example, yesterday I ate:

-Organic cottage cheese
-Blueberries
-Eggs
-Cheese
-Spinach
-Tomatoes
-Organic peanut butter
-Organic rice
-Peaches

Of all those, the peanut butter had the most ingredients: peanuts and salt.

originally posted by: Hephster
a reply to: Trachel

Ehh, I wouldn't exactly say milk and eggs are "freely" given. Sometimes conditions animals who give those products live under are worse than the animals who die for their meat. Just google dairy is rape and you'll find plenty on the subject provided by the vegans of the world.

This is true in most cases--animals can be kept under some pretty harsh conditions. But I purchase my dairy from a source that uses cage-free practices and pasture-raised cows.

So while that's not 100% clean ethically, I'm comfortable with that for now.