Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
Berkeley University, California, USA • October 13, 1989
(Originally in English) Videotape #101

If we did not eat meat, no one would kill, no one would raise cattle, all the food would stay where it was and they could eat it and become healthy and strong. It’d be good for every nation, and it’d be good for our nation as well. We waste a lot of money on arms and on raising animals. Most of the arable land is wasted nowadays on raising cattle, pigs and the like. So if we used these areas to cultivate wholesome, healthy food I think the nations would benefit more and our nation would have more peace and no need for armed defense.

If every nation lived according to the Bible, according to the Buddhist teachings, “Thou shall not kill, Thou shall not steal,” and so on, the world would have no more need for peace conferences, and would not need to waste so much coffee, champagne and cake at round table discussions that go nowhere. The more we talk about peace, the more war we have because we go about it in an inconsistent manner. If everyone practiced meditation and ate a wholesome diet without any killing involved, the world would have long since been in a peaceful state and we’d have no hunger. There is no need to give away your property; just give up the meat-based diet. That would be enough to save the world, as well as your own and the nation’s health.