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This Startling Zen Story Can Transform Your Diet For A Mindful Planet
It’s also the most gruesome Zen story I know — as told by Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh
Recently, I have felt a renewed sense of urgency about the state of the planet. I am not an activist. You could say I am a global citizen frustrated at the slow response to the climate crisis. I spend hours researching on my own time.
Here’s the thing: the more I think about my current lifestyle in a global city, I can not hide from the fact I need to change my diet.
Even before I lived in India teaching Tibetan monk refugees in the 1990s, I was a vegetarian. But it’s easy to be a vegetarian in India. The population is mostly Hindu and vegetarianism is a part of their religion. Since leaving India, and living in the relentless West, the more meat I have in my diet.
It’s obvious to me: I need to confront my meat-eating habits. The beef industry is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases. But with the way my life is now, it not a straightforward decision.
In times like these, I remember one of the darkest and most gruesome Zen stories I have ever read.
A couple and their young son were…
