Letter from Rinpoche:

LESS MEAT MORE LOVE

In the Buddhist teachings, punya is one of those words that are almost impossible to translate. The popular translation of punya is “merit”, which is based in one of the most fundamental Buddhist truths that nothing happens accidentally or is created by an almighty: Everything has its own causes and conditions.

In our mundane world, for example, we think that a good education could provide a bit more leverage to get a good job. So parents may send their children to the best schools and force them to study hard. As well, at times, changing the colour of your living room wall from dark blue to lemon light may give some people a fresh, uplifted feeling. Likewise, punya to some extent creates the causes and conditions for a favourable life.

Now in Buddhism, our most important endeavour is always to actualize the truth. But that too doesn’t come out of the blue and also requires a lot of causes and conditions. So in the Buddhadharma, anything that helps create the causes and conditions for realizing the truth is called punya, merit, or sonam in Tibetan.

Traditionally, we gather those causes and conditions in two ways – by interacting with what we call two “fields of merit” – the field of Buddhas and the field of sentient beings.

With the field of Buddhas, we accumulate these causes and conditions through remembering the qualities and activities of the buddhas, paying homage, making offerings, and rejoicing. With the field of sentient beings, we offer our kindness, compassion, and generosity, or we at least refrain from harming them.

Among the many methods of interacting with the field of sentient beings, one of the most celebrated ways of not harming is the practice of rescuing lives and offering beings the freedom to live through the practice of so-called “life release.”

Some of us are now trying out an alternative method of doing the exact same thing by trying to tackle a key root of why we need to release and save life – namely that people eat meat.

Not only does eating less meat create the right causes and conditions to practice kindness and compassion, but it is also in our own self-interest. For instance, we know that eating a lot of meat is related to higher rates of heart disease, colon cancer, diabetes and other health problems.

As well, eating meat directly or indirectly leads to serious ecological impacts like deforestation, global warming, overuse of water and land, and species extinction. And scientists are now even warning that eating some meats can cause new diseases and greater pandemics.

So for both the earth and our own health, as well as to save lives and create merit on our Buddhist path, eating less meat is such a simple act that yet produces so much benefit.

With all this in mind, we are now experimenting with using painting to start educating ourselves on the many consequences of eating meat. So, for instance, some of us have sponsored a large billboard in a prominent Taipei metro station. You can see that and a few other posters by clicking on one of the links below.

I think that such alternative methods of saving lives might even help inform ongoing debates on this issue. For instance, some argue that traditional ways of releasing life may sometimes cause unwanted ecological damage, and others point to the unfortunate game where people capture birds and wildlife just so that life-releasers will buy them.

For more information on all this, see https://www.lessmeatmore.love or go to @lessmeatmorelove on Facebook or @lessmeatmore.love on Instagram. In China you can visit: 微博号: LessMeatMoreLove.

If you share our way of thinking about this, please also share this message with as many of your friends as possible.

Sincerely.
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

https://www.facebook.com/100077060572596/posts/111577844346167/

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仁波切的來信

少肉愛更多

在佛教的教法中，「puṇya（梵語：福德、善行、福業）」是那些幾乎不可能［準確］翻譯的詞彙之一。它通常被翻譯為「福德」，這［個用詞］基於最核心的佛教真諦之一：沒有什麼是偶然發生的、也沒有什麼是全能［的神］創造的——一切都有它自己的因和緣。

例如，在我們的世俗世界中，我們認為良好的教育有助於得到一份好工作。因此，父母可能會將他們的孩子送進最好的學校並迫使他們努力學習。同樣，有時候，把你的客廳牆壁顏色從深藍換成淺檸檬黃可能會給一些人帶來新鮮、振奮的感覺。與之類似，福德也從某種程度上為順遂的生活創造因和緣。

而在佛教中，我們最重要的任務一直是證得實相。但這同樣也不是憑空實現的，它也需要很多的因和緣。因此，在佛法中，有助於為證得實相創造因和緣的任何事情，都被稱為puṇya（梵語）、福德、或藏語中的「索南（bsod nams，福德）」。

傳統上，我們通過兩種方式，即通過與兩種「福田」——佛福田和有情眾生福田——的往來，來積聚這些因和緣。對於佛福田，我們通過憶念佛的功德事業，禮敬、供養、隨喜等等，累積這樣因和緣。對於有情眾生福田，我們供養我們的慈心、悲心和佈施，或至少避免傷害它們。

在與有情眾生福田往來的許多種方法中，其中最受推崇的方法之一「不害」就是修持救生護命、以及通過被稱作「放生」的修持來讓眾生獲得自由。

現在，我們當中有一些人正在嘗試用另一種方式做同一件事情，即試圖從我們之所以需要去釋放和拯救生命的關鍵根源上解決問題，這個根源即是——人們吃肉。

少吃肉不僅創造了修持慈心和悲心的恰當因緣，而且它也符合我們的自身利益。例如，我們知道心臟病、結腸癌、糖尿病和其他健康問題的高發病率與吃太多肉是有關的。

此外，吃肉也會直接或間接導致嚴重的生態問題，例如森林砍伐、全球變暖、水土過度使用以及物種滅絕等等。科學家們現在甚至警告說，食用某些肉類可能導致新的疾病和更嚴重的疫情。

因此，對於地球和我們自身的健康、救護生命、以及為我們的佛法之道創造福德，少吃肉這個如此簡單的行為，卻能產生如此眾多的利益。

考慮到［以上所說的］這一切，我們現在正在嘗試運用圖畫來開始教育自己吃肉的眾多後果。例如，我們當中有一些人贊助了在台北的一個著名捷運站的大型廣告牌。你可以通過點擊以下鏈接，查看這個廣告牌和其他的一些海報。

我認為，對於那些圍繞這個問題展開的持續辯論，這種救生護命的替代方式甚至也可能提供一些有幫助的信息。例如，有些人認為，傳統的放生方式有時會造成意外的生態破壞，而另一些人指出，人們會捕捉鳥類和野生動物，以便放生者購買，由此形成了一個不幸的詭計。

歡迎訪問「少肉愛更多」網站、臉書@lessmeatmorelove on Facebook或@lessmeatmore.love on Instagram，獲得有關的更多信息。中文用戶還可以訪問微信公眾號：LessMeatMoreLove。

如果你也和我們有同樣想法，請向盡可能多的朋友分享這條信息。

宗薩蔣揚欽哲 謹此