Empowerment through Compassion

Compassion is the Key to Saving The World

All the cruelties and atrocities in the world happen because of lack of empathy and compassion.

Governments could only wage war and bomb and murder and maim countless men, women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and other war torn countries by objectifying human beings as ‘collateral damage’. In other words, by being devoid of empathy and compassion for human suffering. 

The cruelties that workers in factory farms and slaughterhouses inflict on billions of defenceless animals can only happen by shutting down all empathy and compassion for their terror, pain and suffering and objectifying them as ‘food products’.

The violation of children by paedophiles, the mutilation of innocent people by laughing soldiers, the act of planting a bomb on a train that blows human beings to bits, exploiting workers in slave labour, incarcerating people in prisons, torture, rape, violence and every variety of abuse and all the atrocities you can document are only possible through a lack of empathy and compassion for other living beings.

If lack of empathy and compassion is the core problem then logically, developing empathy and compassion is the solution. Compassion is the key to solving all levels of abuse in every relationship on the planet.

What exactly is empathy and compassion?

Empathy is to see and feel someone else’s inner emotions – the pain of their fears, grief, shame, helplessness, despair and also their joy, hopes and dreams and longings. Empathy is to perceive the raw unmet needs beneath surface behaviour.

Compassion is a deep understanding and concern for others’ suffering that connects us with humanity and all living beings. As we mature we become other-centred, rather than self-centred. When feeling compassion, we cannot harm others. We want the best for them: peace and safety, health and happiness, love and connection. The compassionate heart treats others with kindness, forgiveness and grace.

Empathy and compassion are located in the feeling heart, not the logical brain, and develop when the heart is broken. Through the shattering experience of grief and suffering, we grow in our ability to empathise.

Attuned parents also develop empathy when they understand and soothe the intense feelings propelling the toddler tantrum.

But some people disconnect from their own vulnerability and become cold and numb to the suffering of others. They justify cruelty and destruction. They act from insatiable greed and self-interest.

In understanding other people’s decisions and actions, we must dig deep into the values (strongly-held beliefs) and buried emotions that motivate and drive their actions.

If the world’s most skilful psychotherapists could break down destructive politicians, they would discover a hurting little child inside desperately trying to get attention and adoration, feel important and please mummy and daddy.

The Great Spiritual Teachers Taught Compassion

Jesus of Nazareth’s true gift was his heightened empathy and compassion for his fellow human beings, expressed freely without prejudice or discrimination.

With penetrating insight, Jesus could see through harmful behaviour to the inner pain of the sinner and, feeling compassion for their heartache, could then extend forgiveness, pardon without punishment, in the warm embrace of grace and mercy.

Jesus’ abilities to heal and perform miracles were in fact not as amazing, and not really the point of his ministry, as much as teaching compassion. Jesus’ supernatural powers were merely a concentrated and accelerated version of God’s everyday abilities. Our bodies, driven by divine intelligence, have the ability to heal, and the creative force of God is continually performing ‘miracles’ in Nature.

The beautiful, wise Tibetan Buddhist Dalai Lama continues to teach kindness and compassion through the art of seeing deeply into the soul. Buddhism teaches us to do no harm and that loving connection with all life leads to happiness.

Religions that preach hatred and violence, oppression and intolerance, strict rules and punitive punishment are the very opposite of heart-centred compassion.

Compassion is a Type of Love

To reiterate, compassion is a type of love; spiritual love the Greeks call Agape. It is a feeling of deep tenderness and kindness that springs from the experience of empathy and understanding for someone’s vulnerability and physical or emotional pain. A compassionate person sees through facades and defences to the inner anguish.

Empathy is the ability to feel someone else’s suffering; to imagine yourself in their situation and allow yourself to momentarily experience their emotions. Empathy connects people and empathy is a leveller that unites people as equals. Sympathy, in contrast, is detached, and sometimes dispensed from a superior distance.

The spiritual qualities of empathy and compassion are inextricably woven together and reside in the heart, like an exquisite flower. From these sweet qualities flow caring actions such as soothing words of comfort and practical acts to help the suffering person feel better.

There are other types of love. Eros is sexual passion between lovers. And Phileo is brotherly love; a platonic, sibling-style love between family members and friends. Bonds of warm affection are formed through this kind of love. Maternal and paternal love are powerful forms of nurturing and protective love for children.

I believe compassion is the ultimate form of love. Compassion is the essential ingredient that leads to the deepest sense of connection and bonding, intimacy and belonging, with other human beings and all living creatures.

A Compassionate Partnership

When a couple overcomes self-centredness and develops compassion for each other they reach a depth of love that enriches their hearts like the warmth of a blazing open fire in winter. And sexual expression of love takes on a new dimension of soul connection beyond physical pleasure.

If a couple develops compassion for each other, this generous kind of love will spill out to all other relationships in their life, to their children, family and friends and to the wider community and ultimately the world in a profound ripple effect.

If enough couples cultivated compassion it could be the starting point for transformation of the planet. The microcosm of compassionate relationships will transform the macrocosm of society.

How Do You Learn Compassion?

Compassion is inextricably linked to pain. As you experience and express repressed emotional pain and grief, through tears, you cultivate empathy and compassion.

Connecting with the buried pain of a lifetime often comes through the breakdown of defences triggered by a major life crisis, trauma or loss. Everyone who has ever lost a child, a parent, a lover, your health or your dreams knows how grief can smash your heart to pieces. Being heart broken is a catalyst.

 The experience of your own inner pain and grief will naturally lead to empathy for other people’s pain. All the tyrants and warmongers of the world and all those who inflict suffering on others are dissociated from their own inner pain.

Remorse and Redemption

If you are the cause of someone else’s pain, you will experience remorse, a deep and genuine sorrow, for that person, which is different from self-centred guilt. Remorse is a form of contrition steeped in humility. All denial, justification, rationalisations, excuses and blame drop away in undefended, honest self-scrutiny.

Remorse leads to surrender and a desire for forgiveness and making amends. Repentance means re-thinking your future life. A change in thinking, emotions and actions results in Redemption; the transformation to goodness and the beginning of a new life, cultivating compassion.

What Are You Worth?

What is the measure of your worth as a human being? The value of a human being is not measured by earning capacity, ownership, beauty, achievements, talents and experiences or even your contribution to society.

Your value as a human being is measured by your ability to feel and express compassion, up close and personal, to other flesh and blood individuals on a daily basis. It is only compassion that makes a human being valuable and worthy of love.

At the end of your life and my life, the extent to which we connected with other human beings and all forms of life and felt and expressed the healing balm of empathy and compassion will be the measure of our worth.

Empowerment through Joining the Vegan Revolution

 A Personal Journey

It has been almost 10 years since I became a vegetarian in March 2010. We had recently moved to bustling London from laid-back coastal Australia to start an exciting new life. Looking back, I’m grateful for the wise decision I made a decade ago. I’m extremely healthy being meat-free and feel good living each day making ethical food choices.

I’ve evolved from a dairy and egg-eating vegetarian to a vegan, having found yummy plant-based substitutes for cow’s cheese, butter and milk. I delighted in keeping hens and discovering their quirky personalities and enjoying cruelty-free eggs when I lived for few years in the Kent countryside. Since moving on I’ve mostly eliminated eggs from my diet. (I confess it’s hard to resist an occasional cake.) 

With Golden Girl, Sparkles, Rosie and Fancy in 2015

Critics and cynics could point out my inconsistencies. I’m not perfect. I do my best whether at home cooking for myself or out and about or travelling abroad. Becoming a vegan is a constantly evolving journey.

It was my son Daniel and his mate Marcus who convinced me to watch the heart-wrenching film, Earthlings and there was no turning back.

Read about my personal journey.

I invite you to take your own journey and join the Vegan Revolution.

Viva La Revolution

The Vegan Movement gained momentum in 2018 as millions of well-informed young Millennials and concerned older people around the world made the connection between the heinous meat, fishing and dairy and egg industries with abject cruelty and the rapacious destruction of our planet.

Juliet with piglet  

The Movement achieved a tipping point and erupted into a Revolution. This new mass awareness and mass action is the realisation of the ambitious dream of passionate campaigner, Juliet Gellatley who founded Viva! 25 years ago.

Back in my idealistic youth when I first went Veggie only weird hippies lived on nuts and lentils. Now, as our planet faces a crisis, veganism in 2020 is an idea whose time has arrived.

World famous naturalist, Sir David Attenborough

We know this is true when revered naturalist and master documentary maker, Sir David Attenborough calls on everyone to eat less meat to save the planet and scientists, academics and the UN warn of the dangers of animal agriculture and join forces with dedicated activists, high profile celebrities and sports champions to advocate plant-power.  

The shifting consumer demand has pressured food manufacturers, supermarkets, fast food outlets and cafes to offer an innovative array of appetising vegan options. The Vegan Revolution is having real impact reducing the demand for meat and dairy and disrupting the supply chain.  

We even have our own World Vegan Day on November 1 to celebrate a revolution dedicated to saving the 150 million land animals killed for food every day – that’s billion of land animals – cows, sheep and goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese and other birds - and trillions of fish and sea creatures needlessly tortured and slaughtered every year for food. To comprehend the scale of the massacre, read this report. 

Why Go Veggie?

There is a strong case for Going Veggie. Read my enthusiastic article written when I first went Veggie 10 years ago.

To summarise the complex issue, there are four excellent reasons to become vegan:

Save Animals

1    Ethical: Refuse to be part of the immense suffering and killing of animals. Animals possess ‘sentience’ meaning ‘the capacity to feel, perceive or experience subjectively’.

Animals (and birds and fish and sea creatures) clearly have cognitive intelligence. Have you ever seen an octopus open a jar?

Like us, animals have nervous systems and feel physical pain.

They also feel a range of positive emotions including pleasure, contentment, excitement, joy, love and affection when living natural lives.

They feel intense fear (terror), grief and misery when hurt and abused, and sent to their agonising deaths. 
Animals also have strong social bonds. They attach to offspring, family groups and herds and suffer deeply when separated (as in the sad case of baby calves taken from their mothers so humans can steal their milk.)

As mammals, cows and calves, sheep and lambs and pigs and piglets are just as adorable as our pet dogs and puppies and cats and kittens.

The only way workers can be cruel to animals and consumers can justify eating animals is to see them as ‘food objects’. The mental trick of shutting down empathy and compassion and ‘objectifying’ makes people numb to the mass cruelty, abuse and killing.

Save the Planet

2    Environmental: Animal agriculture and intensive factory farming are polluting and destroying the planet. Precious oxygen-producing, bio-diverse rainforests in the Amazon (the home to many species) are being cleared to graze cattle to make fast-food burgers. Cattle produce high levels of carbon emissions causing global warming leading to climate change.

Animal agriculture pollutes the air, land and waterways. There are countless scientific articles on the environmental damage of livestock and the urgency of switching to growing sustainable plant crops.

Save Humanity

3    Human hunger: No man, woman or child on this earth would starve if the world went vegan. We could overcome the horror of starvation if the world gave up eating meat. All the land used to grow crops to feed livestock and graze cattle and other farm animals could be used for crops of grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and vegetables and fruit to provide plant protein and nutritious food for the human population.

No child should ever suffer starvation

Save Yourself

4    Health: A vegan diet is healthy. Plant-based foods provide ample protein and nutrients. Meat, fish and dairy foods are full of bacteria, viruses, growth hormones, antibiotics and toxins (such as pus in milk from cows with mastitis and mercury and other heavy metals in fish). Bad fats clog the arteries. Meat is acidic and disrupts the body’s balance. Meat takes days to digest and putrefies in the bowel. Eating animal products is linked to cancer, heart disease and many other diseases.
   
     Watch The Game Changers on Netflix and be astonished to discover how champion sportspeople are thriving on a plant-based diet. Scientists dispute the myth that real men eat meat and the human body needs meat to build muscle and strength. 
     The doco exposes how insidious marketing indoctrinates consumers to believe meat and dairy are healthy, just as marketing in the 1950s, 60s and 70s convinced people that smoking was healthy.    

  

The Four N’s Used to Justify Meat-Eating

After years of research and arguing with staunch meat-eaters, Viva! succinctly sums up the defence of eating animals into the Four N’s!

Naughty but NICE!

Meat-lovers lament: “Steak, lamb chops, bacon, fried chicken, fish and chips, scrambled eggs, melted cheese on pizza, and ice cream are so nice! I like the taste! I couldn’t give up these foods!”

This abundant earth is richly blessed with a vast array of scrumptious vegetables, herbs, fruits, legumes, seeds, nuts and grains that can be made into an infinite variety of delicious dishes. Join the Viva! Recipe Club, search for thousands of vegan recipes online or consult countless beautiful vegan recipe books. There’s a plant-based version of every favourite dish or snack! 

A tasty bean burger with vegan cheese

Delicious vegan cheesecake

Why should an animal suffer and die because you like the taste of its flesh?

No carrots don’t have feelings! Carrots don't have a nervous system. But if you see a carrot running down the road screaming in pain, let us know!

Meat is Necessary 

The second N is for necessary! Staunch carnivores claim: “Meat is necessary for protein. I couldn’t survive and be strong and healthy without meat.”

Gorillas, one of the strongest animals on earth, are Veggies

The body is made up of 63 per cent water, 22 per cent protein, 13 per cent fats and 2 per micro-nutrients. Humans can get all the protein they need to build muscle and tissue from legumes (such as chickpeas, red kidney beans, lentils, soya products like tofu), nuts (such as cashews, almonds, walnuts) seeds (such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds and sesame seeds ground into the super food, tahini) and whole grains (wheat, rye, oats, corn, rice, quinoa and couscous etc)

Plant-based complex carbohydrates are essential for a steady flow of energy to the brain and body. Diets that limit complex carbohydrates are considered unhealthy by many experts.

So natural...just like the jungle!

Clever defenders of killing say: “Eating meat is natural. Look at nature. Animals eat animals in the wild.” 

I’ve been on safari in East Africa and witnessed apex predators, magnificent lions, leopards and cheetahs hunt at lightning speed and devour prey animals, antelope, wildebeest and zebra.

But humans no longer live in the wild and the Law of the Jungle doesn’t apply when you do your supermarket shopping and buy your flesh neatly wrapped in plastic.

However when you hunt and kill your prey with your bare hands and use those sharp incisors to chow down on your next meal of raw wildebeest, please let us Veggies know so we can film it!  

Carnivorous apex predator having lunch

Eating meat is normal...everyone does it! 

Meat-eaters and dairy lovers claim consuming animal flesh and their secretions is normal.

Normalising harmful behaviours is the cunning trick of our lucrative Consumer Culture to indoctrinate us to buy harmful products and practices. 
When you conform you’re rewarded by feeling normal and a sense of belonging. 
When you don't conform you are punished and sanctioned with ridicule or ostracism. You can be made to feel 'abnormal', a misfit, a weirdo and a difficult troublemaker! 

Yes humans should drink the milk meant for a calf?

Now people, if you want to truly belong and find your tribe of like-minded caring, compassionate people, join Viva! Be part of the Vegan Revolution and be empowered to protect animals, save our planet, feed the hungry and become super healthy.   

The way of the future