bodhi tree swaying

This rather mind-blowing infographic was on Consumerist.com.

Eating vegetables in the US is expensive!

Welcome to the launch of my book, Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View. All today I’ll be online, doing various things connected with the book and its subject. Do feel free to drop in and say “hi” or “congratulations” or anything else you feel inspired to utter (using the comment form, naturally; you can talk to your computer if you want but I probably won’t hear you!).

As well as the welcome video I’ll be adding new material to the blog all day, and I’ll add links on this post. So this is the “home page” for the party, with different “rooms” where you can mingle.

First you have to dodge the author touting his wares in the hall and spouting his opinions:

• Here’s a list of places

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[Part of my book-launch party offerings.]

Dirk Johnson, a friend from Twitter, wrote a poem a while back about Buddhists who justify their meat-eating on the grounds that “it’s ok to eat animals because everything is empty.”

Here’s a link to the poem. Please do go read it in its entirety. It wags a finger, but in a playful way.

And here’s an extract:

Oh, you Buddhist, so far along the path
That you’ve realized
Your own inseparability from emptiness,
That your own pain is without essence,
That your own suffering is an illusion,
That your imputed self is a mirage,
You, who realize this so deeply
That you even experience
This emptiness in the minds of other beings,
The bliss that they think is their pain,
So that you can see them killed and eat them
Without the slightest perturbation of regret.

[Part of my book-launch party offerings]

Potatoes roasted in olive oil with thyme from the garden.

Tofu, deep-fried, and then stirred into an orange/ginger sauce with garlic and chili.

And of course salad with a home-made balsamic vinaigrette.

Lots of protein, and in fact lots of everything good. The photograph doesn’t do it justice.

This post is one in a series connected with the launch of my book, “Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View,” and with my book launch party. It’s a brief extract from my book.

The notion that vegetarians are being inconsistent in eating plants because plants are living things is very common: there can scarcely be a vegetarian who hasn’t heard this argument several times. It is hard, however, to see how plants can suffer. They have nothing corresponding to a central nervous system or even to nerves. While it’s of considerable evolutionary benefit for animals to have a sense of pain so that they can escape danger, why should plants, which are by nature static, have evolved such a sense? I believe that we instinctively recognize that plants are of a different order from animals. I doubt if many who employ the above argument would really feel the same seeing a carrot

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This Just came in from my old friend Roger as a contribution to the the launch of my book, “Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View,” and with my book launch party. I swear he hasn’t aged in ten years.

This video is one in a series connected with the launch of my book, “Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View,” and with my book launch party. Here I read a page from my book, detailing some of the ecological problems of meat-eating and the benefits of moving (even partially) to a vegetarian diet.

This post is connected with the launch of my book, Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View.

In my book, Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View, I argue that although the Buddha ate meat, that was because he lived by begging for food. Those of us who shop for food are in a different situation and we should follow his advice “not to kill, or cause to kill, or to approve of others killing.” In other words, to live a compassionate life, don’t eat meat.

A nice little trailer pointing out some of the carbon-related benefits of reducing or eliminating meat from our diet. This is one of the posts that’s part of my book launch party.

This is a response to a question raised by Dharmasuri of Nagaloka Buddhist Center in Portland, Maine, in response to the concerns of one of her sangha members.

This post is connected with the launch of my book, Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View.

This post is connected with the launch of my book, Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View.

This post is connected with the launch of my book, Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View.

This is from my favorite Indian vegetarian recipe book, Julie Sahni’s Classic Indian Vegetarian Cooking.

BANARASI ARHAR DAL

Banaras arhar dal, a dish reminiscent of the north Indian countryside mango groves, coriander patches, and fields of lentils stretching to the horizon – is in fact a simple, humble dish and quite easy to make. The lentils are first cooked to a smooth, creamy consistency. Then the mango slices, spiced with cayenne, cumin, and garam masala, are folded into the dal. Finally fresh coriander is added to perfume and mix the flavours.

In my mother’s home, as a child, I ate this dal with a simple baked bread or a bowl of fluffy plain rice and a vegetable side dish, the most memorable being Bitter Gourd with Spicy Onion Stuffing and with Fragrant Potato Stuffing (pp. 238 and 239).

FOR 6–8

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This post is connected with the launch of my book, Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View.

I haven’t watched all of this video. I’ve seen this stuff in real life on farms and don’t really need to go there again. It’s a PETA presentation explaining how modern farming works and what you make yourself a part of when you choose to eat meat. If you’re a vegetarian already, this might push you towards veganism.

This is one of the posts that’s a part of my book launch party.

…here she explains why.

This post is part of my book launch party.

This video is being posted as part of my book launch party.

You can buy my book. Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View at any of the following places:

• Amazon.com in the US
• Consortium Books in the US
• Amazon.ca in Canada
• Windhorse Publications in the UK
• Amazon.co.uk in the UK

Amazon.com and Consortium’s sites are saying that the book’s not yet available, but I’m told it should actually be in stock. In any event, I’d really love it if you bought the book. If you buy the book today on Amazon it will create a nice little blip in sales which will help to get it a bit more attention. Maybe we could make it into Amazon’s list of best-selling Buddhist books?

This recipe comes courtesy of Buddhapalita (Bipin Patel), the founder of Tipu’s Tiger vegetarian East Indian restaurant in Missoula, Montana. He now runs a company that makes the award-winning Tipu’s Chai, which is the best chai I have ever tasted in my life.

Buddhapalita put together a small recipe book based on the meals sold in the restaurant, and the recipe book is available for sale.

Aloo Brinjal (Potato/Eggplant curry)

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup canola/vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard seed
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cumin seed
• 1 cup diced onions
• 3 tablespoons ginger puree
• 3 tablespoons jalapeño puree
• 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red chilis
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups diced tomatoes, with juice 6 cups diced potatoes, 1/2-inch
• 6 cups diced eggplant, 1/2-inch

Method:

1. Soak eggplant in cold water for at least 30 min.
2. Place potatoes in a

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Another HuffPo article, this time a review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, Eating Animals:

Making a different choice for dinner is the most powerful individual thing we can do to reduce global warming, as Foer points out. How big a sacrifice is that? To just reduce what we are consuming, say by going meatless one night a week as a starter? Remember our grandparents’ dinners. Meat was a special once-a-week treat, for economic reasons and availability reasons. Today we are going in the opposite direction eating it sometimes three times a day, at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The more we eat, the more factory farms have to produce, the further we get from core values of stewardship and morale responsibility.

How we treat our chickens, pigs, fish and cows affects everyone. Whether you eat animals or not, they have an impact on your life in the pollution they create, and

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Jonathan Safran Foer has a piece in HuffPo on vegetarianism. The guy’s everywhere these days, and you might think it was his book launch I was pimping and not my own! (The launch of the second edition of “Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View” is this Friday, November 13. And you’re invited to my online launch party.)

Here’s an extract:

Mark Twain said that quitting smoking is among the easiest things one can do; he did it all the time. I would add vegetarianism to the list of easy things. In high school I became a vegetarian more times than I can now remember, most often as an effort to claim some identity in a world of people whose identities seemed to come effortlessly. I wanted a slogan to distinguish my mom’s Volvo’s bumper, a bake sale cause to fill the self-conscious half hour of school break, an occasion to get closer

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