Inside me
There is darkness
Greed, fear & even hatred
Inside me
There is light
Compassion, forgiveness & love.
I acknowledge both
For there can not be light without the dark
I vow to acknowledge the greed, fear, anger, and hatred with me
But to feed the seeds of love, compassion, and faith
To love both of them unconditionally
To acknowledge the light & darkness within myself and all
Who am I to judge?
Deciding what others should or shouldn’t do?
I am no God or ruler.
Today I will begin the process of letting go of judgment.
For I too have fallen short.
I will allow love to fill the space where judgment once was.
To work to understand those I disagree with.
To understand that people change in their own time.
First I will begin the journey of letting go of self judgment.
Non judgment day has arrived.
You are loved
Precious
Important
Your life matters
A continuation of your ancestors
A rebirth of a dying star
A diamond in the rough
In the vast infinite universe
How quickly we forget
The preciousness of life
Including our own
When we seek to understand
Compassion grows
Where there is compassion
Love begins
Where there is love
Peace is possible
Where there is peace
Joy is found
At this beautiful moment
Transformation can occur
Peace
Violence
Live within all of us
Feed the peace
Acknowledge the violence
Shed light into it
For peace grows with peace
Water the seed of peace
With compassion & understanding
Love the dark side
Show it loving kindness
Join me if you chose
In the army of love
Soldiers of peace
Compassion & understanding
As our weapons
We are peaceful warriors
Sheding light into the darkness
I woke up today
With a clear purpose
To show compassion to all beings
To help others suffer less
To bring joy to others
How will I live my purpose?
By practicing compassion
Love & peace
To shed light into the darkness
To live out my message
Violence on the streets of Syria
Mass suffering in Yemen
Chaos in Afghanistan
Is peace possible?
Or are we doomed?
I have faith that everything will work out the way it’s suppose to be
All you & I can do is
Focus on becoming peace
To spread it far & wide
To understand
To show compassion
To live our message of peace
How will the world be at peace
If we are at war?
I once was a cloud
Floating near a majestic mountain
I once was a rain drop
Falling from the sky
I once lived in a river stream
Cascading down a waterfall
Flowing effortlessly
To those in need
The water within us
Giving us life
Was once a cloud
Rain & river stream
As I glance through YouTube I see many arguing over diet, ethics, and the environmental problems of animal agriculture. I see my fellow vegans becoming angry with meat eaters. I hear the words ” I just don’t understand” being repeated over & over again. To develop compassion for others we must first understand them. Us vegans will drive ourselves crazy with this mindset of misunderstanding. I hope to inspire others to practice a vegan lifestyle but do not wish to force others to be vegan. People change on their own time. You can not force anyone to be more compassionate to animals or care about the health of themselves & the planet. Forcing another is a violent act in itself, which goes against my vow of non violence. The world will change in it’s own time. All we can do is live our message and share it with others. If our message is peace & compassion, then we must be peaceful & compassionate with our meat eating brothers & sisters. Peace is the way.
Understanding others is necessary for compassion, love, & peace. I ate a meat/dairy/egg based diet for 27 years and have been vegan for 2 years. How can I judge anyone who still consumes animal products when I ate them most of my life? My focus as of now is to develop true compassion for those who consume animal products and especially for those who advocate for them in ones diet. True compassion is when we can show compassion to those we disagree with. It’s easy to show compassion to the innocent & weak. It’s much more difficult to show compassion to a slaughterhouse worker but nothing could be more important than developing compassion for them as well. Slaughterhouse workers are often immigrants who are recruited to work long hours for little wages. They often suffer from PTSD from the horrific violent acts they see on a regular basis. There are documented cases of slaughterhouse workers dieing from bacterial diseases and neurological diseases from freshly slaughtered animals.
I also feel strong compassion for those who suffer from chronic diseases from eating animal products all their life. From heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, colon cancer, and many other diseases that could of been prevented with a whole food plant based diet. They were lied to be industry and led to believe that they are wild carnivores that need to eat meat every meal for protein. So much unnecessary human suffering. My heart goes out to them & their families.
I hope to inspire my fellow vegans to be more compassionate & understanding to our meat eating brothers & sisters. Many of us were meat eaters most of our life. Who are we to judge? We are not perfect enlightened beings floating above others. Let’s focus our energy on educating others while showing compassion & understanding to them. This way we don’t drag ourself down with anger, rage, & misunderstanding. We can allow compassion guide our life. How will they ever understand compassion if all we show them is apathy? How will they know peace if all we show them is violence? Our own life is our message to the world.
With Aloha,
Johnny Hoffman
Suffering lives within all of us
Past mistakes on rerun
Future uncertainties constantly dance within our minds,
Making us suffering in this moment
How do we break from this cycle?
We can understand our own suffering
We can develop compassion and self love
As we develop compassion for ourself,
We can begin to transform our suffering into joy
Our life can now be spent helping others suffering less
Bringing joy & peace for those in need
The Narrow Path 