The words of Leo Tolstoy
The following text is excerpted from the essay "The First Step Up" (The First Step Up) by Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) First Step). This article was recently selected for inclusion in the book THE VIEW FROM THE VEGETARIAN SIDE (Sant Bani Press).
The first time I read Tolstoy was in my freshman year of college, when we had to read "War and Peace" in one week! It's not easy to read such a huge book in just one week. But I didn’t know that Tolstoy turned out to be a vegetarian and had spoken out for compassion for humans and animals. To this day, when I read prose like the following, I can't help but marvel at Tolstoy's intelligence and foresight.
There is no doubt that Tolstoy was a great novelist, playwright and essayist. He was also a very noble man, and his strength of personality had a lasting influence on great figures including Gandhi. figure. (Gandhi had constant correspondence with Tolstoy in his youth, and later named his venue in South Africa "Tolstoy Manor.")
Ted Alta Altar)
Excerpt from "The First Step Upward" (1892):
Not long ago I was chatting with a veteran. He is a butcher. He was very surprised when he heard me say that people should not kill, thinking that obeying orders and killing is just an ordinary thing. But then he agreed with my point of view: "Especially when they slaughter quiet, docile cows. Poor animals! They are brought in unsuspectingly, without knowing the murderous intentions of humans. It is really unbearable." ”
Sad! What is sad is not that animals are abused and slaughtered. What is sad is that a person completely and unnecessarily destroys the noblest spirituality in his heart - that is, sympathy and compassion for all living beings - because he suppresses his own emotions. And become ruthless. However, the commandment not to kill is so deeply rooted in people's hearts after all!
Once I was leaving Moscow, and on the way I was stopped by a few large trucks going to the forest near Serpkov to collect wood. It was the Thursday before Easter. I sat in the first car, and the driver was a thick, red-faced man. He had obviously had too much to drink. When we entered a village, we saw a fat, big white pig being dragged out of the yard to be killed. The pig neighed miserably, as if a human being was howling. They started taking action as we passed by. A man opened the pig's throat with a knife. The pig squealed even more miserably, the sound heartbreaking. It desperately struggled out from those people's hands, covered in blood, trying to escape.
I am short-sighted and cannot see all the details clearly. I only saw the pig's flesh-red body like a human and heard its dying screams. But the handlebar style sees everything clearly. They took the pig back, knocked it to the ground, and cut its throat. When the pig's neighing gradually became fainter and could no longer be heard, Handlebar sighed heavily. "Can we do such a thing with a clear conscience?"
Human beings have such a strong aversion to the act of killing. However, people follow suit and indulge in greed, using the excuse that God prohibits killing. Especially because of old habits, they easily lose their original intention.
I just want to say that a series of good deeds is the only way to the highest good; if people’s yearning for good comes from the sincere heart, they must follow certain steps and practice it in order to achieve it; and here In a series of steps, the first thing people should strive to practice is self-denial and self-discipline. Efforts to practice self-denial and self-discipline must follow a series of steps, the first of which should be moderation in eating habits. Moreover, if people are truly serious about doing good, the first thing they should abandon is killing for food, because, not to mention the manic mood that meat brings to people, this behavior itself is immoral and is a massacre that goes against human nature. But just to satisfy people's greed and appetite.
People who succumb to public opinions and are ignorant of rationality will ask: "But since it has long been known to everyone that killing and eating meat is unrighteous, why can't humans obey the commandment not to kill?" I will answer: Because the pace of human moral perfection (which is the basis of all other progress) is always slow. However, the real progress, which is not superficial, is manifested in never stagnating, becoming new day by day, and gradually getting rid of humbleness. For noble efforts.
The development of vegetarianism is such a slow but continuous progress. This is an inherent tendency in human life. It is an instinctive tendency to give up meat and become vegetarian. It is also a conscious effort to place oneself at the highest level of goodness. Everyone's efforts will eventually converge into a powerful trend, and this trend is vegetarianism. The vegetarian movement has grown rapidly over the past decade. Every year, more and more books and journals about vegetarianism are published; in life you will meet more and more people who no longer eat meat; and in foreign countries, such as Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, vegetarian hotels and restaurants are even more popular. It's increasing every year.
The vegetarian movement will bring unusual joy to those who strive to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.
This is not to say that vegetarianism itself is an important step towards reaching that state (on the road to perfection, every step forward is equally important, or equally insignificant), but that it proves that It shows that human beings' efforts to pursue their own moral perfection are sincere and serious. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and vegetarianism is the first step in this natural and difficult journey.
People will be happy about this, just as after groping blindly countless times and ending in failure again and again, everyone finally gathered under the only upward ladder and rushed to take the first step leading to this. The first step on the ladder, I firmly believe that this is the first step to lead them upward, and there is no other way.