Piecing the Peace Together (1)

I was teaching a vegetarian cooking class
a few days ago and
one of the students asked a very frequently asked question:
-- why do I go veg?

While many may think I go veg
because of the influence of my religion,
-- as I am a very vocal budhhist,
I actually became a veg before even I was a buddhist.

Some close friends may know that
I went through some minor depression phase
during my university days.
-- nothing made me happy (I mean truly happy from within).
My mind was constantly spinning,
my emotion was heavily suppressed (to pretend to be strong)
and my physical health was deteriorating slowly (in my early 20s)...

Towards the end of my undergraduate days,
I made a vow
that I would step out of that kind of depressive life
to search for the true happiness
-- the inner bliss, the inner peace.

But the path wasn't easy in the beginning.
Soon, my brother ICQ-ed me that my dad was diagnosed with cancer,
my family went chaotic subsequently.

When my dad eventually passed away,
my mum ordered the family to go vegetarian for one week.

Then, an unexplainable inner peace emerged.
My body was light, unburdened and my mind was clear.
Despite the loss of my dad, my emotion was more stable than before.
I attributed that peaceful experience to the vegetarian diet that week.
-- I was thinking, the vegetarian diet must have conferred
some kind of biochemical change
in my physical body and hence the emotion and the mind.

That was how I slowly piece together the essential factors
for internal peace.

Vegetarian could be the first step, I gathered.

When I decided to go vegetarian, I justified that
if I treasure inner peace so much,
I shall not continue to kill animal for their flesh.
In other words, how could I ever be in peace
if I see animals going through suffering and horror?

The general answer to people
on how I became a veg
was that I wanted to be more healthy and save animals.

But deep down, it was my wish for a peaceful world
out and within,
that motivated me to kick start a "special" diet.



With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}