Life Wisdom: Curbing Our Desires for a Peaceful World
Under the impact of climate change, some places have suffered pressing heat waves and water shortages have also been occurring constantly. People are most afraid of water shortages and the heat brought by the sizzling sun is hard to bear. Climate conditions have become erratic. There is much hardship in the world to begin with, and now, there are many climate disasters.
Oftentimes, heavy rains cause landslides. We've witnessed this. The land has become fragile. As it has long been damaged by us humans, it has lost its function of soil and water conservation. How can we maintain soil and water conservation? The land has become unable to conserve soil or water due to years of damage.
We reap what we sow. Manmade damage has brought about unbearable hardship. We might think that if it is hot outside, we can just hide from the heat by staying indoors. With air conditioning, the heat won't bother us. We can enjoy the air conditioning and avoid going outdoors. Yet, is this the permanent solution? Is this the normal way of life?
Besides heat waves, there are also water shortages and other climate disasters that we cannot escape through comfort brought by technology. What should we do? We must change ourselves first. Current disasters are caused by the bad karma we have created. Led by our desires, we humans have been excavating and damaging the land for many years, which has had an impact on the climate and the environment.
Perhaps you and I and everyone else had damaged the land before in our past lives. We have been creating bad karma life after life and have been damaging the natural environment since long ago until the present. As we all live on Earth, we can all feel how the environment has been damaged. Natural disasters have been occurring one after another, bringing great suffering to mankind.
There are also manmade disasters. When people's minds are in disharmony, many civil wars and invasions have also occurred. All this arises from people's minds. Manmade and natural disasters are both rampant in the world.
The Buddha said that this world is filled with much suffering due to people's greed and anger. Anger is like wildfires that rage through large swaths of land. When we give rise to anger, it's like setting fire to the land. If we do not eliminate our anger, it will be hard to contain wildfires. This is how our temper, which is a form of energy, can affect the weather.
In all, we must find ways to mitigate disasters so climate conditions can be favorable and people can enjoy peace and safety. It's a true blessing to have a peaceful life. To go vegetarian is to express our determination to practice self-discipline. We must curb our desires and cleanse greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt that have tainted our heart and mind.
At a time like this, we must urge everyone to go vegetarian. Vegetarianism is good for our body, and as it can reduce pollution, it is also good for the Earth. We must know that water resources on Earth are depleting and that livestock consume a lot of water and grains that could otherwise be provided for people.
To eat a piece of meat, we have raised livestock that pollutes the land and damages the environment. Many livestock are raised just to satisfy people's desire for meat, and livestock farming has been damaging the environment and polluting the air. People's collective bad karma worries me deeply. We humans damage the environment, pollute the air, and harm and kill many animals. Such is ignorance. It is very hard to describe this with words.
Yet, it is now a must to share this, and it's also a must for everyone to awaken and practice repentance. I hope we can all practice self-discipline by going vegetarian, for this is the only way to mitigate disasters. Let us strive to practice vegetarianism.
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