Will Tuttle, PhD"Eating food is a lot like sex in that the inner images and attitudes we have are more important to our enjoyment than the physical or objective reality of which or of whom we partake. Our taste is determined, ultimately, by our mind."
"Harboring the idea of owning another living being is in itself an act of
violence, and our outer violence toward nonhuman animals, which is so
devastating to us all, springs from this idea. The vegan ideal of compassion
for all life has as its core this same idea: that we are never owners of
others. We can be their guardians, companions, friends, protectors,
admirers, and appreciators, and this blesses us far more than we might
think. The move from "owner" to "guardian" frees both the "owners" and the
"owned," and establishes the foundation for peace, freedom, and justice. We
are all harmed by the culturally mandated ownership mentality that reduces
beings to mere commodities, whether for food, clothing, entertainment, or
the myriad of other uses. It is long past time for us to awaken from the
cultural trance of owning our fellow beings, and instead see ourselves as
their guardians. This is the very essence of compassion, sanity, and healthy
relationships with nonhuman animals and with each other. I am grateful for
and support IDA's Guardian Campaign as an essential step in our individual
and collective evolution to a brighter tomorrow for our children, and for
the children of all our fellow beings."
~World Peace Diet
"Compassion is ethical intelligence: it is the capacity to make
connections and the consequent urge to act to relieve the suffering of
others."
~World Peace Diet
"Many spiritual teachers have pointed out that when we harm others, we
harm ourselves even more severely. The hard-heartedness of the killer and
exploiter is in itself a terrible punishment because it is a loss of
sensitivity to the beauty and sacredness of life. That loss may go
unrecognized, but the life itself, armored, violent, and competitive, is
lived as a struggle of separateness and underlying fear, and its relations
with others are poisoned."
~World Peace Diet
"The pollution of our shared consciousness-field by the dark agonies endured
by billions of animals killed for food is an unrecognized fact that impedes our
social progress and contributes gigantically to human violence and the warfare
that is constantly erupting around the world."
~World Peace Diet
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