wisdom and compassion

The two great forces and two great attractions of life are wisdom and compassion. Everyone wants these foundation stones in their life, if they want to develop a better world and gain some personal happiness in the process. Vegan principle embodies both. Being vegan is a major statement of compassion and as the years roll by the wisdom of being vegan sinks in deeper and deeper. So, it’s no wonder that long time vegans leap at the chance to introduce the idea to whoever will listen. Not to boast about it, not for egotistical reasons but out of a wish for others to gain what we have gained.
If there were one force that combined both wisdom and compassion it would be altruism. Not the idealised notion of it that gets a giggle whenever it’s mentioned but a quiet, personal, utterly satisfying feeling, that what is good for others is good for oneself. By shelving the pursuit of one’s own happiness while one pursues the much more interesting goal, of looking out for others, we may suffer all sorts of frustrations, but we make our lives a challenge. By deliberately avoiding the obvious, the self interest and the soft life, we make others’ lives better and make our own much more robust and adventurous.
One very practical start we can make is to adopt vegan principle, in the choice of our daily food and the choice of clothing and commodities – we choose those which are basic to our needs but which don’t steal from the needs of others. Once we can get that right we have a solid basis for self-respect. And from there confidence, and from there fulfilment and happiness. Maybe it seems a rather roundabout route to take but it’s about making our own life a bit edgy, so that we set a greater pace for learning than we would otherwise, in selfish pursuits. By learning on a more multidimensional scale, we’re more likely to understand the subtleties of altruism and come to realise that, by adopting a more altruistic outlook, we can benefit ourselves by our actions as much as others who initially benefit from them. The next section deals with altruism.