Moon - Buddhism for meat eaters: simple wisdom for a kinder world

BUDDHISM FOR MEAT EATERS: SIMPLE WISDOM FOR A KINDER WORLD

First published in Australia in 2019 by

Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited

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Josephine Moon 2019

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ISBN: 978 1 176085 116 3

ISBN: 978-1-7608-5117-0 (ebook)

Cover design by Lisa White

Cover images adapted from Shutterstock and Creative Market

Author photo by Anastasia Kariofyllidis

Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia

O f all the conversations I will have to have with my child about topics like sex, drugs, death, dying, rejection or terrorism what I dread the most is the one where I have to explain that meat comes from animals. We love animals but, yes, we eat them.

There can be a lot of shame involved with being someone who truly loves animals yet still eats meat. I dont see a lot of writing out there from animal-loving meat eaters, and I think shame is possibly a silencing force. Surely, if we really loved animals as much as we say we do, and if we really understood all the awful things that meat production does to the environment, then we would just stop eating meat, wouldnt we?

But what happens if we try and try but fail and fail?

From birth, Ive had difficulty digesting foods and especially proteins. My body has never been an easy one. I was iron deficient as a baby, too sleepy to eat, and given supplements. (I still have problems with iron, no matter how many supplements I take, and now have intravenous top-ups.) Baby formula wasnt right for me and so I refused to eat. My mother describes this as a terrifying time, one in which I grew thin and pale and was hospitalised for two weeks, where I was sedated and force-fed. Eventually, I was diagnosed with cows milk protein intolerance and put onto goats milk.

From age five, I began to tear ligaments in my ankle. From ten, I had terrible pain in my back that kept me from sleeping. At fifteen, sudden and severe sciatica struck, the cause of which no one could determine; a surgeon was consulted and there was a suggestion of cutting the sciatic nerve, which thankfully didnt eventuate. I am now certain that was the very start of what was, twenty-five years later, diagnosed as ankylosing spondylitis (an autoimmune disease that attacks the spine). Through my twenties and thirties, I was variously diagnosed with no less than twelve different conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome none of them life-threatening but all of them enough to make things challenging.

From thirteen, I began to try in earnest to become vegetarian and continued in one form or another for almost twenty-five years, without success. It was never a matter of lack of willpower or ignorance to animal rights issues (trust me, I wish I had far less knowledge of the horrors) or a particular love of the taste of flesh, it was a simple yet frustratingly complicated misalignment between spirit and body. Vegetable protein alternatives chickpeas, soy, lentils, most seeds and nuts, quinoa, many types of beans, almost all grains, amaranth, buckwheat, mushrooms give me varying combinations of indigestion, reflux, headaches, eczema, joint pain and abdominal pain. My mind is willing, but my body is not. (As an aside, a lot of animal proteins have the same effect on me too, but there are a handful I can tolerate.)

As a meat eater who adores animals, I have found this a difficult place to be. So much literature defends meat eating or veganism in this polarising, angry debate, in the same way the breastfeeding versus formula-feeding of babies is headlined in the media specifically to generate ugly discourse. Ultimately, Im not sure how helpful this approach is.

For example, I was so convinced I would be breastfeeding my baby that I didnt even buy bottles while I was pregnant. I had bought into the literature that said breast is best (and obviously if you really cared about your child then that was what youd do, right?). Choice. Thats what I thought it was you could choose to either breastfeed or formula feed. Never once did I read a story explaining that sometimes the choice is simply taken away from you. My baby and I left the hospital on the bottle and I was devastated because I was completely unprepared for this eventuality.

Likewise, I see the same kinds of discussions about vegetarian diets. Its presented as a choice, a lifestyle you could simply opt into if only you cared enough.

For many people, it is. If you are a thriving vegetarian or vegan reading this book, I am deliriously happy for you. Youre living my dream. But I know Im not alone in having a body that seems to need a certain amount of meat in order to function at its best and its taken me a long time to reconcile that, and longer still to be able to say it out loud.

From as far back as I can remember, Ive had an intensely strong connection to animals. I have always seen them as just like people but in different bodies. I wanted to be a vet through my childhood until I hit Year 11 Physics, and it was blindingly clear that Physics and I were never going to get along. Without Physics, I wouldnt be able to apply for the veterinary science university course. (Never mind that I was killing it in Biology, a life science you would think was far more compatible with veterinary studies than abstract maths, but there you go. I also now know that I could never have been a vet and dealt with the surgeries, euthanasia and animal cruelty they have to confront.)

I studied journalism and then completed a post-graduate degree in education, becoming a high school teacher, while still aiming for a career as a writer. I changed jobs many times and took up a second career as a corporate editor. I started an environmental committee while working at an international engineering firm. I studied natural medicine and turned my hand to working with animals in this field. I ran workshops teaching people how to help their animals with massage, nutrition, vibrational essences, energy healing and communication. In my spare time, I fundraised for animal charities. Then I started a horse rescue charity and ran that for three years up until my son was born and I was simultaneously offered my first contract for a novel, launching my new career as an author. Serving animals whether my own animals at home, or through the charity, or through raising money for other animal charities, or donating to animal charities, or through healing modalities, or the scores of animals Ive picked up off the sides of roads has always been my thing.

Knowing and loving animals as I do, I want to be vegetarian. Its a great irony to me that I simply cant be. A variety of doctors and naturopaths have told me this over the years, as well as my own body, which suffers pain, dizziness and fatigue every time I cut animal protein from my diet. I cannot digest enough of the vegetarian proteins, regardless of what I do with them long soak them, long boil them, slow cook them, ferment them, sprout them, grind them, combine them, powder them, or take digestive enzymes with them. Problem after problem arises. The dietary intolerances I was born with simply multiplied over the years along with autoimmune conditions (and yes, Ive tried all the gut-healing remedies and still use them and spent veritable house deposits on alternative therapies and natural doctors who promised to heal me, without success). Ive had to work hard to make peace with my body and find the best way to keep it functioning at optimal levels. Its not that I dont eat vegetarian food; I just cant make it my primary source of protein. The reality is that this is the body Ive been given in this lifetime. I cant fight against it, not if I want to be an active member of society. I want to be of service; for that, I need a body that is capable of doing so.