Question: Is there advice for those who cannot go vegan (or vegetarian for a start) because of family pressure?
Answer: If you reflect sincerely, you should realise that it is disingenuous to say or think that family members or anyone else can pressurise you to eat animal flesh and their ‘products’ (that arise from slavery, torture, exploitation and eventual slaughter). After all, there is no one holding a knife at our throats, threatening to kill us like helpless animals, should we refuse to devour them.
Thus, the moral onus is always on us, to choose what is kinder and wiser to eat and drink. We have the freedom of choice to choose, while the animals in captivity do not. And it is with our power to choose what kind of food and drinks to support, that determines if there is more exploitation and killing or not. We can simply say and show that we do not want to support cruelty any longer.
The true ‘pressure’ to feel is from our forgotten family members. As Buddhism teaches, we have been reborn so many times, that we have all been one another’s family members before. If there is ‘pressure’ to obey our present set of parents by consuming meat and such, contemplate too, that we have many other sets of parents, whom we should not continue consuming. Why not be filial to all?
Just as we were ill-informed to begin consuming meat and such, our family members might remain so. If there is objection to our preferred way of life, why not share this article? (To lessen heated objection, there can be steadily less and less ill consuming till there is none. It is never all or nothing.) There should simply be no false claiming that we have ‘no choice’ but to continue consuming against the conscience, as if it is ‘better’ to do so. This is bad faith towards other beings and our Buddha-nature.
Related Articles:
上求佛道者应当如何饮食？
How Should All Aspiring For Buddhahood Eat And Drink?
https://TheDailyEnlightenment.com/veg
如何回应坚持我们吃肉的人？
How To Respond To Those Who Insist That We Eat Meat?
https://thedailyenlightenment.com/2025/02/how-to-respond-to-those-who-insist-that-we-eat-animals
