To think that you are killing an animal to eat, just the very idea, is unaesthetic !

I am not against it because the animal is killed ·· because that which is essential in the animal will live,it cannot be killed, and that which is non-essential,whether you kill it or not, is going to die. So,that is irrelevant, that is not a point for me to consider.

The question is not that you have killed the animal and killing is not good, no. The question is that 'you' have killed the animal ·· 'you '. Just to eat? While beautiful vegetarian food is available? !

If vegetarian food is not available, that's one thing. But the food is available. Then why? Then why destroy a body? And if you can kill an animal, then why not be a cannibal? What is wrong with killing a man? The meat derived from a human body will be more in tune with you. Why not start eating human beings? !

And the animals are brothers and sisters, because man has come from them. They are our family. To kill a man is only to kill an evolved animal. To kill an animal is just to kill somebody who is not yet evolved ·· but is on the way. It is the same!

Whether you kill the child when he is in the first grade or whether you kill the young man when he has come to his last grade in the university, it does not make much difference. The animals are moving towards human beings, and human beings had once been animals. It is only a question of aesthetics.

Why not kill your wife and eat her? She is so beautiful and so sweet ·· ! Why can't you eat your mother? Why can't you eat your husband or your child? .. so delicious!

The question is not religious. I would like to remind you again, it is a question of aesthetics. An aesthetic man will see that life remains beautiful, it does not become ugly and nightmarish.

There are stories about Saint Francis that birds would come and sit on his shoulders, that fishes would jump out of the river to see him! He had a kind of affinity with the animal kingdom. He would talk to trees and would say 'sister' and with birds 'brother' and with the sun and the moon!

Source: " The Diamond Sutra " by" OSHO "