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St Francis of Assisi and Ramalinga, Ramana was an exemplary and saintly realised being, who did not discriminate between human and non-human sentient beings. Few understand the true import of his life and teachings, preferring to concentrate on the surface words, fewer still have the egolessness to live such a life, but to me he exemplifies the sentient ethic and ideal in practice. Yet while complete Enlightenment is a very difficult goal, the ideal of compassion and empathy for all sentient beings, and living a Vegetarian or Vegan lifestyle that does not require the slaughter of innocent beings for one's gross palate, is something that anyone can do.Sentientism is the philosophy that all sentient beings - all beings that feel and can suffer - have intrinsic moral value and rights. Therefore, we are obliged to treat all sentient beings with kindness and compassion, regardless of their external form or level of intelligence
I affirm that no ethical system can be valid if it does not acknowledge equally all sentient beings. I have felt this for a long time, but now I feel it much more strongly than ever, especially having known Bonnie, a domestic hen. As Mahatma Gandhi, the great exponent of Ahimsa, said:
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
and
"I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man."
These pages, perhaps the most confronting of any of my website, are dedicated to this subject.
Speaking Vegetarian: Toward Nonspeciesist Language - Paper presented at the World Vegetarian Congress 8-14 November 2004, George Jacobs, - on how our language reinforces speciest stereottypes, and euggestions for changinga nd remedying this
From Speciesism to Equality - Joan Dunayer - important essay on the distinction between old speciesism, new speciesism (favours rights only for those nonhumans that are most human-like, but not on other sentient beings, I am totally opposed to this attitude, exept as a provisional stage for those to whom full speciesism is too confronting), and nonspeciesism (what I would call sentientism).
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Protect A Cow, an ISKON (Hare Krishna) blog. url |
 Veganarchism (facebook) |
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