Thursday, January 22, 2009

LONG TIME NO SEE 好久不见

Hi, really welcome to all readers and visitors of this blog. Lots of apologies need to be made (especially for those who've been long-awaited) as to the delayed update of my blog. The reasons, from first to last, are mainly due to lack of self-adaptation towards new and quite challenging semester.

Though getting busy with those academic affairs, however i did not forgo the opportunities of joining some "meaningful" activities. Learning from the activities, there are many unfortunates outside of our living circle, who suffer from terrible diseases and deplorable, crappy living conditions. Anyway as for our paramount concerns, their grievances had long been getting short shrift and they desperately need countless material and mental helpings from us!!

Therefore, my upcoming post's title will be :'你不是真正的快乐'.

Happy Chinese New Year ^^

Sunday, January 4, 2009

放生大法会^^


These are so-called Chinese soft-shelled turtles. They are really too impatient to wait for being freed during chanting by Rinpoche.




Our "sacred" ceremony was held at a naturally nice place in Sabah-Tanparuli.




This little turtle seemed reluctant to return to sea. Wondering why it turned back several times after being released again?






Uncle is carefully checking whether there is any marine creature left inside the tank.







Wow, I was really astounded with such great number of eels inside the pail while finished tearing off the black plastic bag. I was told that these creatures are normally cooked together with rice and served as UNAGI-DON in Japanese restaurant. OMG #_*

Saturday, January 3, 2009

VEGETARIANISM = SAVING LIFE ?!?!

First and foremost, there is the necessity for us to know that nothing is perfect in this world. Even though we suggest and mete out a best solution with its greatest benefits, saying of it do not have any weakness is surely out of the question. Same goes to vegetarianism, many practitioners did face difficulties in either practicing or promoting it to others. Yet they bent on practicing vegetarianism by overcoming those difficulties with plenty of grits. WHY? There are various reasons rooted deeply in their minds. Some may be sympathetic to the vulnerable creatures. Some may perceive that creatures other than mankind do possess survival liberty and human beings are not given any authority to slaughter them easily for whatever purposes. Some may practice vegetarianism for the sake of their health and of course, we can’t rule out that some may follow others blindly to practice vegetarianism.

The translated sentences below are quoted from a senior’s words:

“Let’s say we bought the marine creatures from a restaurant and released them, what if the owner of the restaurant is then going to catch another batch of marine creatures to replenish the stock? ”

“Similar to case of vegetarianism, there are still lots of people slaughtering animals for their meal even if we keep on practicing vegetarianism. So what is the use of vegetarianism consequently? ”

Referring to the sentences above, we can classify human beings into three types. The first type is of those who practice vegetarianism, while the second type is for those who consume animals in their meal. There are numerous raison d'êtres suggesting the second-type human to take meat as food. For instances, their meat consuming may be with the intention of obtaining sensual pleasure. Besides, they may have been used to adopt an eating habit according to the Food Guide Pyramid which recommends a well-balanced diet whereby people need to eat a variety of foods with the specific amounts from each level. It includes cereals, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, fish, meat, poultry and legumes. The third type is of those composed of either owners or waiters in the restaurant which serve meals by on-the-spot slaughtering of creatures.

Vegetarianism had been known as an actual and thoroughgoing action which ensures both life of animals (or fauna) and health of practitioners to be guaranteed. By simple comparison, second-type human beings are more susceptible of being educated and converted to practice vegetarianism instead of third-type. Since slaughtering activity had become their job, we could hardly ask them (third-type), especially those without any other professions or skills, to change by simply enlightening about the benefits of vegetarianism and deplorable effects of killing animals. In addition, one critical thing to be remembered is that they desperately need the job in order to support domestic expenses.

Therefore, as a starting point, we should endeavor our utmost to educate the young generations and simultaneously convey the vegetarianism’s information to public (without differentiating which type they are) thru campaigns, health talks, religious talks and books as well. Surely it will bring greater effects as if government and Non Governmental Organizations reach out their full supports. As to education of young generations, it’s a necessity to egg on the Education Department to integrate the ideology of vegetarianism into the Science Textbook for both the primary and secondary school children. Besides, school authority may also take a proactive role to encourage vegetarianism among students by allowing one or more veggie shops to run their business in school. By doing these, the core understanding of vegetarianism in students will more or less influence themselves, their parents and relatives as well to practice vegetarianism and stop killing animals. Believe me! Those positive powers are capable of turning the world into a more harmony and peaceful one.

Consequently with the drastic fall in number of people consuming animals as foods (which means demands ↓), the related parties are going to reduce slaughtering activities (which means productivity ↓). Hence, more and more animals are saved and at the same time, more and more people are possessing good health. If this astounding trend continues, it’s not impossible that the owners, who involved in slaughtering activities, are trying to change into other jobs due to the serious downturn in slaughtering business.

Another translated sentence quoted from a senior’s words:

“One day, I took a stroll with two boys at the market in America. There was a stall selling lobsters and I felt sympathetic as they are going to be killed soon. Unexpectedly, one of the boys urged me to buy all of them before they were killed. As the lobsters cost an utter high price, I’m mulling over whether is it worthy to do so? However, being touched and impressed with the words came out from a small boy, I determined to buy all of the lobsters with my hard-earned money, which then cost me about $200. After that, we chanted and released them into the sea. Our meaningful motion had been noticed by passerby, the parents of the boys and workers in the market who knew that we intent to save the life of the lobsters. Will it bring positive and great effects after our action was wide spread around by those mentioned parties?”

Definitely it will bring some good effects as long as our actions are kind. However such action would exert lesser extent of effects compared to promoting vegetarianism. Not that I did not agree with such action, but there are piles of worries shrouded in my heart that those passerby and workers would only treat the action of releasing lobsters as a weird, surprising and strange incident instead of a lesson that will directly turn them into not consuming any meat or involving in any slaughtering activities. All these are because of such motion being unprecedented to them. It would be worthy as if the money ($200) is donated or transferred to some recognized foundations or associations like Tzu Chi and WWF. In a way that is happily all too real, these associations are now on the right track of receiving astoundingly increasing numbers of members from all around the world, who started consenting to the necessity of saving life of innocent and naïve.

P/S It can’t be denied that united force is more powerful and influential than sole individual.

Thanks for reading ^^

Albert Cheng