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(solemn flute music)
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- How can we expect ourselves to have
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lives of joy and freedom
and spiritual clarity
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when we are sowing the seeds
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of the opposite of that?
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- It's almost like some mad scientist
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like Satan himself designed these systems
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that are being used now to raise animals.
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It is absolute insanity.
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- I don't get how you can
love everything Jesus says
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and then participate in
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a mechanized system of mass slaughter
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that involves pain beyond
your wildest imagination.
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- Even keeping quiet and silent
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about the violence, you
are part of that violence.
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- There's another passage
in the Quran that says that
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because of the wrongs of humanity,
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there has been much corruption
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seen in the oceans and on land.
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- So for a few moments in which we're
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enjoying what is really
just a palette preference
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we're taking what is most
essential to animals,
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their very lives and that's the opposite
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of compassion, it seems to me.
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- We are ashamed of our
ancestors who owned slaves.
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We are ashamed of our ancestors
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who believed in segregation
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so too, our grandchildren will be ashamed
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of what we allowed to happen on our watch.
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Each of us has to ask
ourselves a spiritual question,
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what side do I want to tell
my grandchildren I was on?
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Was I on the side of mercy and compassion,
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or was I on the blind side that helped
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to perpetuate suffering?
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♪ This little light of mine ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
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♪ This little light of mine ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
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♪ This little light of mine ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine. ♪
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- This one is for you.
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♪ Let it shine let it shine let it shine ♪
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- [Thomas] This is my daughter Melody.
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She's the reason I'm
making this documentary.
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It's for her and it's for all the children
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who will inherit whatever
world we choose to leave them.
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(OM-ing)
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- We've got a potato.
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- Thank you for this food
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and let it nourish our
bodies and our spirits.
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Let it keep us healthy and happy
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and full of life and love and compassion
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for all of creation.
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- And be vegan.
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- Be vegan and be a
champion for the people
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and be a champion for the planet
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and be a champion for the animals
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and be a champion for ourselves.
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- And for all of these things we say
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thank you and so it is.
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- And be champion for
the animals, so it is.
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- [Thomas] I haven't always been a vegan.
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I was born in a small
town in South Georgia
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during the late 60s
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and I was raised a southern Baptist
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and I grew up eating
the a southern version
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of the standard American diet.
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Comprised mainly of meat, dairy, and eggs,
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mixed in with huge helpings of fast
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and processed foods.
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And like so many other
kids eating the SAD diet,
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I suffered the sad consequences
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which ranged from mild asthma to
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severe allergies to
tons of ear infections,
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sties, viruses and zits
and too many more ailments
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that were considered normal to list.
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(ragtime music)
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Okay...um...I'm making this video
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for, you know, my family
back home and uh...
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Um...I'm making this...okay,
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I'm making this video...I'm
looking at the mic...okay.
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It wasn't until my mid 30s
living in New York City
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and attending a Unity Church
that I became a vegan.
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It was studying the teachings of Jesus
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about kindness and compassion
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and starting a daily meditation practice
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that really led me to a non violent diet
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even though no one at
Unity or anywhere else
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had ever even suggested I be vegetarian
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and I had never even
heard the word 'vegan'
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much less knew any. Though it wasn't long
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before I started noticing
that during Sunday brunch,
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the same ministers and chaplains
who were teaching me about
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kindness and compassion for
all were for some reason
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not including the innocent
animals on their plates.
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But who was I to judge
the choices of another?
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So I decided to live and let live
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and try to be a good example.
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(baby gurgling)
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And that worked for almost a decade
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until after my daughter
was born and suddenly
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I found myself with skin in the game
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and a reason to care about
what happens in the future.
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(baby cooing)
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Really, is that so?
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And then I saw the documentary Cowspiracy
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where I learned that not only
does animal agriculture create
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over half the greenhouse
gases on the planet
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but it's also the number one
user and polluter of water
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and the major cause of deforestation.
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Not to mention that the grains we use
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to feed billions of animals that we breed
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just for slaughter could
much more effectively
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be fed to humans and could help
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save the nearly nine million people
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who die from hunger each year.
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I felt I had to do something
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but I didn't know what,
so I did what I often
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do when I don't know what to do.
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I prayed and I meditated about it
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and during that meditation this question
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popped into my mind.
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How is it possible that a compassionate,
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spiritual or religious person
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could support an industry
that is responsible
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for the unnecessary suffering
of billions of people
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trillions of land and sea animals
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and the devastation of the
very planet we live on?
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That question would end
up taking me on a journey
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throughout the United
States and around the globe
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to explore the teachings of kindness
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and compassion that form
the basis of all the world's
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main religions and the
not so main ones as well
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and try to understand how
so many people of faith
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are doing unto others that which
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they would never wish
done unto themselves.
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(ragtime music)
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The journey started when I
traveled back to New York City
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to speak to Victoria Moran who I'd met
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once years earlier when she spoke
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at the Unity church I attended
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while living in that beautiful city
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that never sleeps.
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- I personally don't understand
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why some of the people
that I admire the most,
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people whose words and whose writings
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I completely revere, are
eating our fellow creatures.
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- [Thomas] Victoria Moran is
a much sought after speaker,
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best selling author,
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and host of the Main Street Vegan Podcast.
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She's been an animal
rights activist and vegan
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for over 30 years.
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- A great deal of
spirituality is about belief.
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That's why we call it faith.
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I'm a person of faith. I'm a Christian,
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a yogic Christian and yet I understand
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that there are people who have other
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spiritual beliefs and
other spiritual views.
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So what can bring all spiritual people
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together as a whole believing community?
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To me that is compassion.
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Because compassion is at the center
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of the message of Jesus,
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it's compassion that got the Jews
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out of bondage and to the promised land.
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We have all the eastern religions that are
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Ahimsa based, non violence based.
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So can we all agree that however
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we see God, however we see the road
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to salvation, being
compassionate to one another
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and expanding that compassion
out to all that has life
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is the true essence of spirituality?
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What else could it possibly be?
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- I think all of the world's religions,
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if you distill them, the
wisdom down to one sentence
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it'd be something like this:
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whatever you most want for yourself,
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give that to others. That's
a basic understanding
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to give to others what you would like.
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Another way of saying it is
whatever you sow, you will reap.
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It's also the same thing,
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whatever we put out, it'll come back.
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- [Thomas] Victoria put me in
contact with Dr. Will Tuttle
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who's a musician, an international speaker
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and the best selling author
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of the World Peace Diet.
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I sat down with Dr. Tuttle in Ocala
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where he and his spouse Madeline
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were currently living in the solar powered
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RV that they use while
traveling around the country,
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speaking about animal
rights and performing music.
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- From the time we were born,
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we were forced to participate
in mealtime rituals
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by our parents and teachers and
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everyone in our community
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that essentially numb us and disconnect us
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so that when we get older,
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we take out our wallets and we vote for it
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and we don't just vote
for it, we then eat it.
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So we actually bring it into our body,
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we give it to our children.
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This is not only toxic
from the point of view
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of the level of physical heath but
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it's toxic from the point of
view of our spiritual health,
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from the point of view
of our cultural health,
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from the point of view
of our ethical health.
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We don't actually hold
the knife ourselves,
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we don't actually hold
the electroshock prod
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ourselves, we don't actually hold the
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raping sperm gun ourselves and fire it,
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but we pay someone else to do that
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and so we pay other people to do things
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that bring out the worst in them
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and yet all we see is something
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wrapped in plastic and styrofoam,
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very often served with a smile
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and so there's this deep disconnection
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in our society and I think it's that
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deep disconnection that is the greatest
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obstacle to authentic spiritual awakening.
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The authentic inner spiritual teaching
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of all the great religious
wisdom traditions
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are pointing in the same direction.
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Kindness and compassion
for all living beings
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is the path of awakening for all of us.
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(light rock music)
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- [Thomas] My next stop
was Encinitas, California,
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where I would sit down and visit
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with Bob Isaacson,
Buddhist, dharma teacher
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and co-founder and president
of Dharma Voices for Animals.
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- The teachings of the
Buddha regarding compassion
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and non harming towards animals,
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is not being followed by many
many Buddhist practitioners,
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teachers, and Buddhist centers.
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The Buddha said to his followers
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if there is no eater of meat,
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there will be no destroyer of life.
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Whatever the karmic
effect is to the person
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eating the animal, the
person who has to slaughter
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the animal, the person who has
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to raise that animal for slaughter
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is incurring extremely unwholesome karma.
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Oftentimes people who cannot
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find other jobs, people who are exploited
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terribly in slaughterhouses
and factory farming
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why should these people
incur negative karma,
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killing animals and raising
animals for slaughter
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when all we have to do is
eat a plant based diet?
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- Compassion is such an important
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key part of all traditions, but really
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looking at what that meant and how
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it extends to all living
beings is a really
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important piece. {laughs} So I have to say
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these two lovely guys they
don't get along very well.
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- They need a little more compassion.
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- Yes, yes.
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- [Thomas] I'd left Bob
and I traveled north
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to the hills of Topanga
where I met Lisa Levinson,
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the sustainable activism campaign director
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for In Defense of Animals
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and the founder of Vegan Spirituality.
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- I can recall being in a spiritual circle
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and raising the energy and doing
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some wonderful rituals
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and then directly after that we went
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to have lunch and the lunch was a barbecue
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and I just felt that energy drop
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all the way down to the ground and below
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because it was just stunning
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to me that no one there thought
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wow these animals that they're eating
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have anything to do with spirituality.
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I had had similar experiences
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in other spiritual groups
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and my friend Sandy
had the same experience
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and we were both so surprised
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that people who consider
themselves spiritual
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and loving animals would eat animals.
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- [Thomas] From Lisa's
I headed down to L.A.
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to attend my first ever
Animal Rights conference.
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It was much bigger than I expected
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and suddenly I felt a little
less lonely as a vegan.
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- So the Good Food Institute is focused
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on making alternatives to animal products
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as delicious, as convenient,
and as inexpensive as possible.
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(applause)
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00:13:49,912 --> 00:13:52,206
So if we had been having this conversation
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150 years ago, people of faith
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would be saying slavery is in the Bible,
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women are not chosen by Jesus
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00:14:02,508 --> 00:14:05,719
to be his disciples and we need to apply
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00:14:05,719 --> 00:14:07,972
that sort of central organizing principle
295
00:14:07,972 --> 00:14:10,850
to politics. There certainly are many
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times in the Bible,
slaves obey your masters,
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00:14:13,310 --> 00:14:16,730
wives obey your husbands, so these concepts
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up until 150 years ago
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were used to justify things that
300
00:14:22,695 --> 00:14:24,613
pretty much no Christians are going
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00:14:24,613 --> 00:14:27,992
to continue to attempt to
reconcile with their faith.
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00:14:27,992 --> 00:14:29,827
- What is the core of Christianity?
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00:14:29,827 --> 00:14:31,203
It's love.
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Is what we are doing to
other creatures love?
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00:14:34,206 --> 00:14:35,833
And for what purpose?
306
00:14:35,833 --> 00:14:38,377
Humans have no need to
exploit other animals.
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Certainly don't need to eat them.
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There's simply no way to be part
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of any world religion and not
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00:14:44,925 --> 00:14:47,720
care about the suffering and the premature
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deaths of other animals.
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00:14:49,096 --> 00:14:51,056
As a moral philosopher I can say that
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00:14:51,056 --> 00:14:52,933
ethics teaches that any time there
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00:14:52,933 --> 00:14:55,352
is suffering, it is morally considerable
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00:14:55,352 --> 00:14:57,062
and religions agree with that.
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00:14:57,062 --> 00:14:59,773
So there's simply no
way to be indifferent.
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- I have asked hundreds of
people this simple question.
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The question I ask is
319
00:15:06,864 --> 00:15:08,866
would you ever deliberately hurt
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00:15:08,866 --> 00:15:11,327
an innocent animal unnecessarily?
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00:15:12,202 --> 00:15:15,915
And so far 100% of the people I've asked
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have said, absolutely not!
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00:15:18,292 --> 00:15:19,335
We would never do that,
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00:15:19,335 --> 00:15:22,546
so which means that compassion
is at the core of our being.
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00:15:22,546 --> 00:15:24,131
You know that's who we really are.
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00:15:24,131 --> 00:15:26,550
This is the reason why collectively,
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00:15:26,550 --> 00:15:28,552
compassion is going to win.
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00:15:29,303 --> 00:15:31,096
- [Thomas] Sailesh Rao is the founder
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00:15:31,096 --> 00:15:34,016
and executive director of Climate Healers,
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00:15:34,308 --> 00:15:36,560
a nonprofit organization whose goal
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00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:38,437
is to reforest over one sixth
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00:15:38,437 --> 00:15:41,023
of the ice free land area of the earth.
333
00:15:41,023 --> 00:15:43,150
He is the author of Carbon Dharma and
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00:15:43,150 --> 00:15:47,279
Carbon Yoga and a co producer
for the documentaries
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00:15:47,279 --> 00:15:49,823
Cowspiracy, What the Health,
336
00:15:49,823 --> 00:15:52,034
and the Human Experiment as well
337
00:15:52,034 --> 00:15:53,786
as the one you're watching now.
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00:15:54,286 --> 00:15:57,831
- In the Laudato Si
that came out last year
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00:15:57,831 --> 00:16:00,793
Pope Francis said, it is contrary
340
00:16:00,793 --> 00:16:03,837
to human dignity to cause animals
341
00:16:03,837 --> 00:16:07,716
to suffer or die needlessly and then
342
00:16:07,716 --> 00:16:11,553
he visited the U.S. and in New York City
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00:16:11,553 --> 00:16:15,849
he had a veal and lobster dinner.
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00:16:17,017 --> 00:16:18,435
So that's when I realized how much
345
00:16:18,435 --> 00:16:20,354
suffering that these religious leaders
346
00:16:20,354 --> 00:16:22,064
are going through,
347
00:16:22,064 --> 00:16:25,109
because when what we say and what we do
348
00:16:25,109 --> 00:16:28,737
are not in alignment, we suffer.
349
00:16:28,737 --> 00:16:30,322
We suffer tremendously.
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00:16:30,322 --> 00:16:32,658
- Well concern for animals
has long been a part
351
00:16:32,658 --> 00:16:35,911
of Unitarianism and Universalism,
352
00:16:35,911 --> 00:16:39,331
Jeremy Bentham was a
Unitarian legal scholar
353
00:16:39,331 --> 00:16:42,418
who in the 1860s said that
354
00:16:42,418 --> 00:16:44,336
the morally relevant question about
355
00:16:44,336 --> 00:16:46,463
animals was not whether they could
356
00:16:46,463 --> 00:16:48,632
reason or whether they could talk
357
00:16:48,632 --> 00:16:50,759
but whether they could suffer?
358
00:16:50,759 --> 00:16:53,220
And it's so clear now with
359
00:16:53,220 --> 00:16:54,847
today's science as it was clear
360
00:16:54,847 --> 00:16:57,474
then to anyone with common sense
361
00:16:57,474 --> 00:16:59,768
that animals do suffer greatly,
362
00:16:59,768 --> 00:17:02,521
especially those in our food system
363
00:17:02,521 --> 00:17:04,940
as it's been practiced
in the last 50 years.
364
00:17:04,982 --> 00:17:07,151
- I was raised vegetarian and went vegan
365
00:17:07,151 --> 00:17:09,069
after I learned about what happens to
366
00:17:09,069 --> 00:17:11,572
dairy cows and egg laying hens
367
00:17:11,572 --> 00:17:13,574
in factory farming and farming at large
368
00:17:13,574 --> 00:17:16,035
so I'm really grateful
that I made that decision
369
00:17:16,035 --> 00:17:18,495
now it's also consistent
with my Zoroastrian
370
00:17:18,495 --> 00:17:21,081
teachings in that Zoroastrianism teaches
371
00:17:21,081 --> 00:17:23,125
good thoughts, good words, and good deeds,
372
00:17:23,125 --> 00:17:26,378
telling the truth, taking
care of the environment,
373
00:17:26,378 --> 00:17:28,881
showing kindness to animals,
who are at our mercy
374
00:17:28,881 --> 00:17:31,133
and of course taking care
of our body temples as well.
375
00:17:31,133 --> 00:17:35,095
- The concern, a concern
is with a capital C,
376
00:17:35,095 --> 00:17:37,806
this is an issue that
the spirit has laid upon
377
00:17:37,806 --> 00:17:39,308
the heart of a particular friend
378
00:17:39,308 --> 00:17:42,478
or party of friends. That it...
379
00:17:43,687 --> 00:17:46,023
They feel they're called
to speak up about it,
380
00:17:46,023 --> 00:17:47,691
to do something.
381
00:17:47,691 --> 00:17:50,444
To speak truth to power and
382
00:17:50,444 --> 00:17:53,322
this is one of the reasons
why friends have offered
383
00:17:53,322 --> 00:17:57,951
leadership in regard to human slavery,
384
00:17:57,951 --> 00:18:01,246
equality of women, prison reform
385
00:18:01,246 --> 00:18:04,792
and things of this sort, so we who
386
00:18:04,792 --> 00:18:06,585
are Quakers who are concerned about
387
00:18:06,585 --> 00:18:08,462
the animals, consider this as a concern
388
00:18:08,462 --> 00:18:10,172
that God has laid upon us.
389
00:18:11,090 --> 00:18:13,884
And if people feel uncomfortable with it
390
00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:18,514
to just relax and try to consider perhaps
391
00:18:18,514 --> 00:18:21,225
this is a legitimate concern,
392
00:18:21,225 --> 00:18:23,102
perhaps the spirit may be speaking
393
00:18:23,102 --> 00:18:25,229
to you through our words.
394
00:18:25,229 --> 00:18:28,732
Just be open to it if you can.
395
00:18:28,732 --> 00:18:33,403
- I have looked at a lot
of different religions
396
00:18:33,403 --> 00:18:36,573
over the years and my
book, Peace to All Beings
397
00:18:36,573 --> 00:18:38,575
goes into that quite a bit
398
00:18:38,575 --> 00:18:42,412
about looking for the core truth
399
00:18:42,412 --> 00:18:45,082
in each religion and it turns out
400
00:18:45,082 --> 00:18:47,751
as everybody pretty much knows that
401
00:18:47,751 --> 00:18:51,255
love is the core truth of every religion
402
00:18:51,255 --> 00:18:53,882
and then people come along
403
00:18:53,882 --> 00:18:56,593
and try to organize it
404
00:18:56,593 --> 00:19:01,557
and try to put rules on
it and twist it around
405
00:19:01,557 --> 00:19:04,726
so it fits a certain mindset
406
00:19:04,726 --> 00:19:08,188
and in many cases the patriarchal
407
00:19:08,188 --> 00:19:10,649
mindset of domination which started
408
00:19:10,649 --> 00:19:15,487
with animal agriculture
has affected, infected
409
00:19:15,487 --> 00:19:17,281
a lot of religions.
410
00:19:27,833 --> 00:19:29,793
(laughter)
411
00:19:30,669 --> 00:19:31,962
Sign me up.
412
00:19:32,462 --> 00:19:34,464
- [Thomas] It was during the AR conference
413
00:19:34,464 --> 00:19:35,757
that we had our first meeting
414
00:19:35,757 --> 00:19:38,302
of the Interfaith Vegan Coalition.
415
00:19:38,302 --> 00:19:41,555
Judy Carman, Lisa Levinson, and myself
416
00:19:41,555 --> 00:19:43,599
had started the coalition to provide
417
00:19:43,599 --> 00:19:45,976
faith specific resources and tools
418
00:19:45,976 --> 00:19:48,020
for spiritual and religious individuals
419
00:19:48,020 --> 00:19:50,063
and institutions to help them
420
00:19:50,063 --> 00:19:52,024
widen their circle of compassion
421
00:19:52,024 --> 00:19:54,109
to include all of creation.
422
00:19:54,651 --> 00:19:56,820
(Native American flute music)
423
00:19:56,904 --> 00:19:58,572
- You know I think a lot of people
424
00:19:58,572 --> 00:20:00,657
are under the impression that
425
00:20:00,657 --> 00:20:02,367
all Native American people
426
00:20:02,367 --> 00:20:04,453
ate all meat all the time
427
00:20:04,453 --> 00:20:07,539
and the fact is they
actually ate very little meat
428
00:20:07,539 --> 00:20:09,750
depending on the region that they were in.
429
00:20:09,750 --> 00:20:11,293
- [Thomas] After the conference I drove
430
00:20:11,293 --> 00:20:13,503
up the coast to Petaluma, a small city
431
00:20:13,503 --> 00:20:15,297
north of San Francisco.
432
00:20:15,297 --> 00:20:17,633
There I spoke to Linda G. Fisher,
433
00:20:17,633 --> 00:20:20,219
an artist, inter-species communicator
434
00:20:20,219 --> 00:20:22,012
and Native American tribal member
435
00:20:22,012 --> 00:20:23,597
of the Ojibwe nation.
436
00:20:23,597 --> 00:20:26,058
- I had someone say to me
437
00:20:26,058 --> 00:20:27,851
oh gee you know you're vegan, you've
438
00:20:27,851 --> 00:20:30,062
been vegan for so many years,
439
00:20:30,062 --> 00:20:32,981
it must be quite a sacrifice.
440
00:20:34,316 --> 00:20:38,320
And I kind of smiled and said,
441
00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:40,364
it's no sacrifice at all
442
00:20:40,530 --> 00:20:42,741
once you know that animals
443
00:20:42,741 --> 00:20:47,371
feel, think, and love, and hurt
444
00:20:47,371 --> 00:20:50,415
and cry and embrace their babies,
445
00:20:50,415 --> 00:20:53,293
you know that it's not a sacrifice at all.
446
00:20:53,293 --> 00:20:54,962
And so I explained that to her.
447
00:20:54,962 --> 00:20:57,172
I said what would be a sacrifice was
448
00:20:57,172 --> 00:20:58,632
if someone forced me to eat meat
449
00:20:58,632 --> 00:21:02,511
to save somebody else - that
would be quite a sacrifice.
450
00:21:02,511 --> 00:21:05,013
I think if some of our great chiefs
451
00:21:05,013 --> 00:21:09,101
were alive today they would be horrified
452
00:21:09,101 --> 00:21:12,020
and they would be incredibly heartbroken
453
00:21:12,020 --> 00:21:15,482
because they themselves would never do
454
00:21:15,482 --> 00:21:17,526
what we're doing today.
455
00:21:17,526 --> 00:21:19,861
If they didn't have to hunt,
456
00:21:19,987 --> 00:21:22,572
if they didn't have to
kill, I don't believe
457
00:21:22,572 --> 00:21:24,491
there's any way they
would've ever done that.
458
00:21:24,741 --> 00:21:27,244
(flute music)
459
00:21:29,246 --> 00:21:31,081
- [Thomas] I wasn't back from California
460
00:21:31,081 --> 00:21:33,000
very long before Melody and I
461
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,711
loaded up our trusty hybrid, Sophia
462
00:21:35,711 --> 00:21:38,338
and left on a road trip down into Florida.
463
00:21:39,548 --> 00:21:43,719
Our first stop was Ocala,
where Melody's grandpa Mike
464
00:21:43,719 --> 00:21:46,263
joined us for a potluck at Kindred Spirits
465
00:21:46,263 --> 00:21:48,515
Farm Animal Sanctuary.
466
00:21:48,515 --> 00:21:50,142
- Mike actually was bought as a gag gift
467
00:21:50,142 --> 00:21:51,393
for somebody's wedding
468
00:21:51,393 --> 00:21:52,644
and then after the wedding they just
469
00:21:52,644 --> 00:21:54,521
tied him up outside the church and left.
470
00:21:54,604 --> 00:21:56,481
- [Thomas] The next day, our friend Logan
471
00:21:56,481 --> 00:21:58,650
the director of Kindred Spirits gave
472
00:21:58,650 --> 00:22:00,861
us a private tour of the sanctuary
473
00:22:00,861 --> 00:22:03,322
and introduced us to several
of her furry friends.
474
00:22:03,322 --> 00:22:04,948
- Do you want to say hi to her?
475
00:22:04,948 --> 00:22:06,450
You can, she's very nice.
476
00:22:06,450 --> 00:22:09,494
She has a big nose and it's soft.
477
00:22:09,494 --> 00:22:12,497
You can pet her if you
want, she's very nice.
478
00:22:12,497 --> 00:22:13,707
- There you go.
479
00:22:13,707 --> 00:22:15,959
Her nose is almost as big as your hand.
480
00:22:18,879 --> 00:22:20,964
That's how she says hi, when she opens
481
00:22:20,964 --> 00:22:23,425
her mouth and she says (pants)
482
00:22:23,425 --> 00:22:26,386
that's how a pig says hi,
it's nice to meet you.
483
00:22:26,386 --> 00:22:30,140
So Felicia and Gomer
are from a factory farm
484
00:22:30,140 --> 00:22:34,353
in Iowa that flooded back in 2008 and so
485
00:22:34,353 --> 00:22:37,064
the farmers, they evacuated but they
486
00:22:37,064 --> 00:22:39,941
left all their pigs locked up in buildings
487
00:22:39,941 --> 00:22:41,902
so a couple of the pigs were able to
488
00:22:41,902 --> 00:22:45,489
escape and swim to freedom
and Felicia and Gomer
489
00:22:45,489 --> 00:22:47,949
and their friend Calypso
who's since passed
490
00:22:47,949 --> 00:22:51,328
were part of a group that
was rescued by Farm Sanctuary
491
00:22:51,328 --> 00:22:52,537
and then they were placed here
492
00:22:52,537 --> 00:22:54,247
with us a couple years ago.
493
00:22:54,247 --> 00:22:56,583
They both kind of retired to Florida.
494
00:22:56,583 --> 00:22:59,044
They both have pretty severe arthritis
495
00:22:59,044 --> 00:23:01,171
which is pretty common
in factory farm pigs
496
00:23:01,171 --> 00:23:03,757
because we bred them to only live about
497
00:23:03,757 --> 00:23:06,259
six months before they're used for food
498
00:23:06,259 --> 00:23:08,470
so they're really not
bred to live a long time
499
00:23:08,470 --> 00:23:10,430
and they're bred to get as big as they can
500
00:23:10,430 --> 00:23:12,808
as quick as they can which means that
501
00:23:12,808 --> 00:23:15,727
it puts a lot of pressure
on their leg joints.
502
00:23:15,727 --> 00:23:18,730
So these two are both about nine now,
503
00:23:18,730 --> 00:23:21,358
so arthritis is fairly common at that age.
504
00:23:21,358 --> 00:23:22,359
Their friendships are just
505
00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:23,568
really deep with each other,
506
00:23:23,568 --> 00:23:25,529
like these guys came out of the factory
507
00:23:25,529 --> 00:23:27,989
together and they've
been together ever since.
508
00:23:27,989 --> 00:23:30,409
It's just I think really important
509
00:23:30,409 --> 00:23:32,953
to them to have that kind of
connection with each other.
510
00:23:32,953 --> 00:23:34,788
Especially the guys from factories
511
00:23:34,788 --> 00:23:37,290
'cause they kind of start life without
512
00:23:37,290 --> 00:23:39,543
it like they can't touch
their moms which is really
513
00:23:39,543 --> 00:23:41,711
important and the only real physical
514
00:23:41,711 --> 00:23:43,338
contact they have with anybody
515
00:23:43,338 --> 00:23:44,923
is a negative. So I think
516
00:23:44,923 --> 00:23:46,758
when they come in a sanctuary it's really
517
00:23:46,758 --> 00:23:48,635
nice for them just to be able to have
518
00:23:48,635 --> 00:23:51,346
time with each other and
quality relationships
519
00:23:51,346 --> 00:23:52,222
with each other.
520
00:23:52,222 --> 00:23:54,141
And they grow to like
us too, like these two
521
00:23:54,141 --> 00:23:56,852
really like everybody, they
love to meet new friends
522
00:23:56,852 --> 00:23:58,937
all the time 'cause
now they know it's safe
523
00:23:58,937 --> 00:24:00,480
and nobody's gonna hurt them.
524
00:24:01,481 --> 00:24:04,359
- [Thomas] From Ocala we
traveled down to Tampa
525
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:06,862
where we visited with
our friends and I had a
526
00:24:06,862 --> 00:24:10,115
chance to meet and speak with Bawa Jain,
527
00:24:10,115 --> 00:24:14,286
Secretary General of the World
Council of Religious Leaders.
528
00:24:14,286 --> 00:24:16,705
A body that brings together
the world's preeminent
529
00:24:16,705 --> 00:24:19,499
religious leaders and
see if these people can
530
00:24:19,499 --> 00:24:23,378
work together on the
issues that impact us most.
531
00:24:23,420 --> 00:24:26,006
Whether that be the
environmental challenges,
532
00:24:26,006 --> 00:24:28,258
the issues of poverty, health,
533
00:24:28,258 --> 00:24:30,886
conflict, they’re just harnessing
534
00:24:30,886 --> 00:24:33,597
the power of religion of the global good
535
00:24:33,638 --> 00:24:35,307
of all, not just some.
536
00:24:35,307 --> 00:24:38,477
I come from a tradition, a way of life
537
00:24:38,477 --> 00:24:41,229
called the Jains, it's one of the oldest
538
00:24:41,229 --> 00:24:42,522
way of life in the world.
539
00:24:42,522 --> 00:24:45,150
Live and let live that's
what we try and follow.
540
00:24:45,150 --> 00:24:48,195
Why are Jains vegetarian?
Let's just understand that.
541
00:24:48,195 --> 00:24:49,946
When you talk about non violence,
542
00:24:49,946 --> 00:24:52,115
in thought action and deed,
543
00:24:52,115 --> 00:24:56,745
how can you be a practitioner
of Ahimsa non violence
544
00:24:56,745 --> 00:24:59,331
if you're going to
consume any living beings?
545
00:24:59,331 --> 00:25:02,501
My guru came from the tradition where
546
00:25:02,501 --> 00:25:04,085
the Jain monks wear face masks.
547
00:25:04,085 --> 00:25:06,463
They also carry a little
broom made out of cloth
548
00:25:06,463 --> 00:25:08,340
that before they sit anywhere they can
549
00:25:08,340 --> 00:25:10,050
brush off any form of life so they
550
00:25:10,050 --> 00:25:13,011
do not commit any form of
violence and kill them.
551
00:25:13,011 --> 00:25:15,597
Similarly the mask on the face is also
552
00:25:16,223 --> 00:25:18,725
that even the micro
organisms in the atmosphere
553
00:25:18,725 --> 00:25:20,352
should not be killed.
554
00:25:20,352 --> 00:25:22,187
Now it is proven beyond doubt
555
00:25:22,187 --> 00:25:25,398
that if you want to get rid
of the greenhouse gases,
556
00:25:26,149 --> 00:25:28,109
get rid of the slaughterhouses.
557
00:25:28,318 --> 00:25:30,028
It's a ticking bomb.
558
00:25:30,862 --> 00:25:33,240
It's a ticking bomb! Do we want
559
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,368
that for our children and
our children's children?
560
00:25:36,368 --> 00:25:39,955
How will they judge us at that time?
561
00:25:39,955 --> 00:25:43,083
What karma are we sowing that knowingly
562
00:25:43,250 --> 00:25:45,126
we are not taking any action?
563
00:25:45,126 --> 00:25:47,754
When we know something and we don't
564
00:25:47,754 --> 00:25:51,633
do anything, that also is creating karma
565
00:25:51,633 --> 00:25:52,884
which is negative for us.
566
00:25:54,636 --> 00:25:56,763
- Hey Melody you know where we're going?
567
00:25:56,763 --> 00:25:58,181
- To the Cookie Contest.
568
00:25:58,181 --> 00:26:01,226
- That's right, to the vegan cookie contest.
569
00:26:01,309 --> 00:26:02,811
There's gonna be like what,
570
00:26:02,811 --> 00:26:07,816
1,200 cookies to be eaten tonight
571
00:26:08,108 --> 00:26:10,902
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
572
00:26:12,153 --> 00:26:14,614
Susan Hargreaves, of Animal Hero Kids
573
00:26:14,614 --> 00:26:17,492
invited several local
Fort Lauderdale bakeries
574
00:26:17,492 --> 00:26:19,953
to offer up their best vegan cookies
575
00:26:19,953 --> 00:26:22,872
and then everyone there got
to eat one of each cookie
576
00:26:22,872 --> 00:26:24,291
and vote for their favorite.
577
00:26:24,291 --> 00:26:26,459
Melody and I thought
all the ones we tasted
578
00:26:26,459 --> 00:26:28,169
were yummy but didn't have enough room
579
00:26:28,169 --> 00:26:30,714
in our bellies to try them all.
580
00:26:30,714 --> 00:26:33,341
- In the early 80s, 1980,
581
00:26:33,341 --> 00:26:36,678
I learned how most animals are treated
582
00:26:37,554 --> 00:26:41,725
by visiting stock yards
and slaughter houses
583
00:26:41,725 --> 00:26:45,770
and for 34 years now, I have been
584
00:26:45,770 --> 00:26:48,356
teaching kids about being
kind to all animals.
585
00:26:48,356 --> 00:26:52,277
AnimalHeroKids.org is my baby
586
00:26:52,277 --> 00:26:56,197
because I know from visiting the schools
587
00:26:56,197 --> 00:26:58,658
that the children are
naturally compassionate.
588
00:26:58,658 --> 00:27:01,453
They want to help animals. They want
589
00:27:01,453 --> 00:27:03,663
to make sure no one gets harmed.
590
00:27:03,663 --> 00:27:05,248
They're genuine and sincere
591
00:27:05,248 --> 00:27:08,710
and their clear voices hearten me.
592
00:27:08,710 --> 00:27:10,712
- Can you tell me any reason why
593
00:27:10,712 --> 00:27:12,172
you don't want a pet monkey?
594
00:27:12,172 --> 00:27:15,300
Yes I can tell you lots of
reasons, they smear their poop,
595
00:27:15,300 --> 00:27:17,510
they urine wash, they
masturbate in public,
596
00:27:17,510 --> 00:27:19,095
they will bite your children
597
00:27:19,095 --> 00:27:23,516
and they have big teeth.
598
00:27:23,516 --> 00:27:24,976
I had said that to one woman
599
00:27:24,976 --> 00:27:27,771
she said, "Oh, that
sounds like my husband!”
600
00:27:27,937 --> 00:27:29,731
- [Thomas] Our next
adventure would take us
601
00:27:29,731 --> 00:27:33,610
to Jungle Friends Primate
Sanctuary in Gainesville, Florida
602
00:27:33,610 --> 00:27:35,445
where Kari and her dedicated team
603
00:27:35,445 --> 00:27:36,988
of compassionate caregivers
604
00:27:36,988 --> 00:27:39,074
provide a healthy, happy life to
605
00:27:39,074 --> 00:27:41,660
over 300 primates who are ex pets,
606
00:27:41,660 --> 00:27:43,578
or retired from lab experiments
607
00:27:43,578 --> 00:27:45,955
and others who have suffered exploitation,
608
00:27:45,955 --> 00:27:46,956
abuse, and neglect.
609
00:27:47,290 --> 00:27:49,250
- I talked to a researcher actually
610
00:27:49,250 --> 00:27:53,129
where I said whatever
happened with your project?
611
00:27:53,129 --> 00:27:55,173
Did you figure out, and I won't
612
00:27:55,173 --> 00:27:56,591
go into exactly what they were trying
613
00:27:56,591 --> 00:27:59,344
to figure out? And he said, they're never
614
00:27:59,344 --> 00:28:00,887
going to figure it out because
615
00:28:00,887 --> 00:28:02,931
even if they did and they could,
616
00:28:02,931 --> 00:28:05,517
they won't have their jobs
and their grant money will end.
617
00:28:05,517 --> 00:28:07,852
So it's just going to always be something
618
00:28:07,852 --> 00:28:10,397
that they're going to
be trying to figure out.
619
00:28:10,522 --> 00:28:12,524
They're meant to be in the wild
620
00:28:12,524 --> 00:28:15,276
I mean there's no way
you can make it right
621
00:28:15,276 --> 00:28:17,278
with them living like this.
622
00:28:17,278 --> 00:28:19,280
I mean this is wrong I
wish none of these guys
623
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:20,907
had to live like this.
624
00:28:20,907 --> 00:28:22,784
- In cages, you want all of
them to be free of course.
625
00:28:22,784 --> 00:28:24,619
- I want them to be
free, I don't want them
626
00:28:24,619 --> 00:28:25,995
in your living room, I
don't want them at the lab,
627
00:28:25,995 --> 00:28:27,497
I don't want them at the zoo and I don't
628
00:28:27,497 --> 00:28:29,749
even want them here but there's no where for them to go
629
00:28:30,709 --> 00:28:32,001
- [Thomas] It was at Jungle Friends
630
00:28:32,001 --> 00:28:34,462
that I reconnected with Maya Barak
631
00:28:34,462 --> 00:28:37,507
a holistic veterinarian
from Tel Aviv, Israel
632
00:28:37,507 --> 00:28:40,176
who I had met at the Animal
Rights Conference in L.A.
633
00:28:41,094 --> 00:28:43,388
Maya joined Melody and me
634
00:28:43,388 --> 00:28:45,473
for a two week road
trip that would take us
635
00:28:45,473 --> 00:28:49,436
through 13 states on
our quest of compassion.
636
00:28:49,436 --> 00:28:51,646
Our journey started with a visit to
637
00:28:51,646 --> 00:28:55,358
Rooterville Animal
Sanctuary where Maya would
638
00:28:55,358 --> 00:28:58,403
introduce us to her friend,
Elaine West, the founder
639
00:28:58,403 --> 00:29:00,947
of Rooterville and a devout Christian.
640
00:29:00,947 --> 00:29:02,824
- You change your diet
and you change your life
641
00:29:02,824 --> 00:29:04,325
that's what I love to tell people
642
00:29:04,325 --> 00:29:06,286
because it's true and
it's not just your health,
643
00:29:06,286 --> 00:29:09,205
it's physically, emotionally, spiritually,
644
00:29:09,205 --> 00:29:12,167
in every way this will change your life
645
00:29:12,167 --> 00:29:14,794
and it's gonna open you
and soften your heart
646
00:29:14,794 --> 00:29:17,005
and we're not supposed
to have hard hearts.
647
00:29:17,005 --> 00:29:21,384
Adam was a gardener.
God put us in a garden,
648
00:29:21,384 --> 00:29:23,136
that's our first clue.
649
00:29:23,136 --> 00:29:25,638
You know our body is a temple of the Lord,
650
00:29:25,638 --> 00:29:28,475
the temple of the Holy
Spirit, the Bible tells us,
651
00:29:28,475 --> 00:29:31,936
and we treat our bodies
like dumpsters, right.
652
00:29:31,936 --> 00:29:34,439
You don't put trash in a temple.
653
00:29:34,439 --> 00:29:37,233
I know a lot of people my age in their 50s
654
00:29:37,233 --> 00:29:40,069
are facing this where
they go to the doctor
655
00:29:40,069 --> 00:29:41,738
and all they get are more pills
656
00:29:41,738 --> 00:29:43,823
and told this is the way that you're
657
00:29:43,823 --> 00:29:45,074
gonna live for the rest of your life
658
00:29:45,074 --> 00:29:48,077
and you're gonna just have
to manage these diseases.
659
00:29:48,077 --> 00:29:51,831
Well when we choose God's
way our body can heal itself
660
00:29:51,873 --> 00:29:53,666
and to me this was amazing.
661
00:29:53,666 --> 00:29:55,752
My arthritis, after three months,
662
00:29:55,752 --> 00:29:58,546
I woke up one morning
and I had no more pain
663
00:29:58,546 --> 00:30:00,757
and that was a miracle for me.
664
00:30:00,757 --> 00:30:03,760
And I had lived with an inhaler
665
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:05,261
and on all kinds of medication
666
00:30:05,261 --> 00:30:06,888
because my allergies were so bad.
667
00:30:06,888 --> 00:30:08,848
I had pneumonia twice. They told me
668
00:30:08,848 --> 00:30:11,684
if I had pneumonia again,
I could possibly die.
669
00:30:11,684 --> 00:30:12,811
They told me that I would have
670
00:30:12,811 --> 00:30:15,230
to live with that inhaler and my condition
671
00:30:15,230 --> 00:30:16,648
would only get worse and worse.
672
00:30:16,648 --> 00:30:17,816
You know the doctors are quick
673
00:30:17,816 --> 00:30:19,192
to give you more medication.
674
00:30:19,192 --> 00:30:22,111
They're not very quick
to give you any hope.
675
00:30:22,111 --> 00:30:24,280
When you share this information
676
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,491
with Christians, it's almost
677
00:30:26,491 --> 00:30:29,536
like - I don't know - like a wall goes up.
678
00:30:29,536 --> 00:30:32,455
That they would rather believe
679
00:30:32,455 --> 00:30:35,750
the world’s system that is pills
680
00:30:35,750 --> 00:30:39,295
and procedures and...you
know...medications
681
00:30:39,295 --> 00:30:41,422
and problems your whole life,
682
00:30:42,715 --> 00:30:45,426
they would rather choose
that than God's way.
683
00:30:45,426 --> 00:30:47,053
Plants heal our body.
684
00:30:47,053 --> 00:30:49,138
We're digging our graves with our forks
685
00:30:49,138 --> 00:30:51,516
and it's really sad when you see people
686
00:30:51,516 --> 00:30:54,060
that have things like
diabetes and heart disease
687
00:30:54,060 --> 00:30:58,982
and cancer even and they're
praying for a miracle
688
00:30:58,982 --> 00:31:00,191
while continuing to eat
689
00:31:00,191 --> 00:31:03,027
the western diet, the
world's diet. They continue
690
00:31:03,027 --> 00:31:06,948
to put that in their body
which is causing the problem.
691
00:31:06,948 --> 00:31:10,285
They don't see that
they're killing themselves.
692
00:31:10,285 --> 00:31:13,955
- Genesis 1:29 is part
of the first conversation
693
00:31:13,955 --> 00:31:16,374
between God and human beings
694
00:31:16,374 --> 00:31:18,626
recorded in the Bible
695
00:31:18,626 --> 00:31:21,838
and God tells Adam and Eve
696
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:26,342
you are to eat the plants and
the seed bearing fruit, period.
697
00:31:26,342 --> 00:31:29,178
And immediately after that, God says
698
00:31:29,762 --> 00:31:32,265
and it was very good,
and it's the first time
699
00:31:32,265 --> 00:31:34,350
in the creation story that God
700
00:31:34,350 --> 00:31:37,186
describes creation as very good.
701
00:31:37,604 --> 00:31:38,563
[speaks Hebrew]
702
00:31:39,230 --> 00:31:41,274
Up until that point God just says
703
00:31:41,274 --> 00:31:44,402
it's good, it's good, it's good
704
00:31:44,402 --> 00:31:46,529
but when we get the instructions
705
00:31:46,529 --> 00:31:48,197
to eat a plant based diet,
706
00:31:48,197 --> 00:31:50,658
now creation is very good.
707
00:31:51,784 --> 00:31:54,329
- [Thomas] After
Rooterville we drove Sophia
708
00:31:54,329 --> 00:31:56,789
up to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
709
00:31:56,789 --> 00:31:59,000
where we spoke with Jeffery Cohen,
710
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,086
the executive director of Jewish Veg,
711
00:32:02,086 --> 00:32:04,505
whose mission it is to
help Jews to embrace
712
00:32:04,505 --> 00:32:07,050
plant based diets as an expression
713
00:32:07,050 --> 00:32:09,052
of the Jewish values of compassion
714
00:32:09,052 --> 00:32:11,721
for animals, concern for health,
715
00:32:11,721 --> 00:32:14,057
and care for the environment.
716
00:32:14,057 --> 00:32:16,893
- Considering what Genesis 1:29 said,
717
00:32:16,893 --> 00:32:19,020
it got me thinking what does
718
00:32:19,020 --> 00:32:21,773
the rest of the Bible say, why aren't
719
00:32:21,773 --> 00:32:25,109
all rabbis and clergy and ministers
720
00:32:25,109 --> 00:32:27,987
vegetarian or vegan if
this is what it says
721
00:32:27,987 --> 00:32:31,950
in Genesis 1:29, so I started
722
00:32:31,950 --> 00:32:34,243
reading, researching and to my pleasant
723
00:32:34,243 --> 00:32:36,537
surprise, it's actually a pretty
724
00:32:36,537 --> 00:32:39,290
consistent theme in the Bible
725
00:32:39,290 --> 00:32:42,543
that plant based diet is the ideal,
726
00:32:42,543 --> 00:32:45,421
that meat eating, while
permitted, is usually
727
00:32:45,421 --> 00:32:47,590
framed in a fairly negative
728
00:32:47,590 --> 00:32:49,842
and sometimes extraordinarily
729
00:32:49,842 --> 00:32:53,388
negative light and that we're supposed
730
00:32:53,388 --> 00:32:55,431
to be treating animals, not just
731
00:32:55,431 --> 00:32:58,601
with compassion but with
exquisite sensitivity.
732
00:32:58,601 --> 00:33:01,312
You know there's a whole slew of
733
00:33:01,312 --> 00:33:04,357
verses in the Bible that command
734
00:33:04,357 --> 00:33:07,610
that we treat animals
with such sensitivity.
735
00:33:07,610 --> 00:33:09,988
Collectively these are known in Hebrew,
736
00:33:09,988 --> 00:33:12,699
(speaks Hebrew) which translate to
737
00:33:12,699 --> 00:33:15,201
the prevention of suffering to animals.
738
00:33:15,201 --> 00:33:16,452
And it says in our Talmud
739
00:33:16,452 --> 00:33:19,539
which is the main rabbinic
commentary on the Bible
740
00:33:19,539 --> 00:33:21,833
that not only are we to prevent
741
00:33:21,833 --> 00:33:24,669
animal suffering, we are
to relieve the suffering
742
00:33:24,669 --> 00:33:26,921
of animals whenever we
have occasion to do so.
743
00:33:26,921 --> 00:33:28,589
And on that basis alone,
744
00:33:28,589 --> 00:33:31,050
given how animals are treated today
745
00:33:31,050 --> 00:33:32,927
in modern animal
agriculture, there's no way
746
00:33:32,927 --> 00:33:35,096
we should be consuming animal products.
747
00:33:35,096 --> 00:33:37,807
Probably the most misunderstood,
748
00:33:37,807 --> 00:33:41,686
the most distorted verse
in all of the Bible
749
00:33:41,686 --> 00:33:45,273
is not Genesis 1:29, it's
what comes right before that.
750
00:33:45,273 --> 00:33:48,401
Genesis 1:26, that is the famous
751
00:33:48,401 --> 00:33:50,862
dominion verse. So yes it does
752
00:33:50,862 --> 00:33:53,948
say in Genesis 1:26 that human beings
753
00:33:53,948 --> 00:33:56,200
were granted dominion over the animals
754
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:57,452
but two important things
755
00:33:57,452 --> 00:33:58,911
to consider about that.
756
00:33:58,911 --> 00:34:01,622
Number one is that's part of the exact
757
00:34:01,622 --> 00:34:03,916
same conversation in which
758
00:34:03,916 --> 00:34:07,128
we're instructed to
eat plants exclusively.
759
00:34:07,128 --> 00:34:10,298
So clearly dominion, did
not give human beings
760
00:34:10,298 --> 00:34:13,551
the right to kill animals for food.
761
00:34:13,551 --> 00:34:16,804
Secondly, that dominion verse is part
762
00:34:16,804 --> 00:34:18,765
of the exact same verse, not just
763
00:34:18,765 --> 00:34:21,392
the same conversation but the same verse,
764
00:34:21,392 --> 00:34:23,478
where we're told that human beings
765
00:34:23,478 --> 00:34:28,483
are created (speaks Hebrew)
in the image of God.
766
00:34:28,524 --> 00:34:31,277
Therefore we are to exercise dominion
767
00:34:31,277 --> 00:34:34,030
the way that God exercises dominion
768
00:34:34,030 --> 00:34:35,948
over human beings.
769
00:34:35,948 --> 00:34:39,327
And any rabbi will tell
you the primary attributes
770
00:34:39,327 --> 00:34:44,332
of God's dominion are
mercy and compassion.
771
00:34:44,665 --> 00:34:46,375
- [Thomas] From Pennsylvania
772
00:34:46,375 --> 00:34:48,711
we headed northeast to Athens, New York
773
00:34:48,711 --> 00:34:50,588
and visited with Frank Hoffman
774
00:34:50,588 --> 00:34:52,340
who serves on the advisory board
775
00:34:52,340 --> 00:34:54,717
of the Christian Vegetarian Association,
776
00:34:54,717 --> 00:34:57,386
and is co founder with his wife Mary
777
00:34:57,386 --> 00:34:58,846
of the Frank and Mary Hoffman
778
00:34:58,846 --> 00:35:01,265
Family Foundation which is dedicated
779
00:35:01,265 --> 00:35:02,809
to cruelty free living through
780
00:35:02,809 --> 00:35:04,102
a vegan lifestyle.
781
00:35:04,268 --> 00:35:06,562
- We became vegan for
reasons of compassion.
782
00:35:06,562 --> 00:35:08,815
But the side effect was that
783
00:35:08,815 --> 00:35:10,691
our health improved dramatically.
784
00:35:11,776 --> 00:35:13,277
We had all kinds of problems,
785
00:35:13,277 --> 00:35:17,031
aches and pains and arthritis starting
786
00:35:17,031 --> 00:35:19,700
and coughing and sneezing things,
787
00:35:19,700 --> 00:35:22,703
the head colds,
irritable bowel syndrome,
788
00:35:22,703 --> 00:35:24,413
all kinds of things like that
789
00:35:24,413 --> 00:35:27,917
and we found that within about three weeks
790
00:35:27,917 --> 00:35:30,878
of becoming vegan our health improved.
791
00:35:30,878 --> 00:35:32,547
We didn't have these same symptoms.
792
00:35:32,672 --> 00:35:35,800
Both Mary and I are in our late 70s
793
00:35:36,968 --> 00:35:40,012
and we haven't taken
medication - I don't know -
794
00:35:40,012 --> 00:35:42,014
it's gotta be at least 25 years now,
795
00:35:42,140 --> 00:35:45,476
But we don't get the chronic
diseases that people get.
796
00:35:45,476 --> 00:35:49,105
The Bible tells us that if we're a child
797
00:35:49,105 --> 00:35:51,440
of God we're to be a peace maker
798
00:35:51,524 --> 00:35:54,735
and as peace makers and
Paul picks up on this
799
00:35:54,735 --> 00:35:58,072
and he says as peace
making children of God,
800
00:35:58,072 --> 00:36:01,200
we're to help free creation
from its present corruption.
801
00:36:02,076 --> 00:36:04,620
Well part of that corruption is the way
802
00:36:04,620 --> 00:36:07,748
we live. We've heard people say
803
00:36:07,748 --> 00:36:10,334
when I buy an animal
product in the supermarket
804
00:36:10,334 --> 00:36:12,628
I didn't hurt the animal, I'm just
805
00:36:12,628 --> 00:36:14,714
buying the product that's sitting there.
806
00:36:14,714 --> 00:36:17,717
And I'm saying no, you're
actually contributing to it.
807
00:36:17,717 --> 00:36:20,803
The first thing you can do
808
00:36:20,803 --> 00:36:23,806
and the most important thing to do
809
00:36:23,806 --> 00:36:25,057
in saving this world
810
00:36:26,517 --> 00:36:28,603
and to living in the heavenly world
811
00:36:28,603 --> 00:36:30,688
of God starts on your dinner plate.
812
00:36:30,730 --> 00:36:35,735
(upbeat mariachi music)
813
00:36:39,155 --> 00:36:40,948
- [Thomas] When we left Frank and Mary’s,
814
00:36:40,948 --> 00:36:42,658
we drove down to New York City
815
00:36:42,658 --> 00:36:45,494
where we parked Sophia
and traveled by transit.
816
00:36:46,746 --> 00:36:49,540
Our first stop was on the upper east side
817
00:36:49,540 --> 00:36:51,334
where I had the honor and pleasure
818
00:36:51,334 --> 00:36:53,544
of meeting Pramoda Chitrabhanu,
819
00:36:53,544 --> 00:36:56,422
who is the director of the
Jain Meditation International
820
00:36:56,422 --> 00:36:58,841
Center in New York City as well
821
00:36:58,841 --> 00:37:00,718
as on the board of PETA India.
822
00:37:00,718 --> 00:37:02,970
She is the author of
several books including
823
00:37:02,970 --> 00:37:07,225
the Book of Compassion and
Rainbow Food for the Vegan Palate.
824
00:37:07,225 --> 00:37:10,394
- Only because of the taste buds,
825
00:37:10,394 --> 00:37:12,813
only because of our own greed,
826
00:37:12,813 --> 00:37:16,817
only because of our own satisfaction
827
00:37:16,817 --> 00:37:19,820
of the senses! When are we going
828
00:37:19,820 --> 00:37:21,781
to become sensitive?
829
00:37:21,781 --> 00:37:25,034
When are we going to understand?
830
00:37:25,034 --> 00:37:28,454
Because each and every living being
831
00:37:28,454 --> 00:37:31,207
is given a different instrument
832
00:37:31,207 --> 00:37:33,793
and it's a symphony
833
00:37:33,793 --> 00:37:38,631
and we are creating music
out of that instrument
834
00:37:39,131 --> 00:37:41,842
and we forget that each and everyone's
835
00:37:41,842 --> 00:37:44,512
life is intertwined with each other.
836
00:37:44,512 --> 00:37:47,932
How can we disturb one living being?
837
00:37:47,932 --> 00:37:50,101
But when we take the dairy,
838
00:37:51,477 --> 00:37:54,814
the meat industry, the cows, you are
839
00:37:54,814 --> 00:37:59,652
snatching away the five
senses of those living beings
840
00:37:59,652 --> 00:38:03,739
who can hear, who can see, who can feel,
841
00:38:03,739 --> 00:38:06,784
who can taste, who can smell.
842
00:38:06,784 --> 00:38:10,413
We have no right to take
the life of any living being
843
00:38:10,413 --> 00:38:12,039
even though they are not human beings
844
00:38:12,039 --> 00:38:14,834
but they have already got five senses
845
00:38:15,835 --> 00:38:18,546
and with one shot we destroy that.
846
00:38:20,172 --> 00:38:23,092
Our hearts should really tremble
847
00:38:23,092 --> 00:38:25,928
to do all these things and we don't
848
00:38:25,928 --> 00:38:28,389
have any qualms. But the violence
849
00:38:28,389 --> 00:38:30,474
is not because of the bad people,
850
00:38:32,184 --> 00:38:35,104
it is because of the
silence of the good people.
851
00:38:35,938 --> 00:38:39,567
So be a whisper, or be a scream,
852
00:38:39,567 --> 00:38:42,069
just be the voice for the voiceless being.
853
00:38:46,866 --> 00:38:48,409
- [Thomas] After we left Pramoda’s,
854
00:38:48,409 --> 00:38:50,911
we traveled down to Union Square
855
00:38:50,911 --> 00:38:53,039
where we were approached by Mike,
856
00:38:53,039 --> 00:38:55,166
a compassionate wildlife activist
857
00:38:55,166 --> 00:38:57,710
who was out raising
awareness about the plight
858
00:38:57,710 --> 00:38:59,754
of the elephants.
859
00:39:06,510 --> 00:39:08,804
- Yeah, just go for it,
explain me on it right.
860
00:39:08,804 --> 00:39:10,639
- So a keystone species
basically is a species
861
00:39:10,639 --> 00:39:12,892
of animal that has such a disproportionate
862
00:39:12,892 --> 00:39:14,393
effect on the ecosystem that were
863
00:39:14,393 --> 00:39:17,271
they to disappear, things
would change very rapidly.
864
00:39:17,271 --> 00:39:19,982
So, elephants are a keystone species,
865
00:39:19,982 --> 00:39:21,609
bees are a keystone species,
866
00:39:21,609 --> 00:39:23,986
even humans are, but in a bad way.
867
00:39:23,986 --> 00:39:25,237
So, like if we all suddenly disappeared
868
00:39:25,237 --> 00:39:27,656
everything would just
start getting better.
869
00:39:27,656 --> 00:39:28,866
- Everything would change for sure.
870
00:39:28,866 --> 00:39:29,950
- Yeah it would change exactly.
871
00:39:29,950 --> 00:39:32,328
So, elephants are a keystone species,
872
00:39:32,328 --> 00:39:34,372
chickens are not, you know what I mean.
873
00:39:34,372 --> 00:39:36,248
And that's not to say that
they're less important
874
00:39:36,248 --> 00:39:37,708
because they're still very important
875
00:39:37,708 --> 00:39:39,668
and I do think that our meat industry
876
00:39:39,668 --> 00:39:42,671
is really, really messed
up, really, really bad
877
00:39:42,671 --> 00:39:44,840
and I would love to see that change.
878
00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:46,217
- [Thomas] Can I ask you this question?
879
00:39:46,217 --> 00:39:47,051
- Yeah yeah.
880
00:39:47,051 --> 00:39:48,427
- [Thomas] Did you know that in order
881
00:39:48,427 --> 00:39:50,846
for a cow to produce milk she had to be
882
00:39:50,846 --> 00:39:53,557
impregnated every year
and her baby taken away
883
00:39:53,557 --> 00:39:55,518
after the first day of her life
884
00:39:55,518 --> 00:39:58,354
and if it's a male it usually
goes to the veal industry,
885
00:39:58,354 --> 00:40:00,064
if it's a female she ends up in there...
886
00:40:00,064 --> 00:40:01,190
within four years of their life
887
00:40:01,190 --> 00:40:02,858
they are slaughtered for meat
888
00:40:02,858 --> 00:40:05,361
and usually they would live
25 years of their life.
889
00:40:05,361 --> 00:40:06,612
Did you know they were taken away?
890
00:40:06,612 --> 00:40:07,947
- No no, I didn't know that.
891
00:40:07,947 --> 00:40:10,282
I mean again I'd have to -
892
00:40:11,534 --> 00:40:14,328
it's very difficult to
take the word of somebody,
893
00:40:14,328 --> 00:40:16,664
not to say that I don't
think you're informed but--
894
00:40:16,664 --> 00:40:18,999
- But first of all do you
think the cows just make milk?
895
00:40:22,628 --> 00:40:25,714
- I don't know, I don't
know enough about them.
896
00:40:25,714 --> 00:40:27,133
That's really what I can--
897
00:40:27,133 --> 00:40:28,884
- [Thomas] That's the best answer.
898
00:40:28,884 --> 00:40:29,718
- Yeah I don't know.
899
00:40:32,388 --> 00:40:34,932
- [Thomas] While we were
in Manhattan we stopped by
900
00:40:34,932 --> 00:40:37,268
to see Victoria who told us about a cow
901
00:40:37,268 --> 00:40:39,562
she met many years ago
902
00:40:39,562 --> 00:40:42,940
during her visit to a
slaughterhouse in southern Missouri.
903
00:40:42,940 --> 00:40:44,900
- I meet a lot of people who say
904
00:40:44,900 --> 00:40:47,987
well I only eat humane meat, I only
905
00:40:47,987 --> 00:40:51,240
eat meat from small family farms.
906
00:40:51,240 --> 00:40:55,161
Well these cows came
from a small family farm,
907
00:40:55,161 --> 00:40:57,872
the farmer drove them in himself.
908
00:40:57,872 --> 00:41:00,708
You could tell that these cows knew people
909
00:41:00,708 --> 00:41:03,919
and trusted them so the first couple
910
00:41:03,919 --> 00:41:07,923
just walked up the chute and onto death
911
00:41:07,923 --> 00:41:11,677
but the third one was
not having any of it.
912
00:41:11,677 --> 00:41:14,096
She saw her friends go first,
913
00:41:14,096 --> 00:41:17,892
she heard the screams and
she smelled the smells
914
00:41:17,892 --> 00:41:19,727
that I'd been smelling all day.
915
00:41:19,727 --> 00:41:22,855
She was not about to walk up that ramp,
916
00:41:22,855 --> 00:41:26,317
so she just planted
herself and stood there.
917
00:41:27,234 --> 00:41:30,654
And the man up at the top of the ramp,
918
00:41:30,654 --> 00:41:33,115
about time to go home, he was ready to
919
00:41:33,115 --> 00:41:36,952
go see his kids, he whistled to her.
920
00:41:38,829 --> 00:41:42,708
He whistled to her the way
he'd whistle to his dog
921
00:41:42,708 --> 00:41:45,711
when he went home in 20 minutes.
922
00:41:45,711 --> 00:41:50,716
And this cow seemed to trust him,
923
00:41:50,883 --> 00:41:54,845
she kind of turned her
head and looked at him
924
00:41:54,845 --> 00:41:57,598
and it was as if she was deciding whether
925
00:41:57,598 --> 00:42:00,684
or not to override all her instincts,
926
00:42:00,684 --> 00:42:03,395
what she was hearing,
what she was smelling
927
00:42:03,395 --> 00:42:06,815
and instead do something that
928
00:42:06,815 --> 00:42:08,901
we pride ourselves as humans
929
00:42:08,901 --> 00:42:13,614
in being able to do, trust another person.
930
00:42:13,614 --> 00:42:17,576
So with this trust,
misplaced as it turned out,
931
00:42:17,576 --> 00:42:20,913
she walked to the man
who had whistled to her.
932
00:42:21,830 --> 00:42:24,875
He got her with the captive bolt pistol,
933
00:42:24,875 --> 00:42:28,337
she was hoisted up her throat was slit,
934
00:42:28,462 --> 00:42:31,882
her beautiful skin was sliced off her
935
00:42:31,882 --> 00:42:35,886
and into a pile to go for shoes and boots
936
00:42:35,886 --> 00:42:40,766
and belts and handbags and all of a sudden
937
00:42:40,766 --> 00:42:43,269
she was no longer a being,
938
00:42:43,269 --> 00:42:46,438
she was in the process of becoming beef.
939
00:42:47,565 --> 00:42:51,569
Now I knew that in a few days
940
00:42:51,569 --> 00:42:54,780
her parts and pieces would wind up
941
00:42:54,780 --> 00:42:57,658
at a supermarket in St. Louis.
942
00:42:57,658 --> 00:43:00,160
They would be on a styrofoam tray
943
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:02,288
and cellophane wrapping
944
00:43:02,288 --> 00:43:06,041
and they would be
purchased by good people.
945
00:43:06,041 --> 00:43:10,087
They'd be purchased by people
who love their children
946
00:43:10,087 --> 00:43:13,507
and give to charity and go to church.
947
00:43:13,507 --> 00:43:15,968
Well they didn't know her.
948
00:43:17,011 --> 00:43:19,638
I did, for just a few minutes
949
00:43:19,638 --> 00:43:21,974
at the very end of her life,
950
00:43:21,974 --> 00:43:26,979
but because I knew her, it's my obligation
951
00:43:27,229 --> 00:43:28,731
to share her story.
952
00:43:30,065 --> 00:43:32,610
- In the Muslim faith we
have this really beautiful
953
00:43:32,610 --> 00:43:35,404
saying from the Prophet
Muhammad, peace and blessings
954
00:43:35,404 --> 00:43:38,157
be upon him, in which he says
955
00:43:38,157 --> 00:43:41,785
that none of you truly
have attained to faith
956
00:43:41,785 --> 00:43:44,079
until you love for one another
957
00:43:44,079 --> 00:43:45,873
what you love for your own self.
958
00:43:45,873 --> 00:43:47,625
Which is very similar to the golden rule
959
00:43:47,625 --> 00:43:50,711
that was preached by all of
the great prophets and sages.
960
00:43:50,711 --> 00:43:53,130
You know I think as time has gone on
961
00:43:53,130 --> 00:43:54,673
the spiritual and ethical tradition
962
00:43:54,673 --> 00:43:56,925
has been able to widen that to not only
963
00:43:56,925 --> 00:44:00,638
humanity but to a lot
of the creation of God
964
00:44:00,638 --> 00:44:03,057
both in terms of the environment as well
965
00:44:03,057 --> 00:44:07,019
as the animals and just
every living being.
966
00:44:07,019 --> 00:44:08,646
- [Thomas] From Manhattan, we drove
967
00:44:08,646 --> 00:44:13,025
to Princeton, New Jersey to
speak with Imam Sohaib Sultan
968
00:44:13,025 --> 00:44:15,986
Princeton University's
first Muslim chaplain
969
00:44:15,986 --> 00:44:18,989
and author of the Koran for Dummies,
970
00:44:18,989 --> 00:44:21,867
and the Qur'an and the Sayings
of the Prophet Muhammad.
971
00:44:21,867 --> 00:44:24,078
- We are living in a time in which
972
00:44:24,078 --> 00:44:27,414
there is a great exploitation
of the environment
973
00:44:27,414 --> 00:44:30,584
and of animals and the way that we
974
00:44:30,584 --> 00:44:33,295
see the farming practices evolve
975
00:44:33,295 --> 00:44:35,506
to fit the consumer societies
and the materialistic
976
00:44:35,506 --> 00:44:38,550
societies has formed has greatly
977
00:44:38,550 --> 00:44:40,511
harmed the environment and has
978
00:44:40,511 --> 00:44:42,680
greatly affected animals
979
00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:46,684
at a level unprecedented in
our history as human beings.
980
00:44:46,684 --> 00:44:49,103
One should really consider
the mass production
981
00:44:49,103 --> 00:44:52,064
of food and the unethical means by which
982
00:44:52,064 --> 00:44:55,025
that food is produced in our modern age
983
00:44:55,025 --> 00:44:56,485
and we should really consider whether
984
00:44:56,485 --> 00:45:00,364
we want to be part of that
evil practice or whether
985
00:45:00,364 --> 00:45:02,282
we want to be part of the solution,
986
00:45:02,282 --> 00:45:04,576
to restore the balance to the environment
987
00:45:04,576 --> 00:45:07,705
to restore the balance to the ecosystem
988
00:45:07,705 --> 00:45:09,748
and to restore the balance
to the human beings,
989
00:45:09,748 --> 00:45:11,792
because when the human
begins are exploiting
990
00:45:11,792 --> 00:45:14,002
the environment, the environment is going
991
00:45:14,002 --> 00:45:16,714
to turn its wrath
against the human beings.
992
00:45:16,714 --> 00:45:18,006
And we're constantly seeing that
993
00:45:18,006 --> 00:45:20,592
from the lack of access to water
994
00:45:20,592 --> 00:45:25,097
to air pollution to scarcity of food,
995
00:45:25,097 --> 00:45:27,057
all of this is being caused by
996
00:45:27,057 --> 00:45:29,727
our mistreatment of God's earth.
997
00:45:29,727 --> 00:45:31,562
You know there's a
really important passage
998
00:45:31,562 --> 00:45:34,898
in the Koran that says that oh humanity
999
00:45:34,898 --> 00:45:37,568
your actions are certainly bound
1000
00:45:37,568 --> 00:45:40,821
to rebound against your own selves.
1001
00:45:40,821 --> 00:45:43,490
So there's this idea that whatever we do
1002
00:45:43,490 --> 00:45:45,284
we're going to see its consequences
1003
00:45:45,284 --> 00:45:47,161
both the good and the beautiful,
1004
00:45:47,161 --> 00:45:49,538
and the ugly and the wrong.
1005
00:45:49,538 --> 00:45:52,249
And it's also important as Muslims
1006
00:45:52,249 --> 00:45:54,752
to understand that this idea
1007
00:45:54,793 --> 00:45:57,087
of karma or this idea of our actions
1008
00:45:57,087 --> 00:45:59,715
rebound against our own selves is not only
1009
00:45:59,715 --> 00:46:01,675
limited to this life but there's also an
1010
00:46:01,675 --> 00:46:03,510
afterlife reality to it.
1011
00:46:03,510 --> 00:46:06,013
The Prophet Muhammad, peace
and blessings be upon him,
1012
00:46:06,013 --> 00:46:08,307
he said that on the day of resurrection
1013
00:46:08,307 --> 00:46:10,184
when people have to answer for their deeds
1014
00:46:10,184 --> 00:46:12,895
before God, one will even have to answer
1015
00:46:12,895 --> 00:46:16,440
for the innocent sparrow that they killed.
1016
00:46:16,940 --> 00:46:20,319
- What is the difference
between pity and compassion?
1017
00:46:20,319 --> 00:46:24,156
So pity is, you know, I see the cow,
1018
00:46:24,156 --> 00:46:27,034
they just ran it through a factory farm,
1019
00:46:27,034 --> 00:46:29,495
it lived this awful life, they slaughtered
1020
00:46:29,495 --> 00:46:33,665
it in this awful way and
I'm like, “Poor cow, that's bad
1021
00:46:33,665 --> 00:46:35,334
they're torturing all these cows.
1022
00:46:35,334 --> 00:46:38,420
This is terrible. Wow, I'm hungry.
1023
00:46:38,420 --> 00:46:40,881
Where's the closest McDonald’s, you know?
1024
00:46:40,881 --> 00:46:43,967
No link whatsoever, versus compassion
1025
00:46:43,967 --> 00:46:47,471
which is you know they're
suffering in this industry,
1026
00:46:47,471 --> 00:46:49,181
they're suffering in the way that
1027
00:46:49,181 --> 00:46:51,308
we treat animals, they're suffering
1028
00:46:51,308 --> 00:46:54,394
in eating suffering from the way
1029
00:46:54,394 --> 00:46:56,480
that this animal was killed.
1030
00:46:56,480 --> 00:47:00,150
I don't want to contribute
to the suffering. I quit.
1031
00:47:00,150 --> 00:47:02,361
I'm not gonna contribute
to your suffering.
1032
00:47:02,986 --> 00:47:05,697
- [Thomas] It was in Tacoma
Park, Maryland where we met
1033
00:47:05,697 --> 00:47:08,784
Nazirahk Amen, a naturopathic doctor,
1034
00:47:08,784 --> 00:47:10,994
a practitioner of Chinese medicine
1035
00:47:10,994 --> 00:47:13,163
and an organic farmer who's been vegan
1036
00:47:13,163 --> 00:47:15,624
for over 25 years.
1037
00:47:15,624 --> 00:47:17,334
- In the beginning I worked actually
1038
00:47:17,334 --> 00:47:20,462
as an EMT. I was an
intermediate level medic
1039
00:47:20,462 --> 00:47:22,631
and you know working in the medical system
1040
00:47:22,631 --> 00:47:27,594
while studying to become
a doctor at that time
1041
00:47:27,594 --> 00:47:29,805
and just seeing the contradictions.
1042
00:47:29,805 --> 00:47:31,890
It's not focused on prevention,
1043
00:47:31,890 --> 00:47:33,767
it's really focused on these sort of
1044
00:47:33,767 --> 00:47:37,187
quick fix pharmaceutical interventions
1045
00:47:37,187 --> 00:47:39,481
and you know as a provider, you know,
1046
00:47:39,481 --> 00:47:41,942
when someone's having an asthma attack
1047
00:47:41,942 --> 00:47:44,152
and you go in and you give them drugs
1048
00:47:44,152 --> 00:47:47,197
and you know you see
that asthma attack break
1049
00:47:47,197 --> 00:47:49,032
and those people can breathe again,
1050
00:47:49,032 --> 00:47:51,827
that's beautiful you know but
1051
00:47:51,827 --> 00:47:55,080
in another four weeks,
six weeks, three months
1052
00:47:55,581 --> 00:47:57,791
and you get the same call,
1053
00:47:57,791 --> 00:47:59,918
you know, it sort of takes
some of the glamor out
1054
00:47:59,918 --> 00:48:01,753
and you walk into these people's homes
1055
00:48:01,753 --> 00:48:04,214
and you see they're
having this asthma attack
1056
00:48:04,214 --> 00:48:06,800
or this sickle cell
crisis or whatever other
1057
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:08,594
disease and here, you know, right
1058
00:48:08,594 --> 00:48:11,138
next to the bed, they just got through
1059
00:48:11,138 --> 00:48:13,348
eating a three pack for a dollar
1060
00:48:13,348 --> 00:48:15,058
glow in the dark set of cookies
1061
00:48:15,058 --> 00:48:17,853
with a big glass of cow’s milk
1062
00:48:17,853 --> 00:48:19,771
and you're asking yourself
the question, you know,
1063
00:48:19,813 --> 00:48:24,318
do you think that any of what you just ate
1064
00:48:24,318 --> 00:48:25,861
has anything to do with
1065
00:48:25,861 --> 00:48:27,738
how you're feeling right now?
1066
00:48:28,238 --> 00:48:31,116
We don't really get to ask that question.
1067
00:48:31,116 --> 00:48:33,327
You know, I mean, I felt better immediately
1068
00:48:33,327 --> 00:48:37,581
from going vegan, but in a couple years
1069
00:48:37,581 --> 00:48:39,666
after I went vegan I was
probably the strongest
1070
00:48:39,666 --> 00:48:42,544
I've ever been in my life and
1071
00:48:42,544 --> 00:48:46,173
you know I maintain that
on a day to day basis.
1072
00:48:46,173 --> 00:48:51,178
So, you know, anyway, I'm 95
years old and (laughter).
1073
00:48:53,931 --> 00:48:57,351
- I had this one case I
remember this woman very well.
1074
00:48:57,351 --> 00:49:00,103
I said to her, I said your problem
1075
00:49:00,103 --> 00:49:03,523
is not that you have spastic colon.
1076
00:49:03,523 --> 00:49:06,193
I said you're eating foods that are gonna
1077
00:49:06,193 --> 00:49:08,695
make you sick because they contain lactose
1078
00:49:08,695 --> 00:49:09,905
and to my surprise, she said
1079
00:49:09,905 --> 00:49:12,157
“Oh I know that,” and I said, “Well,
1080
00:49:12,157 --> 00:49:13,575
if you know that these foods are gonna
1081
00:49:13,575 --> 00:49:16,036
make you sick, why are you
continuing to eat them?
1082
00:49:17,204 --> 00:49:19,581
She said, “Because the
government says I have to.
1083
00:49:19,581 --> 00:49:22,167
The U.S. dietary
guidelines say that I have
1084
00:49:22,167 --> 00:49:24,962
to include dairy foods in my diet
1085
00:49:24,962 --> 00:49:27,881
in order to be healthy.” And I, of course,
1086
00:49:27,881 --> 00:49:30,550
explained to her that, no, you don’t,
1087
00:49:30,550 --> 00:49:34,638
that you don't need dairy
foods for any reason,
1088
00:49:34,638 --> 00:49:36,640
that they're, as I said to her,
1089
00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:38,225
“Cows don't drink milk but there's
1090
00:49:38,225 --> 00:49:39,601
plenty of calcium in their milk
1091
00:49:39,601 --> 00:49:40,852
and it's because they get it from
1092
00:49:40,852 --> 00:49:43,313
the green plants that they eat
1093
00:49:43,313 --> 00:49:45,273
and that if you eat green leafy vegetables,
1094
00:49:45,273 --> 00:49:47,776
you'll get plenty of calcium in your diet.”
1095
00:49:47,776 --> 00:49:52,239
But it really upset me
that people were being
1096
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:55,492
made ill by listening to recommendations
1097
00:49:55,492 --> 00:49:56,535
from the government that were
1098
00:49:56,535 --> 00:49:58,620
not based on science but rather
1099
00:49:58,620 --> 00:50:00,664
were based on marketing.
1100
00:50:01,623 --> 00:50:03,041
- [Thomas] We left Nazirahk's farm
1101
00:50:03,041 --> 00:50:04,960
and crossed over into Virginia
1102
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,963
where we had a conversation
with Dr. Milton Mills, who
1103
00:50:08,005 --> 00:50:11,925
practices urgent care medicine
in the Washington D.C. area
1104
00:50:11,925 --> 00:50:14,344
and is on the National Advisory Board
1105
00:50:14,344 --> 00:50:17,472
of the Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine.
1106
00:50:17,472 --> 00:50:20,058
He is a practicing Seventh Day Adventist
1107
00:50:20,058 --> 00:50:22,144
which is one of the very rare Protestant
1108
00:50:22,144 --> 00:50:24,021
denominations that recommends
1109
00:50:24,021 --> 00:50:26,565
a vegetarian diet to its members.
1110
00:50:26,565 --> 00:50:29,609
- God designed us and he
gave us an owners manual
1111
00:50:29,609 --> 00:50:31,611
and it's called the Bible and in the Bible
1112
00:50:31,611 --> 00:50:34,072
he tells us what we should be eating.
1113
00:50:34,072 --> 00:50:36,825
He tells us what he designed us to eat
1114
00:50:36,825 --> 00:50:40,537
and if we care about ourselves and
1115
00:50:40,537 --> 00:50:42,789
if we care about what God wants then
1116
00:50:42,789 --> 00:50:46,460
we will follow his
instructions for a healthy life.
1117
00:50:46,460 --> 00:50:49,296
And when I see people who
call themselves Christians
1118
00:50:49,296 --> 00:50:52,049
eating fried chicken and pork chops
1119
00:50:52,049 --> 00:50:54,176
and all this stuff that they know
1120
00:50:54,176 --> 00:50:55,761
are unhealthy and that's
1121
00:50:55,761 --> 00:50:57,262
going to destroy their health
1122
00:50:57,262 --> 00:50:59,598
simply because it tastes good
1123
00:50:59,598 --> 00:51:02,225
then I have to ask, “Do you love
1124
00:51:02,225 --> 00:51:04,394
the pleasure of eating this unhealthy food
1125
00:51:04,394 --> 00:51:06,104
more than you love God? Because
1126
00:51:06,104 --> 00:51:07,689
if you really love God, then you
1127
00:51:07,689 --> 00:51:09,524
would do what he asked us to do
1128
00:51:09,524 --> 00:51:12,360
and that is eat a plant based diet.”
1129
00:51:12,569 --> 00:51:16,239
And when you realize the type
1130
00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:18,700
of misery and pain and suffering that's
1131
00:51:18,700 --> 00:51:20,577
inflicted on other animals
1132
00:51:20,577 --> 00:51:23,789
in order to raise them by the billions
1133
00:51:23,789 --> 00:51:25,999
just so they can be killed and dismembered
1134
00:51:25,999 --> 00:51:28,710
so people can eat them, it's impossible
1135
00:51:28,710 --> 00:51:31,171
for I think a feeling person
1136
00:51:31,171 --> 00:51:33,548
to justify that, particularly someone
1137
00:51:33,548 --> 00:51:35,675
who says that they
believe in a loving God.
1138
00:51:35,675 --> 00:51:38,303
It's one thing if it's a matter
1139
00:51:38,303 --> 00:51:41,014
of life, death and necessity but
1140
00:51:41,014 --> 00:51:43,683
in modern life, it's not.
1141
00:51:44,309 --> 00:51:48,105
- [Thomas] The next day we had
to say a sad goodbye to Maya
1142
00:51:48,105 --> 00:51:51,399
who was off to a holistic
veterinarian conference
1143
00:51:51,399 --> 00:51:54,069
before she headed back to Israel.
1144
00:51:54,069 --> 00:51:56,530
And then Melody and I and Sophia
1145
00:51:56,530 --> 00:51:59,908
made our way back to the
sacred woods of North Florida.
1146
00:52:00,534 --> 00:52:02,494
- Abra cadabra.
1147
00:52:04,079 --> 00:52:06,206
- The environmental crisis is not a crisis
1148
00:52:06,206 --> 00:52:07,749
of the bees and the birds
1149
00:52:07,749 --> 00:52:10,085
or the trees and the
toads, it's a crisis of
1150
00:52:10,127 --> 00:52:14,756
how we live as spiritual
beings in a physical reality.
1151
00:52:14,756 --> 00:52:17,676
Therefore in order to
address this crisis we're
1152
00:52:17,676 --> 00:52:20,929
going to need to address
the spiritual roots.
1153
00:52:20,929 --> 00:52:22,639
- [Thomas] Just a few days after Melody's
1154
00:52:22,639 --> 00:52:24,850
fourth birthday, I found myself
1155
00:52:24,850 --> 00:52:27,894
on an airplane headed
to Marrakesh, Morocco
1156
00:52:27,894 --> 00:52:30,772
to join our producer Sailesh who'd invited
1157
00:52:30,772 --> 00:52:33,525
me to attend the 22nd United Nations
1158
00:52:33,525 --> 00:52:36,611
Climate Change Conference - COP22,
1159
00:52:36,611 --> 00:52:38,488
where people from all over the world
1160
00:52:38,488 --> 00:52:40,824
come together to work on finding solutions
1161
00:52:40,866 --> 00:52:42,492
to the climate crisis that is
1162
00:52:42,492 --> 00:52:45,036
threatening the future
of life on our planet.
1163
00:52:45,036 --> 00:52:47,956
- What are some of those spiritual roots?
1164
00:52:47,956 --> 00:52:51,126
This includes the desire for instant
1165
00:52:51,126 --> 00:52:54,004
self gratification, consumerism.
1166
00:52:54,004 --> 00:52:59,009
We are facing a climate
crisis, a planetary emergency
1167
00:53:00,010 --> 00:53:01,720
which is really messaging to us
1168
00:53:01,720 --> 00:53:04,723
that the human way of
living is out of balance.
1169
00:53:04,723 --> 00:53:08,101
By the end of this 21st
century, human beings
1170
00:53:08,101 --> 00:53:10,896
are likely to extinct five million
1171
00:53:10,896 --> 00:53:13,440
of the ten million species on this planet.
1172
00:53:13,690 --> 00:53:17,027
And so, according to the Jewish tradition,
1173
00:53:17,027 --> 00:53:19,154
it is forbidden to extinct a species.
1174
00:53:19,154 --> 00:53:23,408
We have a mandate to be stewards, to care
1175
00:53:23,408 --> 00:53:24,784
for the creation that God
1176
00:53:24,784 --> 00:53:27,621
has entrusted to us, to be righteous,
1177
00:53:27,621 --> 00:53:30,081
to be mindful and that comes
1178
00:53:30,081 --> 00:53:34,169
down to the smallest level
of human consumption.
1179
00:53:34,169 --> 00:53:37,130
Everything that we
consume, we need to think,
1180
00:53:37,130 --> 00:53:40,550
“Am I elevating this
object in the highest way?
1181
00:53:40,550 --> 00:53:44,221
Am I using it in
holiness? Am I reusing it?
1182
00:53:44,221 --> 00:53:45,972
Do I actually need this?
1183
00:53:45,972 --> 00:53:48,642
If we do that, then
we're living at a higher
1184
00:53:48,642 --> 00:53:50,185
vibrational frequency.
We're living in resonance
1185
00:53:50,185 --> 00:53:54,356
with the divine. We're living in resonance
1186
00:53:54,356 --> 00:53:57,651
with the planet that God has given us.
1187
00:53:57,651 --> 00:54:01,112
- We know that of all the energy
1188
00:54:01,112 --> 00:54:03,323
that human beings are
putting into the climate
1189
00:54:03,323 --> 00:54:06,243
system via the greenhouse gases,
1190
00:54:06,243 --> 00:54:09,913
93% of that is ending up in the ocean.
1191
00:54:09,913 --> 00:54:13,959
This has led to an increased acidification
1192
00:54:13,959 --> 00:54:16,002
of the ocean. The acidity
1193
00:54:16,002 --> 00:54:18,046
makes it very difficult for shelled
1194
00:54:18,046 --> 00:54:20,882
animals to continue to fabricate
1195
00:54:20,882 --> 00:54:22,968
their shells and so we're beginning
1196
00:54:22,968 --> 00:54:25,845
to see threats to coral reefs.
1197
00:54:25,845 --> 00:54:28,515
We're beginning to see threats to
1198
00:54:28,515 --> 00:54:30,642
shelled animals, in general.
1199
00:54:30,642 --> 00:54:32,227
And the most important ones are the little
1200
00:54:32,227 --> 00:54:34,521
coccolithophores, part of the plankton
1201
00:54:34,521 --> 00:54:36,815
population and if their shells
1202
00:54:36,815 --> 00:54:39,234
are compromised, they can't live
1203
00:54:39,234 --> 00:54:42,529
and the danger will be
that...these are the guys,
1204
00:54:42,529 --> 00:54:44,781
the plankton are the
ones that are actually
1205
00:54:44,781 --> 00:54:47,993
manufacturing the oxygen in the atmosphere
1206
00:54:47,993 --> 00:54:51,538
that we breathe a few weeks
after it leaves the ocean.
1207
00:54:51,538 --> 00:54:55,583
So ocean acidification is a
1208
00:54:55,583 --> 00:54:59,462
global issue that affects
absolutely everybody
1209
00:54:59,462 --> 00:55:01,506
and all of the living things in the ocean.
1210
00:55:01,589 --> 00:55:05,302
It's my belief that societies in which
1211
00:55:05,302 --> 00:55:07,053
people care for each other
1212
00:55:07,762 --> 00:55:09,639
are societies that will also take
1213
00:55:09,639 --> 00:55:12,392
care of the environment and so there's
1214
00:55:12,392 --> 00:55:16,229
a relationship between
our human compassion
1215
00:55:16,229 --> 00:55:18,857
and our compassion for nature
1216
00:55:18,857 --> 00:55:21,693
and now both are needed to assure
1217
00:55:21,693 --> 00:55:25,030
the survival of our civilization.
1218
00:55:25,030 --> 00:55:27,490
- I would say that compassion is central
1219
00:55:27,490 --> 00:55:29,743
to our religious tradition within Islam
1220
00:55:29,743 --> 00:55:31,870
and as a Muslim trying to be faithful
1221
00:55:31,870 --> 00:55:35,874
to its teachings, I have
to strive to become
1222
00:55:35,874 --> 00:55:37,584
more compassionate in my life.
1223
00:55:37,584 --> 00:55:40,879
As an example, every
chapter of the holy Koran's
1224
00:55:40,879 --> 00:55:44,841
114 chapters begins with (speaks Arabic)
1225
00:55:44,841 --> 00:55:46,718
which means in the name of God,
1226
00:55:46,718 --> 00:55:49,220
most compassionate, most merciful.
1227
00:55:49,220 --> 00:55:51,264
A small chick fell out of its nest
1228
00:55:51,264 --> 00:55:52,807
in the tree onto the ground
1229
00:55:52,807 --> 00:55:54,392
and one of the Prophet's companions
1230
00:55:54,392 --> 00:55:58,063
was playing with it in
quite a ruthless manner, a ruthless way.
1231
00:55:58,063 --> 00:55:59,647
When the Prophet came upon him,
1232
00:55:59,647 --> 00:56:02,108
he became very stern and angry
1233
00:56:02,108 --> 00:56:03,985
and he said, “What are you doing?”
1234
00:56:03,985 --> 00:56:07,155
He said, “Amusing myself.” He said,
1235
00:56:07,155 --> 00:56:08,948
“How can you amuse yourself
1236
00:56:08,948 --> 00:56:12,410
with the child of someone else that's
1237
00:56:12,410 --> 00:56:15,914
not your child? Return
the child to its mother.”
1238
00:56:15,914 --> 00:56:17,665
And what's very interesting is
1239
00:56:17,665 --> 00:56:19,084
in the Arabic language they have
1240
00:56:19,084 --> 00:56:20,960
two words, the word normally used
1241
00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:23,004
for baby chick is one word.
1242
00:56:23,004 --> 00:56:25,507
The word that is used for child
1243
00:56:25,507 --> 00:56:28,718
which is exclusively
used in the human sense
1244
00:56:28,718 --> 00:56:30,762
which means (speaks Arabic)
1245
00:56:30,762 --> 00:56:33,181
is the term that he used for this chick.
1246
00:56:33,181 --> 00:56:35,642
So, in other words, its
relation to its mother
1247
00:56:35,642 --> 00:56:37,477
is the same as the relationship
1248
00:56:37,477 --> 00:56:39,729
of a human mother to her own child.
1249
00:58:17,076 --> 00:58:19,496
- Last year in the run up to the Paris
1250
00:58:19,496 --> 00:58:22,040
climate talks, a number of religious
1251
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:24,792
organizations issued
statements on climate change
1252
00:58:24,792 --> 00:58:26,586
and so our organization issued
1253
00:58:26,586 --> 00:58:29,797
the Hindu Declaration on
Climate Change for 2016
1254
00:58:30,131 --> 00:58:32,175
and that was signed by
over 60 Hindu leaders
1255
00:58:32,175 --> 00:58:34,469
and organizations from across the world.
1256
00:58:34,469 --> 00:58:36,137
And within that, we put forward
1257
00:58:36,137 --> 00:58:38,765
the case for why Hindus
should be concerned
1258
00:58:38,765 --> 00:58:41,226
about climate change and what Hindus
1259
00:58:41,226 --> 00:58:44,103
should and could be doing
to address climate change.
1260
00:58:44,103 --> 00:58:46,147
And within that, one of the key things
1261
00:58:46,147 --> 00:58:48,316
we spoke about was diet
1262
00:58:48,316 --> 00:58:51,152
and to live a lifestyle
which minimizes harm
1263
00:58:51,152 --> 00:58:54,113
on the environment, on
animals, and on other people.
1264
00:58:54,113 --> 00:58:56,115
And so within that, the advocation
1265
00:58:56,115 --> 00:58:58,535
of a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle
1266
00:58:58,535 --> 00:58:59,994
was something that we strongly said
1267
00:58:59,994 --> 00:59:01,913
that Hindus, actually not just Hindus,
1268
00:59:01,996 --> 00:59:03,873
all concerned people of the world
1269
00:59:03,873 --> 00:59:05,208
should take very seriously.
1270
00:59:06,334 --> 00:59:08,545
If we want to create a world
which is full of compassion
1271
00:59:08,545 --> 00:59:10,964
which is full of love,
which is full of peace,
1272
00:59:10,964 --> 00:59:12,882
then we have to imbibe that and live that
1273
00:59:12,882 --> 00:59:14,968
within our own hearts and minds.
1274
00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:18,179
- Because we have a system,
a socioeconomic system
1275
00:59:18,179 --> 00:59:21,891
that's growth oriented and that's based
1276
00:59:21,891 --> 00:59:24,811
on consumption as an organizing value,
1277
00:59:24,811 --> 00:59:27,647
and competition as an
organizing principle.
1278
00:59:27,647 --> 00:59:30,066
And because it's growth oriented,
1279
00:59:30,066 --> 00:59:32,569
we have been growing our population
1280
00:59:32,569 --> 00:59:36,197
and our livestock, continuously.
1281
00:59:36,197 --> 00:59:37,782
See, if you look at what has happened
1282
00:59:37,782 --> 00:59:40,618
to the biomass distribution of the planet,
1283
00:59:40,618 --> 00:59:42,203
our weight is now double the weight
1284
00:59:42,203 --> 00:59:45,582
of all the wildlife from
ten thousand years ago,
1285
00:59:45,582 --> 00:59:47,584
and our livestock is two and a half
1286
00:59:47,584 --> 00:59:50,420
times our weight and what is worse
1287
00:59:50,420 --> 00:59:51,879
is that our livestock eat
1288
00:59:51,879 --> 00:59:54,007
five times as much food as we do
1289
00:59:54,007 --> 00:59:56,175
because they are mostly young animals
1290
00:59:56,175 --> 00:59:58,970
and they're eating a lot in order to grow.
1291
00:59:58,970 --> 01:00:00,680
So, it's as if you have
a bunch of weight lifters
1292
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:03,057
who are lifting five times their weight
1293
01:00:03,057 --> 01:00:04,851
and they discover that
they are on quicksand
1294
01:00:04,851 --> 01:00:06,519
and they're sinking.
1295
01:00:06,519 --> 01:00:08,229
So what is the first thing they should do
1296
01:00:08,229 --> 01:00:09,814
with the weight they're lifting?
1297
01:00:10,773 --> 01:00:12,942
Should we not drop those weights
1298
01:00:12,942 --> 01:00:15,820
or should we continue to hold on to them?
1299
01:00:15,820 --> 01:00:18,239
That's the situation we
are in at the moment.
1300
01:00:18,239 --> 01:00:20,450
But we are in a society
where we are taught
1301
01:00:20,450 --> 01:00:23,620
to look outside for happiness.
We are taught, you know,
1302
01:00:23,620 --> 01:00:26,831
that's where it is, and the
entire socioeconomic system
1303
01:00:26,831 --> 01:00:28,708
depends on us believing this.
1304
01:00:28,708 --> 01:00:30,627
That the happiness is outside us.
1305
01:00:30,627 --> 01:00:33,796
So we really are at a position where
1306
01:00:33,796 --> 01:00:36,507
we have to change our
socioeconomic system.
1307
01:00:36,507 --> 01:00:38,468
We have to change it so that
1308
01:00:38,468 --> 01:00:40,261
we are looking for happiness inside,
1309
01:00:40,261 --> 01:00:42,430
all of us, so that we are reducing
1310
01:00:42,430 --> 01:00:45,433
our demands on the earth and therefore
1311
01:00:45,433 --> 01:00:46,809
allowing the earth to come back,
1312
01:00:46,809 --> 01:00:48,478
you know, to regenerate again.
1313
01:00:48,603 --> 01:00:50,730
Veganism is a way of living where
1314
01:00:50,730 --> 01:00:53,107
we seek to never deliberately hurt
1315
01:00:53,107 --> 01:00:55,193
an innocent animal unnecessarily.
1316
01:00:55,193 --> 01:00:57,737
No longer is it necessary
to eat animal foods.
1317
01:00:57,737 --> 01:01:00,406
So knowing that, we can
now get in alignment
1318
01:01:00,406 --> 01:01:02,742
with who we really are, because all of us
1319
01:01:02,742 --> 01:01:04,994
want to be compassionate to all life
1320
01:01:04,994 --> 01:01:06,371
because that's who we are.
1321
01:01:06,371 --> 01:01:08,247
So the most important
step that an individual
1322
01:01:08,247 --> 01:01:12,794
can do today to address
environmental destruction
1323
01:01:12,794 --> 01:01:14,712
is to adopt a plant based diet
1324
01:01:14,712 --> 01:01:16,881
which is as local as possible,
1325
01:01:16,881 --> 01:01:18,966
which is as organic as possible.
1326
01:01:18,966 --> 01:01:23,554
So it's Local Organic Vegan
Eating - that’s L.O.V.E.
1327
01:01:24,597 --> 01:01:26,391
- [Thomas] The day before I left Morocco,
1328
01:01:26,391 --> 01:01:28,351
I joined thousands of environmental
1329
01:01:28,351 --> 01:01:30,728
activists from all over the world
1330
01:01:30,728 --> 01:01:33,189
as we took to the streets of Marrakesh
1331
01:01:33,189 --> 01:01:35,566
in a march for climate justice,
1332
01:01:35,566 --> 01:01:37,944
hoping one day that these marches
1333
01:01:37,944 --> 01:01:41,656
will include justice for animals as well.
1334
01:01:41,656 --> 01:01:46,202
- I am a ladybug from the forest.
1335
01:01:46,202 --> 01:01:50,248
Do you like to ask some questions?
1336
01:01:50,248 --> 01:01:52,709
- How does India have the largest export
1337
01:01:52,709 --> 01:01:54,877
of leather products in the world
1338
01:01:54,877 --> 01:01:57,630
and can still be a cow friendly country?
1339
01:01:57,630 --> 01:02:00,425
- [Thomas] On the second day of 2017
1340
01:02:00,425 --> 01:02:04,137
I once again found myself
flying over the ocean.
1341
01:02:04,137 --> 01:02:07,724
Holger Eick, one of our
producers who lives in Hong Kong,
1342
01:02:07,724 --> 01:02:10,143
had invited me to join him in India
1343
01:02:10,143 --> 01:02:11,519
where we would explore
1344
01:02:11,519 --> 01:02:13,896
the teachings of compassion in some of
1345
01:02:13,896 --> 01:02:16,858
the world's most ancient
spiritual traditions.
1346
01:02:16,858 --> 01:02:20,194
We would start our journey
in the city of Mumbai
1347
01:02:20,194 --> 01:02:23,531
where we spoke to Nithya
Shanti who lived six years
1348
01:02:23,531 --> 01:02:26,868
as a Buddhist monk and now
travels internationally,
1349
01:02:26,868 --> 01:02:28,828
sharing practical wisdom teachings
1350
01:02:28,828 --> 01:02:30,955
for happiness and enlightenment.
1351
01:02:30,955 --> 01:02:32,123
- I used to think for a long time
1352
01:02:32,123 --> 01:02:33,249
I need to be like the Buddha,
1353
01:02:33,249 --> 01:02:34,250
I'm not enough like the Buddha
1354
01:02:34,250 --> 01:02:35,668
I need to be more like the Buddha.
1355
01:02:35,668 --> 01:02:37,003
Then one day, it settled on me
1356
01:02:37,003 --> 01:02:39,338
that I'm not the Buddha.
I'm not the Buddha.
1357
01:02:39,338 --> 01:02:40,631
Even if I tried my very best,
1358
01:02:40,631 --> 01:02:42,383
I'll be a second rate Buddha.
1359
01:02:42,467 --> 01:02:44,844
But my eyes shone when I realized
1360
01:02:44,844 --> 01:02:46,262
even if the Buddha tries his best
1361
01:02:46,262 --> 01:02:49,223
he'll be a second rate Nithya Shanti.
1362
01:02:49,223 --> 01:02:51,642
In the Buddhist tradition, the word
1363
01:02:51,642 --> 01:02:53,978
for compassion is Karuna. And Karuna
1364
01:02:53,978 --> 01:02:56,063
is known as one of the noblest states
1365
01:02:56,063 --> 01:02:57,482
we can experience as a human being.
1366
01:02:57,482 --> 01:03:00,610
One of the most noble qualities...
1367
01:03:00,610 --> 01:03:03,112
It's called actually a boundless state.
1368
01:03:03,112 --> 01:03:04,614
When your mind is in unbalanced
1369
01:03:04,614 --> 01:03:05,990
all you are concerned about is
about me and my little world
1370
01:03:05,990 --> 01:03:07,825
and at most the people around me.
1371
01:03:07,825 --> 01:03:09,285
But as your mind gets
more and more balanced
1372
01:03:09,285 --> 01:03:11,829
you realize - all beings
we're in the same boat,
1373
01:03:11,829 --> 01:03:14,415
we all seek to be free from suffering.
1374
01:03:14,457 --> 01:03:16,209
And so the response of
1375
01:03:16,209 --> 01:03:17,919
a balanced mind to suffering
1376
01:03:17,919 --> 01:03:19,420
is compassion, is a desire
1377
01:03:19,420 --> 01:03:21,464
to alleviate that suffering in whatever
1378
01:03:21,464 --> 01:03:23,925
way they possibly can
and that's compassion.
1379
01:03:24,383 --> 01:03:28,012
- Vedanta is Indian philosophy which
1380
01:03:28,012 --> 01:03:30,765
originated in the Vedas but
1381
01:03:30,765 --> 01:03:32,809
it is simply knowledge of yourself.
1382
01:03:32,809 --> 01:03:35,436
Vedanta says there are three distinct
1383
01:03:35,436 --> 01:03:38,064
types of thoughts in a human being.
1384
01:03:38,940 --> 01:03:42,902
The highest is sattva which
is called pure thoughts
1385
01:03:42,902 --> 01:03:46,113
and unselfish thoughts,
compassionate thoughts,
1386
01:03:46,113 --> 01:03:48,950
loving thoughts, thoughts that contemplate
1387
01:03:48,950 --> 01:03:51,077
on the higher, the transcendental.
1388
01:03:51,118 --> 01:03:53,996
A person who is in sattva, pure thought
1389
01:03:54,038 --> 01:03:58,084
will not do anything that harms others
1390
01:03:59,252 --> 01:04:03,130
and to eat the flesh of another creature
1391
01:04:03,130 --> 01:04:06,050
because you find it tasty or even
1392
01:04:06,050 --> 01:04:07,552
if you think it's nutritious
1393
01:04:08,469 --> 01:04:12,265
is abhorrent to a person
with pure thoughts.
1394
01:04:12,473 --> 01:04:16,853
Vedanta says at all times in your life
1395
01:04:16,853 --> 01:04:20,314
you must have an attitude of not wanting
1396
01:04:20,314 --> 01:04:24,861
to injure, hurt, or be nasty
1397
01:04:24,861 --> 01:04:28,364
to anyone in thought, word, or deed.
1398
01:04:31,117 --> 01:04:32,743
- [Thomas] While in Mumbai,
1399
01:04:32,743 --> 01:04:35,371
we had the wonderful
opportunity to visit a
1400
01:04:35,371 --> 01:04:37,665
beautiful, world renowned Jain temple,
1401
01:04:37,957 --> 01:04:39,959
where we had the pleasure of speaking
1402
01:04:39,959 --> 01:04:42,253
with Urvi Shah, a devout Jain
1403
01:04:42,253 --> 01:04:44,672
who gave us a tour of the temple.
1404
01:06:07,672 --> 01:06:10,758
- Often I ask my patient, do you take milk
1405
01:06:10,758 --> 01:06:12,635
and they say oh no no, I hardly take milk,
1406
01:06:12,635 --> 01:06:14,595
I don't take milk, and then
1407
01:06:14,595 --> 01:06:16,180
we sit down and start writing down
1408
01:06:16,180 --> 01:06:20,434
chai, yes, curd, yes, maybe ice cream yes,
1409
01:06:20,476 --> 01:06:23,062
maybe paneer yes, maybe ghee yes,
1410
01:06:23,062 --> 01:06:25,356
and it can be literally like half a liter
1411
01:06:25,356 --> 01:06:28,275
of milk every day, so you do consume milk.
1412
01:06:28,275 --> 01:06:30,695
If you have just consumed
one slice of cheese
1413
01:06:30,695 --> 01:06:33,155
you have already consumed
16 ounces of milk.
1414
01:06:33,155 --> 01:06:35,366
The Indian subcontinent in Asia
1415
01:06:35,366 --> 01:06:37,868
is very obsessed with dairy products
1416
01:06:37,868 --> 01:06:39,662
because it's so deeply ingrained
1417
01:06:39,662 --> 01:06:40,997
that they think it's vegetarian.
1418
01:06:40,997 --> 01:06:42,832
Milk production is very high,
1419
01:06:42,832 --> 01:06:44,458
it's highest in the world. In fact,
1420
01:06:44,458 --> 01:06:47,503
India is one of the
largest exporters of beef
1421
01:06:47,503 --> 01:06:50,214
in the world, thanks to the dairy industry,
1422
01:06:50,214 --> 01:06:55,136
because after repeated
artificial insemination,
1423
01:06:55,136 --> 01:06:58,556
three or four times, about six or seven
1424
01:06:58,556 --> 01:07:01,225
year of age, now cow is spent.
1425
01:07:01,225 --> 01:07:04,186
She's of no use. Also, the young calf,
1426
01:07:04,186 --> 01:07:06,981
you know, the baby male cow is allowed
1427
01:07:06,981 --> 01:07:09,734
to just die and so the veal is produced
1428
01:07:09,734 --> 01:07:12,278
because there's no use of male cow
1429
01:07:12,278 --> 01:07:14,238
anywhere in any industry.
1430
01:07:14,613 --> 01:07:16,866
From the times of Lord Krishna,
1431
01:07:16,866 --> 01:07:19,326
we consume so much dairy, it's there
1432
01:07:19,326 --> 01:07:21,162
in our temples as prasad.
1433
01:07:21,328 --> 01:07:23,205
It's there at any good occasion,
1434
01:07:23,205 --> 01:07:25,541
marriage, everything's made from dairy.
1435
01:07:25,541 --> 01:07:27,960
Ghee, particularly, is used a lot
1436
01:07:27,960 --> 01:07:30,629
so it just doesn't go out of the psyche
1437
01:07:30,629 --> 01:07:32,882
of the Indian mind. So, I had to write a book
1438
01:07:32,882 --> 01:07:34,341
on dairy alternatives
1439
01:07:34,341 --> 01:07:36,927
and show them the way that you can make
1440
01:07:36,927 --> 01:07:38,846
butter milk, you can make yogurt
1441
01:07:38,846 --> 01:07:41,098
you can make ice creams, you can make
1442
01:07:41,098 --> 01:07:43,684
all the Indian sweets same way, exactly
1443
01:07:43,684 --> 01:07:47,188
same, tasting even much
better and healthier.
1444
01:07:47,354 --> 01:07:49,857
- One of the first patients I remember
1445
01:07:49,857 --> 01:07:53,402
was a man who had diabetes but that's
1446
01:07:53,402 --> 01:07:56,072
not why he came to me. He had diabetes
1447
01:07:56,072 --> 01:07:58,115
and he was being given medicines
1448
01:07:58,115 --> 01:08:00,117
and the blood sugar
wouldn't come under control
1449
01:08:00,117 --> 01:08:01,744
but he came to me because he had
1450
01:08:01,744 --> 01:08:03,537
the complications of diabetes,
1451
01:08:03,537 --> 01:08:05,164
he was losing his eyesight.
1452
01:08:05,164 --> 01:08:07,166
And when I suggested to him
1453
01:08:07,166 --> 01:08:10,795
to stop all the dairy, within two weeks
1454
01:08:10,795 --> 01:08:12,213
his blood sugar came down
1455
01:08:12,254 --> 01:08:14,006
and his eyesight came back.
1456
01:08:14,340 --> 01:08:16,717
It was just so amazing and then over
1457
01:08:16,717 --> 01:08:18,219
a period of time he went on a
1458
01:08:18,219 --> 01:08:21,514
whole plant based diet
and improved even further.
1459
01:08:21,514 --> 01:08:24,350
So, this was one of my early cases which
1460
01:08:24,350 --> 01:08:27,645
brought to my mind how much changing
1461
01:08:27,686 --> 01:08:30,481
our diet really helps because our body
1462
01:08:30,481 --> 01:08:31,941
always works to heal.
1463
01:08:32,483 --> 01:08:34,485
I actually realized that medicines
1464
01:08:34,485 --> 01:08:36,946
come in the way of healing.
1465
01:08:36,946 --> 01:08:40,741
In fact medicines never
cure, but the body heals.
1466
01:08:40,866 --> 01:08:45,329
I also run a 21 day residential program
1467
01:08:45,454 --> 01:08:47,832
where we have people coming in
1468
01:08:47,873 --> 01:08:49,416
with all kinds of diseases
1469
01:08:49,458 --> 01:08:51,836
and we do all the lab
reports at the beginning
1470
01:08:51,836 --> 01:08:54,588
and as they get better, we take off
1471
01:08:54,588 --> 01:08:57,174
medications and they're
given buffet meals.
1472
01:08:57,216 --> 01:09:00,302
We have cooking classes
every day, we have yoga,
1473
01:09:00,302 --> 01:09:04,098
meditation, and within 21 days,
1474
01:09:04,098 --> 01:09:08,435
most of them get off at
least 70% of the medication.
1475
01:09:08,435 --> 01:09:11,397
Many of them are off all their medications
1476
01:09:11,981 --> 01:09:13,482
and they have more energy than
1477
01:09:13,524 --> 01:09:15,109
they ever had before and we do
1478
01:09:15,151 --> 01:09:17,862
lab reports all over at the end
1479
01:09:17,945 --> 01:09:20,030
so that they can actually
see the difference
1480
01:09:20,030 --> 01:09:23,492
between the two reports
and even I'm amazed.
1481
01:09:23,492 --> 01:09:25,661
Not only they are amazed but I'm amazed
1482
01:09:25,661 --> 01:09:28,831
every time, how fast the body can actually
1483
01:09:28,831 --> 01:09:32,626
heal if we take away all the
things that make it sick.
1484
01:09:34,420 --> 01:09:36,964
- [Thomas] Holger and
I left Mumbai and flew
1485
01:09:36,964 --> 01:09:40,593
over to Udaipur where
we met up with Sailesh
1486
01:09:40,593 --> 01:09:43,429
and I ran into Dharmada,
a friend I had made
1487
01:09:43,429 --> 01:09:46,015
during the Animal Rights
conference in L.A.
1488
01:09:46,015 --> 01:09:48,767
She introduced us to her friend, Ashutosh,
1489
01:09:48,767 --> 01:09:51,896
and together we all traveled
out to Animal Aid Rescue
1490
01:09:52,229 --> 01:09:54,523
where we met the founder, Jim Meyers,
1491
01:09:54,523 --> 01:09:56,525
who along with his wife, daughter,
1492
01:09:56,525 --> 01:09:59,737
and 50 full time staff
members and volunteers
1493
01:09:59,737 --> 01:10:01,030
from around the world, have rescued
1494
01:10:01,030 --> 01:10:04,617
over 65,000 injured and ill street animals
1495
01:10:04,617 --> 01:10:08,245
including dogs, cows, camels, and donkeys,
1496
01:10:08,245 --> 01:10:12,833
just to name a few, since they
opened their gates in 2003.
1497
01:10:12,917 --> 01:10:16,337
- In the state of
Rajasthan, it is not legal
1498
01:10:16,337 --> 01:10:18,214
to euthanize a cow.
1499
01:10:18,756 --> 01:10:20,966
Any of the other animals you see here,
1500
01:10:20,966 --> 01:10:24,553
the monkey, the blind dogs, the
1501
01:10:24,553 --> 01:10:28,265
handicapped dogs, all can be euthanized
1502
01:10:28,265 --> 01:10:31,810
but the cow is given
this special protection.
1503
01:10:31,810 --> 01:10:33,520
A dairy in the city,
1504
01:10:33,520 --> 01:10:36,982
somebody, that cow, there, this one, that one
1505
01:10:36,982 --> 01:10:39,818
stopped giving milk and at night,
1506
01:10:39,818 --> 01:10:42,154
it was pushed out into the street.
1507
01:10:42,154 --> 01:10:44,448
And cruelly, the same one that you say,
1508
01:10:44,448 --> 01:10:47,493
is so holy, we aren't even
going to euthanize them,
1509
01:10:47,493 --> 01:10:50,412
we're so enraptured with their
1510
01:10:50,412 --> 01:10:52,873
spirit to keep it alive, every single
1511
01:10:52,873 --> 01:10:56,001
cow represents an abandonment that it was
1512
01:10:56,001 --> 01:10:59,922
not profitable to feed that
cow anymore, to do anymore
1513
01:10:59,922 --> 01:11:03,425
with it so you've removed
it and you've broken a law.
1514
01:11:03,425 --> 01:11:05,427
This animal at night
1515
01:11:05,427 --> 01:11:08,305
would be eaten out by dogs and pigs
1516
01:11:08,305 --> 01:11:10,808
alive in the street,
1517
01:11:10,808 --> 01:11:15,771
with no medicine to alleviate pain, no one
1518
01:11:15,771 --> 01:11:19,817
to shelter its eyes in
a 49 degree Celsius day,
1519
01:11:19,817 --> 01:11:23,988
to move the flies away and here it was
1520
01:11:23,988 --> 01:11:27,241
the only way I could get, not happy,
1521
01:11:27,241 --> 01:11:29,660
because it's nothing to be happy about,
1522
01:11:29,660 --> 01:11:31,787
but I could get satisfied
1523
01:11:31,787 --> 01:11:34,540
that some justice was being done
1524
01:11:34,540 --> 01:11:38,043
so that this cow which this dear lady
1525
01:11:38,043 --> 01:11:41,213
is helping us with, this cow
1526
01:11:41,213 --> 01:11:43,882
is going to die in a few
days. It's not gonna be,
1527
01:11:43,882 --> 01:11:45,426
it's legs aren't gonna get stronger
1528
01:11:45,426 --> 01:11:47,177
and get better and return to the city,
1529
01:11:47,177 --> 01:11:50,014
find its long lost brothers and sisters.
1530
01:11:50,222 --> 01:11:53,559
The least favorite question a serious
1531
01:11:53,600 --> 01:11:55,769
politician in India wants to hear
1532
01:11:55,769 --> 01:11:58,605
is, “What happens to the male cows?”
1533
01:11:58,605 --> 01:12:01,150
And so that story has to be suppressed
1534
01:12:01,150 --> 01:12:03,902
if you're gonna keep
up all the sensitivity.
1535
01:12:03,902 --> 01:12:05,988
So, no one shows the links.
1536
01:14:18,579 --> 01:14:21,081
- [Thomas] After visiting the royal palace
1537
01:14:21,081 --> 01:14:25,252
and two Hindu temples, the Jagdish and the
1538
01:14:25,252 --> 01:14:28,964
Karni Mata, I had to say goodbye to Holger
1539
01:14:28,964 --> 01:14:31,049
as he flew home to Hong Kong
1540
01:14:31,049 --> 01:14:33,594
and I journeyed forward to New Delhi
1541
01:14:33,594 --> 01:14:35,512
where I would have the unique opportunity
1542
01:14:35,512 --> 01:14:38,140
to speak to two Digambara Jain sadhus,
1543
01:14:38,182 --> 01:14:41,435
sky clad Jain saints who have freed
1544
01:14:41,435 --> 01:14:44,605
themselves of all attachments
and worldly possessions,
1545
01:14:44,605 --> 01:14:49,026
including clothing, money and
even dishes and silverware.
1546
01:15:06,084 --> 01:15:09,671
The Jain religion is said to
be around 5,000 years old
1547
01:15:09,671 --> 01:15:13,675
and it has a rich history of
non violence and vegetarianism.
1548
01:15:13,675 --> 01:15:16,261
It has libraries filled
with their collective
1549
01:15:16,261 --> 01:15:19,014
knowledge and wisdom, yet there was really
1550
01:15:19,014 --> 01:15:21,558
only one question I wanted to ask
1551
01:15:21,558 --> 01:15:24,102
these holy saints of Ahimsa.
1552
01:15:25,479 --> 01:15:29,316
- (foreign language speaking)
1553
01:15:47,834 --> 01:15:51,672
- (foreign language speaking)
1554
01:16:00,305 --> 01:16:03,141
As much as I loved and
felt at home in India,
1555
01:16:03,225 --> 01:16:05,644
two weeks was as long as I could keep
1556
01:16:05,644 --> 01:16:09,314
myself away from Melody and
our sanctuary in the woods.
1557
01:16:09,481 --> 01:16:12,025
- When you were a kid
did you get really dirty
1558
01:16:12,025 --> 01:16:13,610
and your mom get mad?
1559
01:16:14,945 --> 01:16:16,655
- I did get really dirty but you know
1560
01:16:16,655 --> 01:16:18,115
I had a pretty cool mom. I don't think
1561
01:16:18,115 --> 01:16:19,449
she got mad about it.
1562
01:16:19,616 --> 01:16:21,285
- How old are you now?
1563
01:16:21,785 --> 01:16:24,955
- I will be 50 in a few weeks.
1564
01:16:25,080 --> 01:16:27,207
- Aaahhh, I forgot.
1565
01:16:27,249 --> 01:16:29,918
- One of the great Hasidic
rabbis, Rabbi Nachman, taught
1566
01:16:29,918 --> 01:16:31,461
that the day you were born
1567
01:16:31,461 --> 01:16:33,547
was the day that God decided the world
1568
01:16:33,547 --> 01:16:35,507
could not exist without you,
1569
01:16:36,091 --> 01:16:38,218
and that is true for every being,
1570
01:16:38,218 --> 01:16:40,762
that every being that has breath
1571
01:16:40,762 --> 01:16:42,556
God has said the world cannot
1572
01:16:42,556 --> 01:16:45,809
exist without them. And to honor
1573
01:16:45,809 --> 01:16:48,103
God is to honor the holy breath
1574
01:16:48,103 --> 01:16:50,480
of every being and to see
1575
01:16:50,480 --> 01:16:54,276
that the world needs each of us.
1576
01:16:54,484 --> 01:16:56,153
- [Thomas] I was very excited to have
1577
01:16:56,153 --> 01:16:57,738
the honor and delight of sitting down
1578
01:16:57,738 --> 01:16:59,656
with Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz
1579
01:16:59,948 --> 01:17:02,284
while he was attending
a rabbinical conference
1580
01:17:02,284 --> 01:17:04,119
in Atlanta, Georgia.
1581
01:17:04,119 --> 01:17:06,788
Rabbi Yanklowitz is a
social justice activist,
1582
01:17:06,788 --> 01:17:08,498
a sought after educational
1583
01:17:08,498 --> 01:17:10,959
and motivational speaker and the author
1584
01:17:10,959 --> 01:17:14,421
of seven books on Jewish
spirituality and ethics.
1585
01:17:14,588 --> 01:17:18,050
He is the founder of the
Shamayim V'Aretz Institute,
1586
01:17:18,050 --> 01:17:20,844
a graduate of both Harvard and Columbia
1587
01:17:20,844 --> 01:17:22,971
and the only person I've personally met
1588
01:17:22,971 --> 01:17:25,724
who's donated one of his
kidneys to a stranger.
1589
01:17:26,016 --> 01:17:27,768
- The book of Psalms teaches
1590
01:17:27,768 --> 01:17:30,854
that the world is built through kindness.
1591
01:17:30,854 --> 01:17:34,524
We bring heaven down to earth
by perpetuating kindness.
1592
01:17:34,650 --> 01:17:37,402
In every interaction, in every act
1593
01:17:37,402 --> 01:17:40,656
of food consumption,
in every choice we make,
1594
01:17:40,656 --> 01:17:43,033
we have the opportunity to elevate
1595
01:17:43,033 --> 01:17:46,495
the sparks of holiness
in whatever we encounter.
1596
01:17:46,495 --> 01:17:49,456
We have the opportunity to objectify
1597
01:17:49,456 --> 01:17:52,751
and abuse or we have the opportunity
1598
01:17:52,751 --> 01:17:55,003
to see the holiness in everything.
1599
01:17:55,003 --> 01:17:56,797
When my children were born
1600
01:17:56,797 --> 01:17:58,840
and I held them for the first time,
1601
01:17:58,840 --> 01:18:02,552
the level of love I felt was so infinite!
1602
01:18:02,552 --> 01:18:06,890
This is how God experiences
all of God's creatures.
1603
01:18:06,890 --> 01:18:10,894
Each creature is held with infinite love
1604
01:18:10,894 --> 01:18:12,979
and to take the Godly perspective
1605
01:18:12,979 --> 01:18:17,401
of the universe is to treat
every being with love,
1606
01:18:17,401 --> 01:18:21,405
to treat every being as
an end in themselves.
1607
01:18:21,405 --> 01:18:24,324
All of our religions teach this,
1608
01:18:24,324 --> 01:18:25,867
in their purest form.
1609
01:18:26,326 --> 01:18:27,786
So the most central question we can
1610
01:18:27,786 --> 01:18:29,621
ask ourselves every day is
1611
01:18:29,621 --> 01:18:32,457
how can I increase compassion
in the world today,
1612
01:18:32,457 --> 01:18:34,292
through my every choice?
1613
01:18:35,335 --> 01:18:37,129
- I long ago started just saying
1614
01:18:37,129 --> 01:18:38,755
I'm a follower of Jesus Christ
1615
01:18:38,755 --> 01:18:40,632
because even if you are not a Christian
1616
01:18:40,632 --> 01:18:42,134
coming into that conversation
1617
01:18:42,134 --> 01:18:44,302
you know enough about Jesus
to think that you're gonna
1618
01:18:44,302 --> 01:18:45,512
generally agree with most stuff
1619
01:18:45,512 --> 01:18:47,889
Jesus says. I mean turning the other cheek
1620
01:18:47,889 --> 01:18:49,683
and forgiveness and goodness.
1621
01:18:49,683 --> 01:18:51,893
I mean most people agree that Jesus
1622
01:18:51,893 --> 01:18:54,604
was teaching the right values
1623
01:18:54,604 --> 01:18:56,356
even if they're not
Christians. And it's because
1624
01:18:56,356 --> 01:18:59,109
I love Jesus so much that I'm a vegan.
1625
01:18:59,109 --> 01:19:03,530
I'm not a vegan who also coincidentally
1626
01:19:03,530 --> 01:19:07,492
is a Christian. I am, full on,
1627
01:19:07,492 --> 01:19:11,371
a vegan because I love Jesus Christ.
1628
01:19:12,038 --> 01:19:14,249
- [Thomas] Although I'd already
shot several hundred hours
1629
01:19:14,249 --> 01:19:16,376
of footage and I was a quarter way
1630
01:19:16,376 --> 01:19:18,712
through the rough cut, I couldn't pass up
1631
01:19:18,712 --> 01:19:20,964
the amazing opportunity to travel back
1632
01:19:20,964 --> 01:19:24,384
to Manhattan and speak to Suzy Welch,
1633
01:19:24,384 --> 01:19:26,803
who is a business journalist, bestselling
1634
01:19:26,803 --> 01:19:30,056
author and a regular
contributor on the Today Show.
1635
01:19:30,682 --> 01:19:33,185
She's a devout, evangelical Christian
1636
01:19:33,185 --> 01:19:35,228
and an Animal Rights activist,
1637
01:19:35,270 --> 01:19:37,355
who currently sits on the advisory board
1638
01:19:37,355 --> 01:19:39,191
of the Good Food Institute.
1639
01:19:39,191 --> 01:19:41,359
- Jesus' earliest followers, many of them
1640
01:19:41,359 --> 01:19:43,278
were vegan because they got it.
1641
01:19:43,278 --> 01:19:45,155
They got that Jesus was
about mercy, compassion
1642
01:19:45,155 --> 01:19:47,115
and love, and life.
1643
01:19:47,115 --> 01:19:51,119
Choose life, give life, stop killing,
1644
01:19:51,119 --> 01:19:53,163
show kindness to everything and so
1645
01:19:53,163 --> 01:19:56,875
Jesus' earliest fanatical
followers were vegans.
1646
01:19:56,958 --> 01:19:59,711
And at one point, in Acts,
Paul, frustrated with them,
1647
01:19:59,711 --> 01:20:01,963
says, “Stop talking about what you're eating.
1648
01:20:01,963 --> 01:20:03,298
You're sort of taking up all of our time
1649
01:20:03,298 --> 01:20:04,674
with your vegan diet
1650
01:20:04,674 --> 01:20:06,009
and let's pay attention to other things.
1651
01:20:06,009 --> 01:20:07,511
He had bigger sort of philosophical issues
1652
01:20:07,552 --> 01:20:09,387
that he wanted everybody
paying attention to,
1653
01:20:09,387 --> 01:20:11,932
but we know historically
1654
01:20:11,932 --> 01:20:14,184
that Jesus' earliest followers,
1655
01:20:14,184 --> 01:20:16,436
the people sort of closest to his message,
1656
01:20:16,436 --> 01:20:20,106
were vegan because of
him. So it's not like
1657
01:20:20,106 --> 01:20:22,359
I invented this, that I am just
1658
01:20:22,359 --> 01:20:25,195
following the tradition of Christians
1659
01:20:25,195 --> 01:20:27,364
all along who got that connection
1660
01:20:27,364 --> 01:20:29,658
but the connection's been
buried. It's been buried
1661
01:20:29,658 --> 01:20:32,786
for a long time for cultural
reasons, for cultural reasons.
1662
01:20:32,786 --> 01:20:35,413
But then people come back
to this concept of dominion,
1663
01:20:35,413 --> 01:20:37,040
that's the big one for Christians.
1664
01:20:37,040 --> 01:20:40,085
Well God gave us dominion
over all of His creation.
1665
01:20:40,085 --> 01:20:42,212
Well then, you have to think about
1666
01:20:42,212 --> 01:20:44,339
what dominion means. Well, God
1667
01:20:44,339 --> 01:20:46,341
has dominion over us. What does that mean,
1668
01:20:46,341 --> 01:20:48,885
God's dominion over
us? He tells us exactly
1669
01:20:48,885 --> 01:20:50,470
what dominion means. People like
1670
01:20:50,470 --> 01:20:51,805
to debate what dominion means
1671
01:20:51,805 --> 01:20:53,223
but God tells us what dominion means.
1672
01:20:53,223 --> 01:20:57,310
It means loving, nurturing, life filled,
1673
01:20:57,310 --> 01:21:01,314
hope filled, compassionate, merciful,
1674
01:21:01,314 --> 01:21:05,110
tender, love! Okay and if that's
1675
01:21:05,110 --> 01:21:07,362
what dominion means
and God's demonstrating
1676
01:21:07,362 --> 01:21:10,115
it towards us, which he is,
1677
01:21:10,115 --> 01:21:13,243
then it's our turn to use that
1678
01:21:13,243 --> 01:21:15,245
exact same exact bunch of words
1679
01:21:15,245 --> 01:21:17,873
in how we treat God's creation.
1680
01:21:17,873 --> 01:21:19,958
And, I don't know, slaughter houses
1681
01:21:19,958 --> 01:21:21,293
are not included in that.
1682
01:21:21,293 --> 01:21:24,629
And so for me, well
yeah, bring up dominion,
1683
01:21:24,629 --> 01:21:27,132
bring it, because the Bible
tells us what dominion is
1684
01:21:27,132 --> 01:21:29,426
and if you believe that dominion
1685
01:21:29,426 --> 01:21:31,052
is what God tells us it is,
1686
01:21:31,052 --> 01:21:34,264
then you have to stop eating animals.
1687
01:21:34,764 --> 01:21:36,474
- So Roman Catholics take scripture
1688
01:21:36,474 --> 01:21:38,310
very seriously, but we always
1689
01:21:38,310 --> 01:21:39,936
pair it with tradition saying that
1690
01:21:39,936 --> 01:21:41,605
we can't really even interpret scripture
1691
01:21:41,605 --> 01:21:43,273
without the tradition as well,
1692
01:21:43,273 --> 01:21:45,317
and the tradition on animals
1693
01:21:45,317 --> 01:21:47,736
all the way to the catechism
of the Catholic church,
1694
01:21:47,736 --> 01:21:49,279
the official teaching
of the Catholic Church
1695
01:21:49,279 --> 01:21:51,615
through the catechism, is so interesting
1696
01:21:51,615 --> 01:21:54,993
on animals, including an almost justice
1697
01:21:54,993 --> 01:21:59,414
like command saying that
we owe animals kindness.
1698
01:21:59,414 --> 01:22:01,666
Often, in moral theology, we think
1699
01:22:01,666 --> 01:22:03,752
about justice as being what we owe
1700
01:22:03,752 --> 01:22:06,296
other people and the language of justice
1701
01:22:06,296 --> 01:22:08,965
is used in the catechism
of the Catholic Church.
1702
01:22:08,965 --> 01:22:11,384
We owe animals kindness,
that's unambiguous.
1703
01:22:11,384 --> 01:22:14,429
And so much of what we do today,
1704
01:22:14,429 --> 01:22:16,306
of course, is inconsistent with that
1705
01:22:16,306 --> 01:22:18,600
and Catholics have to ask those questions.
1706
01:22:19,434 --> 01:22:21,061
- [Thomas] While in New York City,
1707
01:22:21,061 --> 01:22:23,104
Victoria and I visited the beautiful
1708
01:22:23,104 --> 01:22:25,523
campus at Fordham University
1709
01:22:25,523 --> 01:22:27,359
which was founded by the Catholic
1710
01:22:27,359 --> 01:22:30,528
Diocese of New York in 1841.
1711
01:22:30,528 --> 01:22:33,573
There we spoke with Charles Camosy,
1712
01:22:33,573 --> 01:22:35,617
an Associate Professor of Theology
1713
01:22:35,617 --> 01:22:37,702
and Social Ethics and an author
1714
01:22:37,702 --> 01:22:40,705
whose books include, For Love of Animals,
1715
01:22:40,705 --> 01:22:43,249
and Peter Singer and Christian Ethics.
1716
01:22:43,375 --> 01:22:46,294
- I think so much of where injustice
1717
01:22:46,294 --> 01:22:49,130
comes from is our refusing
to apply our principles
1718
01:22:49,130 --> 01:22:52,300
consistently. So we say we believe this
1719
01:22:52,300 --> 01:22:54,761
but then when it comes to his other thing
1720
01:22:54,761 --> 01:22:56,972
where it looks like we have to act
1721
01:22:56,972 --> 01:22:59,057
in a way contrary to the way
we're currently acting
1722
01:22:59,057 --> 01:23:01,559
if we want to follow
that principle seriously,
1723
01:23:01,559 --> 01:23:03,353
we kind of abandon the principle.
1724
01:23:03,436 --> 01:23:05,730
I use the analogy in my classes,
1725
01:23:05,730 --> 01:23:07,524
arguments and principles are like buses,
1726
01:23:07,524 --> 01:23:09,025
they're not like taxis. So if you
1727
01:23:09,025 --> 01:23:10,568
have a principle you have to follow it
1728
01:23:10,568 --> 01:23:12,612
wherever it goes or you gotta
1729
01:23:12,612 --> 01:23:14,364
get on a different bus. You can't
1730
01:23:14,364 --> 01:23:16,032
just tell your principle wherever
1731
01:23:16,032 --> 01:23:17,701
it's gonna end up, that's
just being irrational.
1732
01:23:17,701 --> 01:23:19,953
So and so much injustice has come
1733
01:23:19,953 --> 01:23:21,621
from that kind of irrationality.
1734
01:23:21,621 --> 01:23:24,165
We believe in the divinity
of the human person
1735
01:23:24,165 --> 01:23:26,626
except in slavery. We
believe in non violence
1736
01:23:26,626 --> 01:23:28,962
except when we perpetuate
war in the Crusades.
1737
01:23:28,962 --> 01:23:31,339
We believe in the most vulnerable,
1738
01:23:31,339 --> 01:23:34,134
except when it comes to how we eat.
1739
01:23:34,134 --> 01:23:36,428
And so in the book I'm trying to call out
1740
01:23:36,469 --> 01:23:38,304
all Christians to say,
1741
01:23:38,304 --> 01:23:40,974
if we really claim to
believe these things,
1742
01:23:41,099 --> 01:23:43,268
we ought to change our whole lives
1743
01:23:43,268 --> 01:23:45,437
or let's not claim to believe these things.
1744
01:23:45,437 --> 01:23:47,522
Because if we just pick and choose
1745
01:23:47,522 --> 01:23:49,149
where we end up as a
result of these principles,
1746
01:23:49,149 --> 01:23:52,110
we don't actually really
believe the principles are true.
1747
01:23:52,110 --> 01:23:54,612
And to me that's just what it means
1748
01:23:54,612 --> 01:23:56,072
to be a Christian, it means following
1749
01:23:56,072 --> 01:23:57,824
Christ in every aspect of your life,
1750
01:23:57,824 --> 01:24:00,118
not just picking and
choosing where you do that.
1751
01:24:00,410 --> 01:24:02,662
- Charles and Myrtle Fillmore
the founders of Unity,
1752
01:24:02,662 --> 01:24:05,665
were staunch vegetarians all their lives,
1753
01:24:05,665 --> 01:24:07,208
talked about it a lot.
1754
01:24:07,208 --> 01:24:10,003
I think the Archives has 135 talks
1755
01:24:10,003 --> 01:24:13,173
from Charles Fillmore
about being vegetarian.
1756
01:24:13,173 --> 01:24:15,341
They wrote about it in their publications,
1757
01:24:15,341 --> 01:24:18,344
and so having been to seminary
1758
01:24:18,344 --> 01:24:19,846
and knowing Unity's history,
1759
01:24:19,846 --> 01:24:21,890
I knew they were vegetarian.
1760
01:24:22,223 --> 01:24:24,684
I didn't know quite how ferociously
1761
01:24:24,684 --> 01:24:28,980
they were until I became vegan
1762
01:24:28,980 --> 01:24:31,066
and started reading more about it.
1763
01:24:31,608 --> 01:24:33,610
- [Thomas] So it turns
out the founders of Unity,
1764
01:24:33,610 --> 01:24:34,903
the church I was attending
1765
01:24:34,903 --> 01:24:36,488
when I became vegan
1766
01:24:36,488 --> 01:24:39,449
were vegetarians in the late 1800s and
1767
01:24:39,449 --> 01:24:41,701
even included it in
their statement of faith,
1768
01:24:41,701 --> 01:24:44,245
until it was removed in 1939.
1769
01:24:44,537 --> 01:24:47,165
So I joined Victoria at Unity village
1770
01:24:47,165 --> 01:24:49,793
in Missouri where she
arranged an interview
1771
01:24:49,793 --> 01:24:52,587
with her friend, Reverend Ellen Debenport,
1772
01:24:52,670 --> 01:24:55,882
Unity's Vice President
of content and media,
1773
01:24:55,882 --> 01:24:57,342
to ask why no one at Unity
1774
01:24:57,342 --> 01:24:59,052
had ever told me about this
1775
01:24:59,052 --> 01:25:01,137
and to discuss how Unity could be
1776
01:25:01,137 --> 01:25:03,973
more proactive in sharing
Charles' teachings
1777
01:25:03,973 --> 01:25:05,683
about not eating animals.
1778
01:25:05,934 --> 01:25:07,894
- A lot of people find Unity
1779
01:25:07,894 --> 01:25:10,897
as refugees from rigid religions
1780
01:25:10,897 --> 01:25:12,565
and so they're hyper sensitive
1781
01:25:12,565 --> 01:25:14,275
to being told what to do,
1782
01:25:14,275 --> 01:25:16,444
or being told they're wrong or bad
1783
01:25:16,444 --> 01:25:19,697
and so Unity's leaders including me
1784
01:25:19,697 --> 01:25:22,367
are probably pretty hesitant
1785
01:25:22,367 --> 01:25:24,828
to talk about, there is this other
1786
01:25:24,828 --> 01:25:28,081
way to eat that you might find
1787
01:25:28,081 --> 01:25:31,084
would enhance your spiritual journey.
1788
01:25:31,167 --> 01:25:33,378
We may be moving in that direction.
1789
01:25:33,378 --> 01:25:34,963
We have more and more ministers who
1790
01:25:34,963 --> 01:25:36,714
are talking about it and who
1791
01:25:36,714 --> 01:25:39,134
think Unity really should insist on it
1792
01:25:39,134 --> 01:25:41,803
from World Headquarters, which
1793
01:25:41,803 --> 01:25:43,888
isn't going to happen any time soon,
1794
01:25:43,972 --> 01:25:46,266
because we don't want to tell people
1795
01:25:46,266 --> 01:25:50,520
what to do, but we can talk about it
1796
01:25:50,520 --> 01:25:53,898
and we can revive the
idea that the Fillmores
1797
01:25:53,898 --> 01:25:58,736
preached vegetarianism and saw
it as a spiritual practice.
1798
01:26:00,405 --> 01:26:01,906
- [PODCAST] Learn how to eat better,
1799
01:26:01,906 --> 01:26:04,284
get healthy and help animals. Welcome
1800
01:26:04,284 --> 01:26:08,580
to Main Street Vegan with
your host, Victoria Moran.
1801
01:26:09,873 --> 01:26:11,541
- [Thomas] The Main Street Vegan podcast
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on Unity radio is one of the ways
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Unity has begun moving back
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toward their vegetarian roots,
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and after speaking with Ellen,
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I look forward to seeing what other
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ways they'll find to
honor Charles and Myrtle's
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original teachings about not eating
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or wearing our fellow earthlings.
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Over 74 billion farmed animals
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are bred and slaughtered every year,
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most of them while
they're still just babies
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and in the United States they eat
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nearly 70% of the grain we grow
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and raising them uses
over 80% of our water
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and almost half of our land
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and it's also the number one cause
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of water and air pollution as well
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as deforestation, species extinction,
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and ocean dead zones.
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How long can we continue to try
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and justify this?
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All of the great
spiritual traditions agree
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that along with life's joys,
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there will also be suffering
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but so much of the suffering I see
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in the world around me is unnecessary
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and caused by the choices
we make every day.
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Those choices are having a devastating
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effect on our individual
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and collective karma and health
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and they're threatening
the future of our children.
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(Native American flute music)
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My prayer is that each of us
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will challenge ourselves to be more kind
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and compassionate with our
thoughts, words and actions,
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to vote wisely with our dollars
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and to take better care
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of all of creation
including our body temples
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and to take the time each day
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to go within and ask some version of what
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can I do to make the world better
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for those yet to come
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and then listen carefully for that
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still quiet voice to answer.
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♪ All around this great big world ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
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♪ All around this great big world ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
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♪ All around this great big world ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine, ♪
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♪ Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪
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- Eating fruit is help
your brain like mine.
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♪ This little light of mine, ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine, ♪
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♪ ♪ This little light of mine, ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine, ♪
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♪ This little light of mine, ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine, ♪
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♪ Let it shine, let it
shine, let it shine ♪
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♪ Hallelujah ♪
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(upbeat jazz music)
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♪ Namaste ♪
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♪ I ain't gonna hide it
under no bushel, no ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine, ♪
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♪ Ain't gonna hide it
under no bushel, no ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine, ♪
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♪ Ain't gonna hide it
under no bushel, no ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine, ♪
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♪ Let it shine, let it
shine, let it shine ♪
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♪ Everywhere I go ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
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♪ To everyone I know ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
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♪ Everywhere I go ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
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♪ Let it shine, let it
shine, let it shine ♪
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(upbeat jazz music)
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♪ Let it shine now ♪
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♪ Everywhere you go now ♪
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♪ To everyone you know ♪
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♪ Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪
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♪ This little light of mine ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine, lord ♪
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♪ This little light of mine ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
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♪ This little light of mine ♪
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♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
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♪ Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪
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♪ Hallelujah ♪
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♪ Namaste now ♪
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♪ Don't forget to pray now ♪
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♪ And everywhere you go ♪
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♪ Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪
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Ladies and gentlemen put your hands
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together for the Village Brass Band.
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Good night, drive safely and God bless.
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