Vegetarian love

A couple of days ago, a friend wrote to me, asking if going vegetarian could help bestow longevity to his father. He father had fallen ill and his friend had told him that if he could go vegetarian, he could generate good karma which could help prolong his father's life.

Actually, this is a pretty common belief among many Chinese Buddhists. I've know many who would go vegetarian for a period of time, either to pray for their loved one's health, or in thanks-giving after their loved one recovered from some major illness.

I told my friend honestly that I don't believe that going vegetarian could improve his father's health the way he thought.

Now, I do believe keeping a vegetarian diet does improve a person's health and probably leads to a longer life. There is a direct link between diet and a person's health, and a strong correlation n between meat consumption and incidences of modern "life-style diseases" like heart diseases, diabetes and cancer. (For more information about the correlation, I recommend the book The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell). However, I do not believe that it improves another person's health through miraculous transference of good karma.

I still encouraged my friend to try go vegetarian anyway, for good reasons. By doing that, he personally benefits from avoiding meat consumption, and he provides support to his father to change to a vegetarian diet, which could well improve his father's health.

I remember many years ago, my mother was not well too. I was away in USA and at that time, I was not yet fully vegetarian. That time, I went vegetarian for one month to pray for my mother's well-being. With my understanding of Buddhism, I was quite clear then, that it was not going to generate good karma that will miraculously make my mother well. I still did it anyway. I was away from home and felt pretty helpless for not being able to do much. So I observed one month of vegetarian diet. It was my way of keeping my mother in mind and dedicating my love for her.

So, if anyone would ask me if they should go vegetarian for a while to dedicate merits to their loved ones, I would encourage them to do so. For them, going vegetarian is an expression of their love.