Our compassion is measured by what we offer to those who are in our power

I have recently been facilitating a series of meditation classes on ethical intelligence, and I read this quote from Milan Kundera (from the book "The unbearable likeness of being") which I think is very powerful:
"True human goodness in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Humanities true moral test, its fundamental test, consists of its attitude to those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect humanity has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it."
Ethical intelligence entails, amongst other things, recognizing the relationship between inner and outer peace in ourself and the world, and the actions that we engage in. The more deeply you look into this, the more inevitable it becomes that you start bumping up against the horrible way we use animals and exploit them for our food. You can find some very uncomfortable but meaningful information abut this on my wife's "Food or Junk?" blog.

The more I sensitize my self to this area, the more I also include plants and trees in this equation as well, my experience of them is that of sentient beings with souls, who are beyond the crude "material commodity" lens that humans so habitually view them from. For example, I firmly believe that it is an abusive practice to cut flowers. Why? because they are the sex organs of the plants. Can you imagine if plants were the ones who were all powerful on this planet, and they developed a taste for giving human genitalia to each other in order to beautify their houses and to console each other when members of their family died? How would we feel about that as a race of ensouled, pain-feeling living beings?

Normally when we think about having to give up meat (or cut flowers for that matter), we flinch at the idea of giving up something that is pleasurable to us. However, if we truly have compassion for the other living creatures (animal, plant or otherwise) and give up abusive practises to them, there is a whole world of wonder and blessedness that starts to open up to us. For example about the same time as I made a point of not investing in cut flowers, I started having psychic contact with the spirits of plants and flowers (and the beings who overlight the growth of plants and flowers). I count these inner contacts and experiences as some of the most beautiful and wonderful experiences that I have had. I have also found the same to be true of animals. When I really started making a conscious compassionate connection to animals, I started to have psychic contacts with all sorts of different species of animals, offering wonderful companionship and perspectives to me.
(By psychic experience I mean an inner experience, for example sitting in meditation and being actively contacted by the spirit of a plant or an animal)
So, the thing I am pointing out here is that, every abusive and non-compassionate act that we cease and desist from always opens up vistas of wonderful and beautiful experiences that we could not have dreamed were possible before. A choice to act upon our ethical intelligence always results in a huge enrichment of our personal soul experience.

© Text Toby Ouvry 2010, please do not reproduce without permission.