Happy Holidays and Peace on Earth to All Beings

A Holiday Gift Idea to Help Bring

Peace on Earth to All Beings

Buying these books as gifts helps save the lives of animals in 3 big ways:

1. I will donate all my proceeds to animal rights organizations.

2. Give these books to ministers, spiritual teachers, friends, family, prisoners, co-workers, school teachers, farmers, physicians, politicians, hunters, environmentalists, peace workers, etc., and they just might

Go Vegan. 

3. Give these books to vegan friends to bring them comfort, inspiration, and to share our common vision of Peace on Earth for All Beings.

How to order one or both of these books:

If you want signed copies of either book, email me at judycarman@ymail.com.

To order Peace to All Beings as a book or Kindle, click here.

To order The Missing Peace as a book or Kindle, click here

I wish you and yours the happiest and most blessed of holidays.

Peace to you and to all beings

Judy

More about the books:

Peace to All Beings: Veggie Soup for the Chicken's Soul is for all who wish to free the chickens from the soup pots, the cows from the slaughterhouses, the minks from the fur farms… to free all animals from suffering and from their bondage to human beings, and in so doing, to help free humanity from its bondage to violence and to become "Homo Ahimsa" (the nonviolent human). This visionary book of hope for a world at peace is also an excellent reference for animal activists who wish to explore the interconnectedness of animal rights, ecology, world peace, and social justice. This is a guidebook...full of fact-based reasons that explain why we human beings must make peace with the animal nations if we are ever to find true inner peace, heal our earth, and create authentic world peace. This is a valuable aid for those seekiing to live in harmony with the values of compassion, nonviolence, and reverence for all life. As Norm Phelps, author of The Dominion of Love and many other books, said in his review "...Peace to All Beings will make a great gift for the vegan... or the activist in danger of burnout, not to mention pastors, rabbis, and spiritual leaders of all traditions who have not yet fully realized the importance of making peace with what Carman respectfully calls 'the animal nations.'"

The Missing Peace contains many personal stories written by people who have found that veganism not only improved their health, but greatly heightened their sense of inner peace and compassion.  Once we liberate ourselves to truly connect with animals by no longer eating or using them, a deep sense of joy begins to bubble up and permeate our lives in miraculous ways.  Also included in the book are references to ancient and modern teachings that explain why living a nonviolent life is essential to finding inner peace and creating world peace.  About The Missing Peace, John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, said “Many of us dream of a planet healed and nurtured by a universal reverence for life. Yet, until we begin to deeply grasp the power of our eating habits, we cannot bring this dream into reality. The Missing Peace is a book designed to help us make the dream come true--not only for the earth, animals, and people, but also for ourselves. We all want inner peace. This essential and fascinating book helps us understand with sudden clarity why that peace has been so elusive and shares with us the amazingly simple way to find it at last."

Local food, farm tours--what would Gandhi and St. Francis have to say?

I was thrilled to be asked, along with a local minister, to answer this question for the Faith Page of the Lawrence Journal World--"What can this weekend’s Farm Tour teach us about God’s creation?"  My article is below.  If you click here, you'll see my article and the minister's article, followed by comments.  Every time we get a chance to speak out for the helpless and the dominated, especially when it is to a wide audience, there are sparks of recognition, moments of heart connection.  Let us never give up spreading words of compassion.  Like seeds they grow and flower and make more seeds--enough to bring peace to all the world and to all beings.

Here is the article itself.

The Kaw Valley Farm Tour takes place this weekend, October 2 and 3. What a beautiful way to celebrate and feel true gratitude for the fall harvest. In a lovely coincidence it happens that October 2 is Gandhi’s birthday, and St. Francis Day is October 4. Both Gandhi and St. Francis radiated joy and love, because they were so in tune with God’s creation. They experienced a sense of kinship with all life and endeavored to teach tenderness, reverence, compassion, and complete nonviolence toward all creatures.

On the Farm Tour we will see God’s bountiful gifts of food. One seed can grow a plant that offers us, not only baskets of nourishing food in myriad forms and vivid colors, but also seeds to grow more food year after year. How beautiful and miraculous—just to be a witness to the bounty of food we will see on the tour is enough to experience the Divine mystery of God’s love for us all.

At some of the farms on the tour, we will also see animals. When we look into their eyes with open hearts, we can see the wonder of God’s creation. We can witness the extraordinary grace, beauty, individuality and sensitivity of each animal and recognize what kindred spirits they are to us. Every child knows how thrilling it is to be near them and maybe even to touch them.

As we tour the farms and celebrate the gifts of God’s gardens and the wonder of God’s creatures, let us consider the wisdom Gandhi and St. Francis discovered. Gandhi devoted his life to nonviolence toward all living beings, and St. Francis was known as the patron saint of the animals. He strove to imitate his beloved Jesus in all that he did. They taught us that the animals are our spiritual brothers and sisters—part of the Divine family created by God and that they were not created for us to dominate, exploit for monetary gain, or kill. Animals are here for their own reasons--to raise their families, to run and play, to be free to do what they were born to do, to love and to live. Teachers of many faiths have taught that we human beings cannot achieve peace and nonviolence for our species until we extend it to all God’s creation. Living nonviolently draws us closer to the heart of God.

Gandhi would have loved World Farm Animals Day

A BIG thanks must go out to FARM, the Farm Animal Rights Movement, for inventing World Farm Animals Day and for helping grass roots activists around the world to observe it for the last 27 years. WFAD is described by FARM as a “somber observance dedicated to exposing, mourning, and memorializing the needless suffering and killing of the more than 58 billion … innocent, sentient animals in the world’s farms and slaughterhouses.”

It is observed with vigils, marches, and other forms of public education on or around October 2, honoring in that way—the great Mahatma Gandhi who dedicated his life to ahimsa (the Sanskrit word for nonviolence, and selfless, unconditional love). He was the originator of the technique of Satyagraha which literally means holding unto truth. Gandhi considered it love in action. Satya or the truth to him was the awareness that all life is one. He taught that when there is no more violence left in the human heart, all that remains is our true essence which is love.

Why would Gandhi have loved WFAD? Because he wanted to make sure everyone remembered his birthday? Well, probably not. One of his great goals was to become a “zero.” This did not mean to him that he was worthless but rather that he would become able to be selfless in all his actions. No—I think Gandhi would have loved WFAD because it is carrying on the practice of love in action so dear to his heart.

In 1901 Gandhi was in Calcutta and wanted to visit the Temple of Kali. However, he was horrified to find a long line of sheep going into the Temple and rivers of blood pouring out. He knew that this terrible violence had to stop. He wrote, “To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”

Why would Gandhi have loved WFAD? Diligently he prayed for someone to emerge, “some great spirit, man or woman, fired with divine pity, who will deliver us from this heinous sin [of killing animals], [and] save the lives of the innocent creatures…” WFAD is one of the many beautiful satyagrahas, consisting of millions of people with enough love in their hearts and in their actions to do just what he prayed for. We have emerged. We are here. And we’re not giving up.

On this very special day and time, may we fall silent in mourning and honor the memory of the billions of animals who suffer and die each year at the hands of human beings. As they die in the slaughterhouses, no prayers are said, no names are given.. So today is their day for tears to be shed for them, candles to be lit, flowers to be scattered, and prayers be said for them. May this terrible war on animals end, and may all beings be free.  Thanks be to you all for bearing witness, for caring, and for your selfless love. 

P.S.  The post cards above are available at FARM's website so that you can distribute them and raise consciousness for the animals who need our voices so desperately.

All Our Relations Dream with Us; We Do Not Dream this Dream Alone

“Wild horses.” What image does that bring to you? Close your eyes. What do you see—wild horses, running free, manes and tails flowing in the wind, running across the prairie, leaping over creeks, running up hills…Feel yourself running with them. You can see for miles. Feel the wind blowing your hair. Listen to your heart’s song. What is the dream your heart is singing?

Our hearts long for this freedom for all our brothers and sisters. We long for the home where our hearts live. That home is an eternal reality where there is no exploitation, where all the animals, all beings, are free. This world that we live in now is distorted and perverted by the fears of human beings.

It is an appearance that will fall away if enough of us persist in knowing and seeing the only infinite and real way of living—which is to live together in a constant state of wonder, intimacy, gratitude, love, and communion with all of life.

The home where the wild horses run and all beings are free already exists on the spiritual plane. The more we believe that and see that and live that, the sooner we will bring it forth onto the material plane

We all have been given the gift of knowing this home where, not just a few of us, but all people, have reverence for life. The old human supremacy world-view that all life is here for humans to exploit and dominate is unthinkable here. Instead we find a new paradigm of compassion and communion with all life.

We do not dream this dream alone.

Our dream seems so far away, and some people laugh and call us idealists, but always remember, we do not dream this dream alone.

The animals dream with us--all the wild horses, all the animal prisoners in labs, the animals suffering in factory farms, so-called "humane" farms, and slaughterhouses; animals caged and killed for their beautiful fur; the wild animals being trapped, poisoned, and shot; the sea creatures caught and dying in nets; the great whales being harpooned--all our relations dream with us.

And the Great Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Compassion dreams with us as well. We all are dreaming together for this freedom, seeing together the Spirit of Love made visible. We do not dream this dream alone.

We may be on the fringe of today's culture, but we are at home in the heart of Spirit. We and the animals are the vision keepers for Mother Earth. We live and breathe with the animals and the earth. Our spirits run with the wild horses always toward home, toward the peaceable kingdom, holding the dream.

Whatever we do, no matter how discouraged we may get, no matter how hopeless our work may seem at times, let us hold the vision of the wild horses running free. Let us hold the vision of the peaceable kingdom for all life here on planet earth.

Thank you for doing your part to dream the great dream with the animals and the Great Spirit of Life. You are on the front lines powering this grand paradigm shift into reverence for all life that is rising like a brilliant new sun. You are helping to change the world-view of human supremacy to one of communion with all life, as it was always meant to be. And so it is. Blessings to you and to all the animals.

I wish you strength and divine endurance for the journey.

And always remember, you do not dream this dream alone.

Copyright 2010, Judy Carman

Loving the Whole World

This is a wonderful poem/prayer quoted from Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.  I often think of this when I am walking in nature.  It reminds me how deeply connected we are to all of life and how much joy it brings us to be in the silence and feel the wonder of life all around us--The Divine Mystery.

Love all God's Creation,

The whole of it and

every grain of sand.

Love every leaf,

Every ray of God's Light!

Love the Animals,

Love the plants,

Love Everything.

If you love everything,

You will perceive the

Divine Mystery in things.

And once you have perceived it, you

 will begin to comprehend it

ceaselessly more and more every day.

And you will at last come

to love the whole world

with an abiding,

Universal Love.

From BP oil to olive oil

As environmentalists and people committed to healing the earth, what do we see when we look at our plates at mealtime? How do we measure the environmental impact of the food we eat? Since eating is something we do at least three times every day, wouldn’t it be lovely if we could make a big difference for the earth simply by choosing foods that cause the least possible harm to our planet? Consider these findings.

1. World Bank researchers reported in a 2009, Worldwatch Institute Magazine, that livestock and their byproducts create 51% of the annual greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

2. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization released their report Livestock’s Long Shadow showing that 70% of the Amazon rainforests have been cut down for grazing and one third of our planet’s agricultural land is dedicated to raising animal feed.

3. Christopher Weber and Scott Matthews wrote in the Environmental Science and Technology Journal, that adopting a vegan diet (no meat, dairy, or eggs) is equivalent to driving 8,000 miles less per year, while switching to a local diet that includes meat and dairy would save only 1,000 miles per year.

4. “…the human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future—deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communitites, and the spread of disease.” Worldwatch Institute Magazine.

5. According to Kathy Freston, New York Times bestselling author, if everyone in the U.S. went vegan for only one day, it would save in that one day: 100 billion gallons of water; 1.5 billion pounds of crops grown for livestock, 70 million gallons of gasoline; 3 million acres of land, and 33 tons of antibiotics. It would also prevent: the emissions of 1.2 million tons of CO2; 3 million tons of soil erosion; the release of 4.5 million tons of animal excrement and of nearly 7 tons of ammonia. She reported these findings in her recent Huffington Post article, “The Breathtaking Effects of Cutting Back on Meat.” Her statistics, were calculated, she stated, “ from scientific reports by Noam Mohr, a physicist with the New York University Polytechnic Institute.”

Today, as never before, we are all being called to do what we can for the planet. Urgently, we are facing one of the most devastating environmental disasters in our unrelenting history of human mismanagement of our planetary home—the near apocalyptic BP Gulf Oil geyser. So many of us have felt a sense of helplessness while watching the oil and BP’s chemicals take their toll on so many lives. It may seem too simple to be true, but there is a lot we can do to help prevent more oil drilling and usage by immediately reducing our own personal need for oil. How? A meat based meal, according to a 2008 New York Times article entitled “Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler” by Mark Bittman, requires 16 times more fossil fuel than a plant based meal. We cannot and must not ignore the connection between animal food and oil any longer. This BP disaster can be our wake-up call to stop, look at our own individual footprints, and find a way to end our reckless race toward total environmental breakdown.

The Guardian newspaper recently published an article entitled “UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet.” In it we find this powerful statement: “A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger…and the worst impacts of climate change.”

Going vegan is the single most important thing any of us can do for the planet, and it is something every one of us can do. Easily. Right away. No extra time. No extra money. A simple change with consequences so vast and far reaching, we just might be able to turn this ship around in time. What is so amazing about making the switch to veganism is that, although it might seem like a sacrifice at first, it soon becomes a joyous new way of life full of delicious food, better health, more energy, and the great feeling that we are saving the lives of animals and doing something big for the earth three times every single day for the rest of our lives.
Peace to you and to all beings, Judy

Lose weight and save the world? What?

Yes it's true.  Losing weight can actually help save the world, bring lasting peace, and heal the earth.  How is that possible?  What is the connection?  The best and most effective weight loss plan in the world is a plant based diet.  When we stop eating animal products, the weight starts coming off without effort.  Not only that, but when we realize that this new diet brings us:

1. dramatically improved health
2. more energy
3. more inner peace
4. and the joy of knowing we are not causing harm to the animals and to the earth-----

When we realize and experience all that, there is no going back.  This is not a diet that we get tired of and forget about.  It becomes a lifestyle so joyful and natural that it becomes simply--just the way we eat from now on.  No question.

Why does the weight come off without effort?  That is a big subject, and there are many books that go into great detail explaining why.  Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin is one I highly recommend.  (See my favorite books list for more info.)  For starters, acidic food causes your body to make more fat cells.  Meat, dairy, and eggs are all acidic.  Nearly all plant foods are alkaline.  In addition, foods made from animals are loaded with addictive chemicals and hormones which cause us to eat more than we should and create more fat cells (again).  Considering that cow's milk is designed to help baby calves grow into big cows much more quickly than human beings grow, milk and all the cheeses and sauces and ice creams made from it are fat, fat, fat.  If I kept going, this blog would become a book. 

The facts are out there, but I believe that, deep down, we all already know intuitively that human beings are plant eaters, and dining on plants is what keeps us at our perfect weight, healthy, and energized.  The simplest way to prove it to yourself is to try a healthy vegan diet, eat all you want, and see what happens.  I do need to add one warning, though.  As veganism has gained tremendous popularity, it is much easier now to find vegan desserts and junk food.  In the past, especially in the Midwest where vegan restaurants and choices have been few and far between, skipping dessert was no problem.  There weren't any unless we made our own.  Now we have to be a bit more discerning.  Keeping that in mind, challenge yourself, and go forth to try this wonderful way of life.  Ultimately, you will look at your weight loss, not as a goal accomplished, but as a reward for having gotten in synch with the nonviolent, harmonious energy that is always present around us waiting for us to feel its rhythm.

So how does losing weight save the world?  When enough of us choose a plant based diet, we will drastically reduce the amount of water and land used to grow our food; reduce the amount of pesticides, fertilizers, and animal waste polluting our water, air, and soil; dedicate more land for wildlife; end world hunger; end the international politics of meat production; and eliminate the dark cloud of violence that hangs over the world due to the abuse and killing of approximately 100 billion animals per year.   

The number of vegans grows every single day for these very reasons.  That's good news for each of them and for the earth and all the animals.  Tune in regularly for more facts, more hope, and more ways to lose weight and save the world.
Peace to you and to all beings, Judy