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Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich,

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and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

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Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. 

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I was invited to speak in Quartzite, Arizona last week, at this year's RTR, an annual 

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gathering in the desert for full- and part-time van dwellers from all over the country.

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I spoke, as I often do, about the importance of living in line with our core values so that

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what we think, what we say, and what we do, are all in alignment. It's a way of ensuring

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undisrupted inner peace. A woman raised her hand to ask the following question, for which

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I didn't have a good answer at the time, but upon deeper reflection, I've reached what I

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think is the core of the matter. She described her internal conflict as follows: On one hand,

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she was raised on a farm with many animals; from chickens to pigs, goats, and cows, some

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of whom were designated as pets, which the family never butchered nor ate, 

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while others were strictly raised for consumption. Even as a young girl she didn't 

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understand the distinction, and now, as an adult, she loves bacon, eats meat,

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and doesn't think twice about a chicken salad, but she still has pet pigs, turkeys,

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sheep, and so on, whom she never eats. She is struggling to make sense and peace 

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with simultaneously loving animals, yet eating them as well.

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She sees bacon as someTHING, but Roger, her pet pig, as someONE.

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As a result, she said she feels inauthentic.

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I initially thought the conflict resulted from a lack of commitment to one way or the other.

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To illustrate what I meant about commitment, I used the example of dating

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multiple people at the same time, which is commonplace, harmless, and

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perfectly acceptable. However, continuing to see other people after getting married

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creates conflict, internal and otherwise, because a commitment has been made,

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a vow, a promise never to do that again. 

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Applying this to the meat-eating/animal lover dichotomy; all I initially thought was missing 

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was a commitment; she has not vowed to stop eating animals,

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so there was no conflict of interest, per se.

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But upon further contemplation, not only has she not yet taken the step to honestly look

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at ALL animals as someONE, not some THING, she struggles with the same Buddhist

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invitation with which I also had difficulty for a very long time: To do no harm.

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It is literally impossible for us to do no harm;

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our very existence is only possible at the expense of others.

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We inevitably kill living organisms every time we breathe, wash our hands, and so on. 

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Our life contributes to the general overpopulation problem, and we are one 

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more mouth to feed, one more consumer, et cetera. "Doing no harm" is not an option.

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So I used to wonder Why even bother? Why even try?

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But then I changed the wording from Do NO Harm to Do LESS Harm,

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and now, I see every action as an opportunity to ask myself

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Is the harm I'm about to cause avoidable?

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And then, I practice doing less harm when I'm about to buy something, or eat something, 

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drink, watch, listen, read, et cetera. Every single moment is an opportunity to 

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contemplate ways and options that minimize the harm I cause through my choices.

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Not just harm to others, but also to myself.

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By now, you are probably familiar with the practice of the three gates when it comes

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to mindful speech: Imagining there are three gates in your throat with a guard at each one,

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like security at the airport. The guard at the first gate stops the words that you're about

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to speak, and asks, "Is what you're about to say True?"

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And if the words are true, they proceed to the second gate, where the guard asks, 

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"Is what you're about to say necessary?" And if our intention is both true and necessary,

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the words proceed to the third and final gate, where the guard asks, "Is what you're about 

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"to say kind?" And only if what you're about to say is true, necessary, and kind, 

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do we say it out loud.

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This practice reduces intoxicants, so to speak, and we are immediately part of the solution

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by not being part of the pollution.

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So to tie this back to my original point, what if we were to implement a similar filter

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of sorts, not just for what comes out of our mouth, but for what goes in as well.

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Prior to eating, a guard asks, "Is what you're about to eat necessary? Is what you're about

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"to eat kind? To your own body and to our collective body?"

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Whenever I'm hungry, I ask myself: What can I eat to satisfy my hunger 

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and nutritional needs, yet minimize the harm caused to myself and to others? 

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Not ELIMINATE the harm, mind you, MINIMIZE it. I think that what the woman eats

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would change when she asks herself if it's kind, you know; it would be the missing link

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between Roger the pig, and the nameless bacon, if that makes sense.

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It doesn't mean she would necessarily stop completely overnight;

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it's not a black-and-white issue, but it would at least get her asking, "How can I minimize

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"the harm I cause when I eat?" When we develop self-respect, what we drink 

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or consume in any other way would also change. What we watch... what we read.

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So, for everyone out there struggling to eat healthy, mindfully, and harmlessly,

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I say Gentle is the way to go.

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Do LESS Harm. Be mindful of what goes in and out of your mouth.

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Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless 

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and Buddhist Boot Camp.

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For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com,

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where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, 

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watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list.

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We hope you have enjoyed this episode, 

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and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions.

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Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼