Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Hsihu, Formosa,
November 3, 1995 (Originally in English) Videotape No. 511

There was a story about a man in Chi country. His name was Tien. One day he held a very big festival to make offerings to the god of the road and the land. Many thousands of people came to participate in this festival, and also they had a lot of cooking, eating, merry making and things like that.

Then one of the guests came and offered Mr. Tien a very rare species of fish and bird, and a rare swallow's nest. It was very expensive in China and was supposed to be very nutritious. To make the nest, the swallow had to spit out its own saliva. But then when people came and robbed the nest, it had to continue by making another nest. But by that time, the bird would have no more saliva left and no more nutrition in its body to spit out any more. So it would spit until it bled. And the saliva on the nest at that time became bloody red. But the red ones were even more expensive than the white ones. And that's how people ate them.

So be careful: Not all that's vegetarian is vegetable. Even if you don't kill the birds, they die from suffering, starvation and undernourishment all the same. Because the season comes when they have to make ready the nest for their offspring. That is a spontaneous, natural reaction of the birds. If we take away their nest, they will just make a new one. And so they keep spitting and spitting until they make their nest. Maybe it's not completed, and maybe it is completed, but at the expense of their own lives or their precious health. They probably become exhausted, and by the time the offspring come, no one can take care of them. Of course, the humans are there; they "take care" of the children by putting them in their own warm stomach and keeping them forever. So things like that always happen.

Now, at this festival of Mr. Tien's, when someone offered him such a rare species of the bloody swallow's nest, for example, or a very rare fish, Mr. Tien was very touched and elated. He probably was a very highly important person in the society; otherwise, he wouldn't have had such a festival and not so many people would have come like that. So he was very touched and elated, and then he let out a sigh, saying, "Oh! God is so loving to us. Look at what he gives us every day to eat. He creates all kinds of animals to satisfy our hunger and taste."

So everyone heard his sentence, praising God like that, and they all clapped their hands in praise and agreement. But among the guests was one boy, just twelve years old. Perhaps he was a vegetarian; perhaps he was a just newly and fully initiated 12-year-old from The Supreme Master Ching Hai. (Laughter) He stood up and said, "Dear Sir, it's not so, the way you said." And the "sir" was very surprised and taken aback. He asked the boy, "What do you mean, it's not so the way I say? Do you have another opinion, you who are so young? Do you know anything?"

The boy said, "My teacher taught me differently." My teacher said, "All beings are equal in this world. God created all beings with the same love, the same artistic, creative talent and creative intention." So there is no one in this world who is better than any other being in this world. God created different beings with different purposes and motives. If you say that all the beings like fish, birds, buffalo and so on are for us to eat because God created them for us to eat, then I think you are wrong. Because look at the mosquitoes: They sting our skin and draw our blood. And look at the lions and the tigers: They eat human beings. Do you think then that God created human beings for the mosquitoes, and for the tigers and lions as well?" So the sir, the VIP, did not know how to respond.

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