Vegetarianism from an Eastern perspective
A colleague was talking to me recently about his years living in Japan. He commented on the fact that the Japanese think everything coming out of the sea is food. That means seaweed, all kinds of fish and even mammals, such as whales. That got me to thinking how difficult life might be for a vegetarian living in Japan and is not eating meat really healthy from the Oriental perspective?
Although there are numerous religions originating in the East (eg Buddhism, Brahmanism, Hinduism, Jainism) who follow a strict vegetarian lifestyle, the prevailing view is that meat is necessary for the human body because of its energetic properties and that those who are non meat eaters don’t survive that well long term. In ancient China every part of an animal was believed to have some kind of health benefit. The principle was “like heals like”. Eating pork brain would help the human brain; calves’ liver would tonify human liver, and so on. This is especially true in diseases of deficiencies, rather than in conditions of excess. In general, the flesh of an animal has warming properties and it is this energy that can be found to be lacking in a vegetarian diet. While too much meat will make the body too acidic in nature, a complete lack of it can make the body too alkaline. From the Oriental perspective of moderation in everything, it therefore follows that the consumption of some meat would be necessary to provide all required nutrients. But how much is really needed? In the Tao of Nutrition by Maoshing Ni it is recommended that no more than 1/10th of the diet should come from meat products.
Overall the Oriental perspective is that today’s industrialized way of living makes it extremely difficult to thrive on a vegetarian diet, which requires strict discipline, responsibility and conscious effort to maintain daily harmony and balance of nutrients for mind and body. That is not to say that it is impossible or should not be aspired to. Whatever the reasons for being a vegetarian, and there are certainly many, any means of bringing about less destruction of our planet is to be encouraged.