In the Interfaith Vegan Panel co-organised by PAN & AIA on 19 August 2024, Dr. Will Tuttle said,
“The way the universe is: it's one life living through all of us; there's no fundamentally separate self in Buddhism; we are all expressions of a life, so this body is not what we are we have, that's the delusion. So when we see others merely as a physical object like when we see a cow just as something to be used, that's a delusion, that's unskilful, and it causes suffering.”
To put it in Christian terms, in becoming flesh (John 1:14), God breaks the boundaries among all sentient species and even the boundary between the creator and creation (cf. Clough 2012:103).
In New Age terms, God, as the Supreme Consciousness of the Universe, lives through us. In order to experience Himself, the Creator has found it necessary to become incarnate in myriad forms of creation, as suggested by Neale Donald Walsch (1995). We are all expressions or manifestations or avatars of God.
In my opinion, God is incarnate in all of us. Jesus Christ is an iconic example of the incarnation of God. Animals are therefore our co-creatures, our sisters and brothers. When we abuse, exploit, torture, rape and murder animals, we are in fact harming our own self and blaspheming God. So, honour God and go vegan!
Article link: https://www.hkbnews.net/post/god-lives-through-all-creatures-go-vegan-by-dr-chapman-chen
References
Clough, David L. (2012). On Animals: Volume 1, Systematic Theology. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
PAN & AIA, Interfaith Vegan Panel, Peace Advocacy Network, Aug. 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJIgw9i1LMI
Walsch, Neale Donald (1997). Conversations with God, Book I. Charlottesville: Hampton Roads Pub Co Inc.
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