VEGAN TOEIC クラブコミュの第３２号　飢餓とヨガの教え

今地球にいる60億の人間のうち、約半数が飢餓や栄養失調に苦しんでいます。

肉を１キロ生産するために約16キロもの穀物が家畜飼料として消費されているという計算があります。

本来なら餓えた人々に与えられるべき食べ物は、家畜の口に大量に流れています。

ヨガの教えの１つにasteya (non stealing 盗むなかれ)があります。

今日はそのasteyaの実践と関連づけながら、この問題を考えてみたいと思います。


In our present time, we may not think we are stealing from others when we eat meat and dairy products because we have been deluded into thinking that those others, the animal slaves, exist for our benefit and that if we pay at the supermarket or the restaurant, then we are entitled to them.

But the ultimate truth is that the animals never entered into any agreement to be bought and sold.
We have been stealing their lives for our own selfish reason.
According to Patanjali, this is not conducive to our material, mental, and spiritual prosperity.
This is how karma works.

When we steal, we set into motion dire karmic consequences that affect our future well-being.

――中略――

Can we afford to care about the suffering of animals when so many human beings are starving?
Yes, not only because caring about animals does not preclude caring about human beings, but because vegetarianism is of direct benefit to the planet and to reducing starvation around the world.

A human child dies of malnutrition every two seconds on this planet, yet it takes fifteen to twenty pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat.

If just ten percent of American meat eaters adopted a vegetarian diet, there would be twelve million more tons of grain to feed to humans―enough to support the sixty million people who starve to death each year.

When we come to understand the true benefits that come from the practice of asteya―nonstealing―the means to abolish human starvation will be realized, and all will have enough to eat.

「YOGA AND VEGETARIANISM―The Diet of Enlightenment」 SHARON GANNON著
MANDALA publishing2008年出版 74〜76ページ引用

単語の意味などは　薫さんのメルマガ　をご参照ください（2010年3月22日第32号）
http://archive.mag2.com/0001006823/20100322162228000.html