Should We All Have To Hunt Our Food?
May 14, 2021•359 words
One Sunday afternoon when I was a kid, my parents brought me to the local Buddhist temple. At the temple, the youth group got together and practiced the teachings of the Buddha. One of the first things my teacher taught me was that all life was precious, animals, insects, even trees. In our infinite cycle of rebirth, we may one day reincarnate into one of these beings.
So what are the factors that determine the fortune of our reincarnation? It's a simple system, really, one that many other religions have at their core. Do good things, and good things will happen to you. In Buddhism, it is the principle of causation (a.k.a. Karma). As a kid, I saw it as a game in which actions that generate love increase your score, and actions that cause suffering decrease your score.
Me: "I eat meat. Am I a bad person?"
Teacher: "The answer is a little complex."
Teacher: "Your intentions also matter. If you accidentally step on ants or purposely find and kill ants, which is worse?"
Me: (Oh shit, I was stepping on ants purposefully just last week.)
Me: "Stepping on ants on purpose, of course."
Teacher: "Correct. It is also the same with eating meat. You did not go out and hunt the animal and kill it. Your contribution to the suffering is not the same."
Teacher: "The hunter is the one that is causing the most suffering."
This conversation made me feel a little better about myself. It's a classic case of reshaping beliefs to resolve cognitive dissonance. But today, I'm looking back and thinking maybe the hunter isn't so bad compared to me, who's eating mass-produced meat.
Joe Rogan (#1649) mentioned on his podcast that there was a moment in his life where he knew he would either become vegan or a hunter. It sounded like he identified the cognitive dissonance and set out to resolve it.
Imagine a world where all meat eaters had to kill their food to eat. I really wonder if it would make people more grateful and connected with their food. Or if we'd all become even more desensitized to killing animals.