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Winning Vegetarians(unreferenced submission) Ever heard about vegetarians being weedy, pasty faced hypochondriac geeks? Well listen to this: latest evidence shows that a vegetarian diet is directly linked to a reduction of cancer (especially women's breast cancer) by up to 90%! Even vegetarian smokers have a lower cancer levels' Better a pasty faced vegetarian with a long life ahead than a red‑faced steak eater with cancer. It's even possible to be a great sportsman. The famous Yale Athletes study showed that sportsmen put on a vegetarian diet increased, their performance by 35% in just five months, leaving their meat eating compe way behind. And as for being geeks, some of the grooviest and hippest people around are herbivores. Damon Albarn of Kim Basinger, singer‑songwriter Kate Bush, comedian John Cleese, even the bloodsucking Dracula King himself, Peter Cushing, was a confirmed vegetarian until the day he caught his last sunrise. Vintage musical star Doris Day and Titanic superstar Leonardo DiCaprio, both are vegetarian Hollywood icons, as are musicians from Eddie Grant to George Harrison to Chrissie Hynde. kd tang lesbian feminist vegetarian, whereas Absolutely Fabulous loanna Lumley proves it possible to be a glamorous, champagne drinking man eater and vegetarian! So no more talk of vegetarians being somehow unhip. They're amongst the most successful people in showbiz. Vegetarianism isn't some modern urban fad either. In ancient China, to be vegetarian was the mark of an intellectual. In the west, famous historical vegetarians include Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, St Francis of Assisi, Leonardo da Vinci, Rousseau, Thoreau, George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein, Kafka, Dr Spock and (one we like to keep a bit quiet about) Adolf Hitter. The 33rd World Vegetarian Congress will be held in Chiang Mai from January 4‑10 and is attracting speakers and groups from the international spheres of veggie thought. Joining Thailand's own Dr Art‑Ong Jumsai and General Chamlong Srimuang, will be such luminaries as Arne WingcIvist, Ayuravedic expert Dada Kamatesh, Dr Simon Chau, speakers fromALIVE (All life in a Viable Environment), EarthCare (Southern China), and many, many others. There are countless workshops, discussions and action groups, including the Millennium Pledge for a Vegetarian World, Vegetarianism and Disease Prevention, Vegetarian Ahimsa Dharma, Ayurvedic Medicine, Chinese Vegetarian Cookery, Indian Cultural Evening, Mad Cow Disease, Vegetarian Consumer Power, Caring for Thailand's Elephants (the world's largest vegetarian animal), Fasting, Acupuncture, Hatha Yoga, Bach Flower Remedies and Rejuvenating Cuisine. Many of the westerners coming to the conference from abroad may be surprised that Thailand, a Buddhist country, has very little in the way of vegetarian tradition. Indeed, under Therevada Buddhism, there is no strong objection to the eating of meat, although Buddha did say, "Do not indulge a voracity that involves the slaughter of animals". Although Therevada encourages vegetarianism amongst monks, only in Mahayana China do Buddhist monks abstain absolutely from consuming dead flesh. But if you're looking fora Buddhist justification for vegetarianism, it's clearly stated in the teachings of the Surangama: "The reason for practising dhyana (concentration of mind) and seeking to attain Samadhi, (equilibrium; tranquillity; heightened and expanded awareness) is to escape from uffering of life, but in seeking to escape from suffering ourselves, why should we inflict it upon others? Unless you can so control your minds that even the thought of brutal unkindness and killing is abhorrent, you will neverbe able to escape from the bondage of the world's life After my Parinirvana (complete extinction) in the last kalpa (the time between the start of a world cycle and its extinction) different kinds of ghosts will be encountered everywhere, deceiving people and teaching them that they can eat meat and still attain enlightenment... How can a bhikshu, who hopes to become a deliverer of others, himself be living on the flesh of other sentient beings? So there you have it. It's just not possible to be an enlightened carnivore. There are no MacDonald's on the Path to Nirvana. So quit meat now, reduce your risk of cancer, keep a younger complexion, and up your karma stakes a thousandfold in just one lifetime.
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mens sana in corpore sano
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