BUDDHIST DIET: Vegetarianism 2

My very first step came a short time after I began to practice Buddhism, and stemmed from my affinity with pigeons. It hurt in my heart to buy and consume eggs. I had happily munched homemade pancakes, cakes, and omelets before, but suddenly, these items began to feel wrong. This probably came from observing a pair of show-pigeons make nest, lay eggs, and rear young. Their young were like grandchildren to me and are now friends of mine that run up and down my windowsill daily!

Nature taught me that lesson, and I no longer buy eggs. It was around a year later that vegetarianism began to do the same thing. Contemplating the rightness or wrongness of eating animals, I at first thought it OK providing I eat only a little meat, remain grateful to the animal for providing it, and tried to encourage sources that used the rest of the creature, bones, skin, etc.

My next step was to limit myself to eating meat once or twice a week, and to ensure I only ate pieces of animals, rather than whole creatures. For example, I would buy a chicken breast, not an entire chicken. Many of the recipes I knew needed meat in them, & I have yet to be persuaded that tofu is a delicious alternative - it tastes like a bath sponge!

I find that eating seafood makes me feel physically healthier. For this reason, I began to eat products that contain some of a fish rather than a whole being, when contemplating the right or wrongness of eating such. I gave up shrimps, oysters, anchovy and mussels - all of which had formerly occupied a place on my favorite pizza toppings list! I began to limit myself to fish fingers, tuna and salmon pieces, and tinned tuna.

I began to investigate vegetarian recipes, and slowly added these to our family diet, decreasing the meat options. I enjoy the spicy tastes of Thailand, India, and Mexico - I find freshly chopped chili helpful with sinus problems.