When animals are killed, the hatred they feel produces a kind of poison.
All animal flesh contains a kind of poison. This poison did not come into being in a single day, or even in one lifetime. It has been accumulating over many lifetimes.
People have been murdering one another and brewing up a poisonous enmity which cannot be blotted out. When animals are killed, they harbor a deep grudge. Right before they die, their hearts are filled with terror, hatred, and vengefulness. The hatred they feel produces a kind of poison.
When people eat animal flesh, they are really eating poison! Although they do not realize the harm at the time, eventually they develop all kinds of strange and incurable diseases. This hateful energy reaches to the heavens. It is a greater threat than the atomic bomb, for it cannot be seen, but it can wipe out the human race.
For hundreds of thousands of years,
the stew in the pot
Has boiled up a resentment very hard to dispel.
If you want to know why there are calamities
and wars in the world,
Just listen to the sounds from a slaughterhouse
at midnight.
This author from ancient times had a valid reason for writing the above verse. We must thoroughly understand the principle in it before we can cure our illnesses.
A talk given on October 7, 1982
*This article is obtained from the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association’s website*