Shouldn't love and compassion be extended to all sentient beings...

[Ajay0]

Yesterday, as I was arriving from the market after buying a pair of slippers, I stopped at a scenic place full of greenery and with young buffalo calves tied to trees. As I was enjoying the scene I found that there was a slaughterhouse in a nearby building and the animals were actually meant for slaughter.

Having seen a few youtube videos recently on the brutality of animal slaughter in slaughterhouses, I sympathized with the young calves and felt sorry for them. One of the calves was bleating a lot repeatedly indicating stress, and I went forward to it hoping to comfort it a bit.

Interestingly, the calf, seeing me coming near, itself came near to me indicating interest in sociability and companionship.

I stroked his head and face lovingly for some time, at which he visibly relaxed. He poked his face at me for some more strokes which I obliged. The continuous bleating stopped, and he started eating the grass around staying next to me, peacefully.

While stroking, I was surprised to see a clear dark line of tear streams from his eyes to the lower part of his face. I wondered whether this was actually tears of emotion, or tears associated with eye infection or hormonal biochemical changes or something.

(Checking the internet today I found that there had been an instance of a calf visibly crying after its mother was knocked down dead by a truck while crossing a road.There were similar articles in this regard.

https://sg.tv.yahoo.com/newsflare/buffalo-calf-cries-mother-gets-120000441.html  )

Later reflecting on this experience, I remembered a orphaned girl I met a decade back, and whose head I stroked affectionately. She had similarly and very tangibly relaxed after a single friendly stroke on the head.

Imo, based on these experiences, children, whether human or animal, are quite sensitive and insecure when without their family, and suffer from high stress levels.

I think, in terms of animal rights, young calves should be exempt from slaughter at least till they had matured or grown up.

Returning back home I was glad that I had turned to vegetarianism and was not contributing to animal slaughter in this regard.

[No Self]

Rather than 'shoulds', it would be more accurate to say that an advanced society extends respect and compassion to all beings. Ours at least extends compassion to human millionaires. There's a bit of a way to go to become advanced, though.

[Leo Gura]

Love and compassion are not even extended to most human children, let alone calves.

[Megan Alecia]

watch Robert greenes videos or find copies of his books, he actually calls peoples animals and got a whole lot of truth about regular people. 

gurdjieff's seven levels of being is good too, there's a quick video of that on youtube. 

basically in order to find love man has to really live and learn. which means renouncing comfort too sometimes... 

Edited January 23, 2021 by Megan Alecia

[Preety_India]

Yea animals definitely deserve a lot of compassion. 

The problem is humans lack compassion and they have come  so far because of predation. 

So we have all the Predatory traits. 

It's difficult to expect compassion out of a predator. 

 

[Scholar]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Love and compassion are not even extended to most human children, let alone calves.

This is why Veganism is so powerful, it is an inevitable expansion of sensitivity towards life. To say that human children have priority over non-human children is very much like saying white children have priority over black children.

This very confused sense of prioritization is what stems from a lack of open-heartedness and compassion. And on the other hand, an opening of the heart inevitably leads to a dissolution of that kind of confused sense of prioritization.

 

This means that our expansion of identity towards animals will inevitably leads to benefit all human children. And indeed, humans children are subject to far more compassion than animals. After all, if it was human children being slaughtered in factory farms, we would go to war for it.

 

Think about it this way:

Human beings prioritize their own children over the children of others, independently of who deserves more compassion. A starving child surely deserves compassion, but the humans says "I have my own child, and I will not help the starving child until my child has a perfect life!".

This attitude is what allows us to ignore suffering. It is the same in animals. Sure, human children need compassion, but who needs the most compassion right now? It is obvious that it is the animals, considering that we do not even view them as victims today. if you would be the father of all individuals, those individuals who are in factory farms would need to be your priority. This would be obvious, if the heart was open sufficiently.

 

But the heart closes, so that it can be blind to the suffering of others and focusing on a limited form of the self.

Edited January 23, 2021 by Scholar

[aurum]

@Ajay0

Yes it should. Notice how normalized killing animals or other forms of life. If someone found a bug in their apartment, most of them wouldn't hesitate for a half a second to squash it.

Then we wonder why we have mass species extinction going on.

Humans have become such the dominant species on this planet that there's not even a close second. But we've yet to surrender to the wisdom of harmony. We've yet to let the consequences of our actions really penetrate our hearts. The old stories that normalize all if this are still too strong for the moment.

[Willie]

Why should sentience be a requirement? Do plant lives matter?

[Leo Gura]

13 hours ago, Scholar said:

To say that human children have priority over non-human children is very much like saying white children have priority over black children.

Haha!

You are hopelessly utopian and clueless of how survival works.

[Preety_India]

@Keyhole do you sometimes feel like stuck or vomit sensation or bitter taste because of the iron. Like strange sensations 

 

[Scholar]

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Haha!

You are hopelessly utopian and clueless of how survival works.

What about what I said was hopelessly utopian, and in what ways am I clueless of how survival works?

 

What you quoted was precisely a description of how survival works, and why it is flawed. And why, as survival pressures subside through technological and moral advancements, this kind of flaw gets self-corrected by consciousness. This is how it has been since the dawn of mankind, this is the very reason why there is no slavery anymore.

 

I think you simply are uncharitable in the way you tend to interpret what people say and mean, which is why you will not offer any critique that could actually be helpful. This is the very close-heartedness that I am speaking of, you have not yet learned to embody stage green.

 

But this is fine, you are a product of your culture, and to that degree you have blindspots that most likely will not be resolved until your physical death.

Edited January 24, 2021 by Scholar