Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
Why do many Taoist priests not eat meat? And why do they advocate that people outside Taoism also eat no meat, or at least less meat?
1. Taoism Upholds the Teaching That “The Way of Immortals Values Life”
First, the Taoist teaching that “the way of immortals values life” is one of the core tenets of Taoist faith and embodies Taoism's distinctive character. Taoism teaches people to value life, cherish life, and delight in life, raising the quality of existence to the level of the immortals and achieving “the unity of life and the Tao,” that is, “attaining the Tao.” The Scripture of Salvation (Duren Jing) sums up this essential point as: “The way of immortals values life, and saves people without measure.” The Xiang'er Commentary on the Laozi says: “Life is another form of the Tao.” It also says: “The intention of the Tao is to despise death and value immortality.” The purpose of cultivating the Tao is “only to wish for long life” and “endless renewal of life.” Together these form the important Taoist teaching that “the way of immortals values life.”
2. Taoist Priests Feel Compassion for All Living Things
Sun Simiao, the famous Chinese physician revered as the “King of Medicine,” is also one of the important patriarchs worshiped in Taoism. In the chapter “On the Absolute Sincerity of Great Physicians” in his Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold for Emergencies (Beiji Qianjin Yaofang), there is an admonition to physicians against killing that deserves great attention. He says: “Since ancient times, famous and worthy physicians treating illness have often used living creatures to relieve emergencies. Though it is said that animals are lowly and humans precious, when it comes to loving life, humans and animals are the same. To harm another to benefit oneself is something all creatures alike find hateful—how much more so humans! To kill life in seeking life is to go even further from life. That is precisely why my formulas here do not use living creatures as medicine. … Only in the case of something like the hen's egg, since it is still in a state of undifferentiated chaos, may one bear to use it when there is a truly urgent need and no other choice. One who can do without it is a great sage indeed, and I cannot match him.”
In modern terms: “Since ancient times, worthy physicians treating people have often used animals in their prescriptions. Although humans are more precious than animals, animals, like humans, cherish their own lives. Harming others to benefit oneself is something all creatures consider wrong, let alone wise human beings. To kill in order to seek life takes one even further from the great way of life. That is exactly why my present formulas do not use animals as medicine.” “Only with something like the egg, because it is still in a state before taking form, may one reluctantly use it when faced with an emergency and no other choice. A person who can do without using living things has truly extraordinary insight, and that is beyond me.”
Sun Simiao pointed out that even when one has no choice but to use animals in medicine, it is best to use animals that died naturally. In short, one should relieve human suffering while preserving animal life as far as possible, not taking another creature's life to save a human life. This is an important principle followed by Taoist medicine. It is a concrete expression of the Taoist idea of “valuing life,” and a very precious one. How much more, then, does killing merely for the pleasure of the palate go against the Tao.
3. Meat Itself Poses Serious Harms
1. When animals are slaughtered, their extreme fear, pain, rage, and struggling cause abnormal biochemical reactions in their bodies, poisoning their carcasses and in turn poisoning the tissues of those who eat them.
2. Cooking, roasting, grilling, and frying meat produces carcinogens.
3. Chemical additives in meat (such as nitrates) and changes in the intestinal microbes of meat eaters are causes of cancer.
4. Residues of pesticides and insecticides in meat are thirteen times higher than in vegetables and fruit.
5. Meat contains toxic chemicals such as antibiotics, hormones, and tranquilizers.
6. The animals themselves suffer from various diseases and infectious diseases.
7. Cadaveric toxins produced by the decay of animal carcasses can poison meat eaters.
8. The buildup of lactic acid and uric acid from meat metabolism causes kidney disease, gout, rheumatic pain, and other disorders.
9. Meat lacks fiber and so causes difficult elimination and constipation.
10. The accumulation of animal fat causes heart and blood vessel disease, leading to high blood pressure and heart disease.
This brief account is enough to show that meat eating does a hundred kinds of harm. Without meat, can the body get enough nutrition? Even if this problem exists, it is far less harmful than eating meat. Many friends who love meat raise all sorts of excuses, questioning, “Can you get enough nutrition without eating meat?” In answer, here are excerpts from the U.S. Senate Report on Nutrition; let this authoritative report tell us the price of eating meat.
4. The U.S. Senate Report on Nutrition (Excerpts on Food)
According to the U.S. Senate Report on Nutrition (excerpts on food), the body's nutrition is normal without meat. On the contrary, meat eaters are more prone to all kinds of disease, and may be paying for it with their own health and lifespan.
1. The dietary pattern of advanced, developed nations is wrong (too much meat).
2. The causes of cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and the like lie in diet, and eating too much meat is an important cause.
3. The chronic diseases of meat eaters cannot be cured by medicine or surgery.
4. All adult diseases can be treated and recovered from by improving the diet and reducing meat.
5. Nations that eat more starches are healthier than meat-eating nations.
6. People whose diet is rich in vegetables, fruit, and grains are in much better health than those who eat a meat-centered diet.
5. With a Sensible Diet, a Meatless Diet Can Be Nutritionally Balanced
Not eating meat has little to do with whether one gets enough nutrition; a meat eater who pays no attention to a balanced diet may equally fall short. With good eating habits and a sensible arrangement of all kinds of food, a vegetarian diet can serve health cultivation, making the body healthier and life longer.
Generally speaking, vegetarians fall roughly into four types: vegan, lacto-vegetarian, ovo-vegetarian, and lacto-ovo vegetarian. In principle, vegetarianism means not eating animal protein. A strict vegan diet includes no animal foods at all, so the nutrients formerly supplied by meat must be made up from plant foods, which depends on a proper combination of foods.
1. Use protein complementation. In a vegetarian diet lacking animal foods, make as much use as possible of complementarity among various plant foods to obtain enough of all the essential amino acids. Legumes and grains, legumes and nuts and seeds (such as sesame and melon seeds), vegetables with legumes and nuts, and grains with nuts and seeds all complement each other considerably. So the more kinds of food you choose, the more complete your nutrition should be. The most common dishes—red bean rice, mung bean rice, eight-treasure rice, eight-treasure porridge, steamed buns, dumplings, and all kinds of mixed dishes—are good nutritional combinations.
2. Pay attention to supplementing the nutrients that vegetarian diets easily lack, such as calcium, iron, vitamin B2, and vitamin B12. A glass of milk, for instance, provides not only protein but also about 300 milligrams of calcium and plenty of vitamins B2 and B12—truly several benefits at once. So adding a glass of milk to a vegetarian diet ensures the necessary nutrition. This is especially needed for children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers and must never be overlooked.
3. To keep their nutrition adequate, vegetarians can add some mushrooms and fungi, kelp, and similar foods, making their nutrient intake complete and balanced, which benefits physical health.
So to the many friends who ask whether they can get enough nutrition without meat, the answer is yes. As long as you take care to arrange your diet sensibly, it is far healthier than eating meat!