We’ve all heard of sexism, racism and religious discrimination, but how many of you have ever heard of speciesism? What does it even mean? The spell checker in my blog writer doesn’t know the word, it suggests specialism, which is strangely ironic. Let me explain why I want you to know.
Speciesism is the act of assigning varying rights and considerations to creatures, including ourselves, based on the species to which they belong. It is an old idea, we are told that God put animals on the Earth for the use of man, and god, we have been using, or misusing them ever since.
You will know that apart from being Buddhist, I am also vegan. I refuse to eat any product that is part of, or has come from any other living being. So no meat or fish, no milk, cheese or eggs and nothing that contains any of these either.
A little like being Buddhist in a predominantly Christian country, being vegan is definitely considered to be swimming against the tide. We are all told, right from childhood, that food from animals, lamb, beef, pork, milk, cheese, the list is endless, is good for us. In fact, when I was at junior school, I was the class milk monitor.
Sadly, we weren’t told the whole story, as you may have read in previous posts. What we were never told as children, was how cows become beef, baby sheep become lamb, pigs become pork, or how the chickens who laid our breakfast eggs where kept in disgusting conditions, and still are.
We hear about Animal Rights groups, usually when they have committed some illegal act in their quest to release animals from scientific establishments or disrupting whale or fox hunting. But they are right.
Just because we have learned to use our large brains to develop societies around which we can farm animals, doesn’t make it right. Animals, as members of the family of Earth dwelling beings, have just as much right to be here, and exist in peace, as we do.
Other people can, and have put the case far more eruditely than I possibly can in this post, so please can you take the time to watch the video Earthlings. Be aware, it is not for the faint hearted. It will shock and quite likely disgust you, but if it makes you think about our fellow creatures and maybe change your lifestyle, even a little, as a result, it will be worth your suffering.
Having had a few days off, over the festive period, I’ve had the chance to watch the entire series of Whale Wars: Viking Shores about an operation to stop the slaughter of Pilot Whales in the Faroe Islands.
Shortly after he had finished his practice, an old man opened his eyes to see a scorpion floating helplessly in the river that was flowing slowly past his feet.
Last Saturday was the shortest day of the year here in the UK and strangely, some may say, it’s my favourite day of the year. Why, I can hear you asking, isn’t the longest day of the year more favoured, all those lovely hours of daylight, and often sunshine too? Well it’s because today marks the nadir of the year in terms of daylight. From now on we get an extra minute or so more light each day, and that’s something to look forward to.
Today has been fantastic, the sun shone, the sky was blue and although it wasn’t exactly tropical, the conditions for going over to Swanage for the Wiggle MTB event were pretty much perfect. The ground had dried up considerably from the mud-fest of last week, so I even managed to do my favourite circuit whilst staying a bit cleaner.
So even though it was tempting to accept the generous offers of test rides, I politely declined. I didn’t see the point in risking making myself dissatisfied with my own bike. I was very pleased with the free gifts that the lady from Wiggle gave me. A nice new water bottle and a pair of handlebar grips, that perfectly match the colour of my frame.
The morning was bright and crisp, the torrential rain of the last few days had been blown away, but even the wind had abated.
With the trials and tribulations of the current infrastructure changes, by lunchtime I was in need of some peace and quiet.
I was really looking forward to getting out on the bike today, the first time in a few days. 
Making good use of the fair weather today, I decided to ride the seaside route to work. Once I was onto the promenade at Sandbanks, heading east towards Christchurch, there was almost total silence, save for the rumble of my tyres on the tarmac and the waves lapping gently on the almost deserted beach.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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