Company held a lunch at Pan Pacific today to celebrate the bagging of award "Best Reinsurer of The Year" in Asia. As we have two full time vegetarian in the company, i decided to have vegetarian for lunch as well.
Not surprising, some colleagues asked if i've turned vegetarian? I replied them that i'm not a full time vegetarian but i take vegetarian food whenever it is convenient and of course, i do encourage people to take as many vegetarian meals as possible.
This leads to one of my colleagues saying that eating mock meat defeats the purpose of vegetarian, might as well not turn vegetarian. I'm quite sadden upon hearing such comments from him especially from one so well travelled and who's already in his fifties.
We can only make such comments when we are ignorant about some of the main reasons why people turn vegetarian. So, let me just explain some of the reasons and you might have a better insight to why it is better to take mock meat than real meat.
One of the foremost reasons why some people turn vegetarian is to promote non-violence towards other living beings and to cultivate a compassionate heart which is essential to those on the path of bodhisattva's teachings.
Of course, it will be better if one can even give up mock meat as it will mean that the person had truly eradiacted any form of desire for meat eating. If the person has yet to eradicate such cravings but wish to stop the suffering of other beings, saying such comments will only greatly undermine the person's effort to develop a loving heart for others that share this planet with us.
One of the other reason why people turn vegetarian is for good health. Studies have shown that people who are on a vegetarian diet are less likely to have cancer since vegetables and fruits tend to have anti-cancer agents. For more info, please refer to the
http://www.vegetarian-society.org/revamp/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index&myfaq=yes&id_cat=1
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