Happy Gautum Buddha Jayanti
On this occassion of Gautum Buddha Jayanti, I would like to remind myself and the visitors of my blog with following quote by Gautum Buddha.
Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.
-Gautum Buddha
I hope I will be able to understand it and understanding it truely means, I should be able to implement it. I hope I will be able to do so. Likewise, I wish you will be able to understand it and implement it as well.
I felt ashamed of being Newar and being Nepali
We, people are so busy thinking about ourselves and our own pain. Have we ever thought of others? How many of us might have done so? Living just for ourselves we have forgotten what humanity is. I am talking about cruelty by human towards animals. At every corner of the globe, we can find ample of such inhumane activities. Why are we doing so? If we consider ourselves to be superior form of all animals then why do we still have to depend on those inferior ones?
There are people who consider hunting and killing helpless animals as sports. I say they are bunch of cowards. Playing football is sports, playing chess is sports, skiing is sports but how come killing animals is a sport? Throughout the history, animal killing has been popular among several sections of human population. But isn’t today a time to reconsider that idea? Take for example, bullfighting. Wikipedia says,
bullfighting or tauromachy (from Greek ταυρομαχία – tauromachia, “bull-fight”), is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, some cities in southern France, and several Latin American countries, in which one or more live bulls are ritually killed as a public spectacle … bullfight usually concludes with the death of the bull by a sword thrust.
The bull suffers severe stress and a slow painful death. And the cowards claim themselves to be heroes. What wrong has bull done to be faced with such suffering? Another example is dolphin hunting in Japan. The Japanese consider it to be their pride. There are numerous other examples of such killing.
Some other section of people torture animals for their skin, fur and several other animal parts. China, is very popular for this, isn’t it? They rip the skin and fur out of live animals. They do not even kill those animals before doing so. Peta says “Before they are skinned alive, animals are pulled from their cages and thrown to the ground; workers bludgeon them with metal rods or slam them on hard surfaces, causing broken bones and convulsions but not always immediate death. Animals watch helplessly as workers make their way down the row”. Not only china, many other Asian countries operate in similar manner. At least, they should provide an easy death to animals before skinning them or extracting fur out of them.
Transporting animals is also conducted in an inhumane way. A webpage at http://www.moggies.co.uk/articles/2003/china_cats.html shows some pictures. A line from this site reads
Chinese cats and rabbits awaiting sale as food.
Nepal is no exception to animal cruelty. Many Nepalese people find it exciting to watch animals getting sacrificed. They kill animals in the name of god. I sometimes find myself ashamed to call myself Nepali. Recently, a shocking image of wounded rhino made front-page news in Nepal. The so called National Park in a place called Chitwan in Nepal hosts few numbered rhinos. The poachers frequently kill rhinos for its horn. This wounded rhino was one among these unfortunates. I felt so emotional by looking at that the bleeding rhino. Issue with this rhino was different from other poached ones because this rhino did not die completely. It suffered a bullet injury. Perhaps, the pain of bullet made it unconscious and while it was unconscious the poachers dislodged it horn.
But later as it came to consciousness, it had to suffer for a whole week before it died. It died a long painful death.
In Nepal there are many examples of other ritualistic killings too. A festival called “Dashain” is very popular in the country. During this festival, a male buffalo is forcefully given alcohol and later killed in a cruel way. So called “Newar” people are mainly involved in this. Recently, government of Nepal decided not to fund animal sacrifices. Though the government made that decision as an effort to cut it’s spending and not with a heart for animals, the decision was very good.
But the thousands of people from Newar community took to the streets and protested the government decision.
Eventually, the decision was rolled back. I also belong to same Newar community. And the day that protest started, I felt ashamed of being Newar and being Nepali. But this is just one example. There are so many that if one tries to write them done, it will turn into a thick book.
Please, let us join hands against such animal cruelty. There are many other ways of making money and living life. We do not have to depend on animals in such a cruel way. And even if we need to depend, at least they deserve an easy death.
Other Sites:
http://www.peta.org/feat/chineseFurFarms/index.asp
http://www.moggies.co.uk/articles/2003/china_cats.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfighting
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/233153,government-decision-not-to-fund-animal-sacrifice-stops-festival.html
I just faced one reality of my life
There are times when we know that we have learned everything and we have done everything. But the reality is actually something different. The truth is strikingly the opposite of what we have been thinking. It is just a matter of time that we come face to face with it and feel as if this truth has slapped us right in our face. Today, I happen to experience something similar.
Throughout my education I thought I had practical experience or say knowledge of a crucial topic of my area. I thought if I ever have to implement it professionally I would be able to do so just like that. And earlier today, completely forgetting that I was already introduced to similar methods, I was searching of ways to implement it. But now suddenly I happen to come to know about it and that I have already learned in the past. I have come to understand that I learned it theoretically but I never did it in practical. I realize that I was putting myself into an illusion of knowing everything about it. This is the result of too much theoretical learning and little practical. I think I do not want to reveal what that crucial topic is, but I will tell that it is a very important aspect of my education and my master’s degree.
Oh, I just said something that certainly sounds strange for anyone from my area and with background similar to mine. The term “too much theoretical learning and little practical” may sound awkward and hard to convince yourself. But for many people this, I believe, is true. Like I said, it is just a matter of time when you come to know this reality.
