The world of Tzu Chi March 2021 (Vol.132)

01 TZU CHI 132 By Dharma Master Cheng Yen Translated by Tzu Chi Translating Team aster’s Teaching In face of the pandemic, we must maintain heightened vigilance. Sincerely embrace a vegetarian diet to curb zoonotic diseases and pray for the safety of all. E very day, I pray for world peace. However, since early last year, I have been mentioning that “I am very worried.” At the end of last year, I said that I was overwhelmed with worries. The Covid-19 pandemic had spread across the globe, and it is still raging on. In response to the pandemic, many countries have imposed lockdowns. Nevertheless, Tzu Chi volunteers continue to carry out their relief work with a heart of compassion. They take proper preventive measures and brave themselves to reach out to those in hardship. Thanks to them, I could keep abreast of the situation in various locations while being at the Jing Si Abode. Whichever place I want to go, they make the trips on my behalf to extend care and aid. They overcome all difficulties, undaunted by hard work, with the sole intention to bring relief and comfort to those in need. This is the common goal of the Tzu Chi community globally. Much as we try to bring timely relief, there are places that are out of our reach. For example in India, the pandemic has further aggravated the plight of the poor. We extended aid through local priests and nuns—we provided food and other supplies while they assisted in the distribution. I am grateful that we are able to help through such collaborations. In face of the pandemic, we must maintain heightened vigilance and amass kindness by promoting vegetarianism. By so doing, we stop creating negative karma from the actions of slaughtering. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s statistics, in 2019, more than 80 billion animals were killed for food, which worked out to be an average of more than 200 million lives lost daily. Just like humans, animals fear pain and death. They would harbour grievances and hatred when being slaughtered. On the other hand, we might contract diseases through the meat we consume. We must minimize the transmission of zoonoses to protect our health. When the vegetarian population increases, livestock farming will naturally decrease. This will then reduce air, land and water pollutions, as well as relieve the burden on Embracing Vegetarianism for Better Health