[Buddha-l] Non attached & mindful culinary triumphalism?

[Dan Lusthaus]

David,

Great last name, by the way!

>Just the other day while eating a boiled egg that cheeped like a bird when 
>I cut open the shell - it was the hot air pent up inside it escaping that 
>caused the noise - gave me "food for thought" about not buying or eating 
>eggs any more.
> Aryacitta/Dave Living

There may be reasons for avoiding eggs, but imagining that they are chicken 
embryos that otherwise would have hatched is unfortunately not the most 
accurate one. Unless one is following a macrobiotic or similar diet and 
especially seeking out fertilized eggs, the eggs one commonly finds in the 
supermarket, grocery store, or egg farm are not fertilized, and so will 
never become a chicken. It is -- if you don't mind an unpleasant image --  
actually chicken menses, not a fertilized embryo.

The kind of epiphany/visualization you describe can be a very effective way 
to change one's behavior. In my own case, I used to be a major carnivore --  
avoided veggies, cheese, fish, just ate meat. Loved steak. One day I sat 
down to eat a juicy steak and, instead of tasting like steak, it tasted like 
cow. I didn't want to eat a cow, or even bite one -- I like cows. I've been 
a vegetarian every since. That was in April 1970.

The industrial production of eggs should give one pause, since many birds do 
give up their comfort and lives for that, often under appalling 
circumstances. One can find providers of eggs that treat their chickens more 
humanely, but that will probably not be your local supermarket.

Dan