The Vegan Lifestyle

During my school days, I had favorite teachers that stimulated, inspired, encouraged and guided me to become what I am now. To me, they were the best teachers I had in all of my school days. Truly, they were the paragons of good education in its truest essence. Surely, I shall always cherished their memories throughout my life.

In primary school, I had a teacher who was like a mother to me. Actually, she was a close relative of my father. She was my teacher in Grade 1, and she was so kind and loving to us. She would share her lunch with my brother and me, and she bought crayons, pencils and notebooks for us. She lauded my woks at school, and encouraged me to develop my inborn talent in arts.  I learned from her to have self-esteem and self confidence.

During my Grade 2 year, she gave me a part for the closing ceremony – a long poem of our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, “My Last Farewell” translated in our dialect. It was so long that I could barely memorize it. Thanks God, I was able to deliver it successfully. That was the best mental exercise that greatly developed my good memory throughout my school days from primary school up to college.

I had favorite teachers in the elementary school too. One of them was  my teacher in Good Manners and Right Conduct. She was also a close relative of my father. She was a very good story teller of legends and myths. She taught  Home Economics and Music too, and she had a very good voice. She was a strict disciplinarian, but loving and caring. When I did not have pencil, ball pens, or notebooks, she would send me to their family store and get from there.

When I was at Grade  VI, I met an accident, and I was not able to regularly attend my classes  for almost  4 months or so. She would send some food for me at home. She taught me how to be humble, and to be helpful and caring to my fellowmen. She taught me good virtues and moral values that guided me in my life.

My other favorite teacher in elementary school was my teacher in Math,  Science  and Social Studies. He was very intelligent, and fresh from his college studies. He associated with his pupils well, and he treated his pupils as his friends. He was the studious type who was very  meticulous in facts. He taught very well, and his pupils understood his lessons.

Outside the class, he would invite us to their house to eat or play scrabble. His life of  simplicity taught me to be honest and true in my dealings with all people, and to be content with what God has given me. His unpretentious mingling with the poor taught me to honor and respect the dignity of all people and treat them equally regardless of their social status.

In my high school year, I also had a favorite teacher. He was very strict – a stickler in fact that he was feared by all. But he was very intelligent – a genius. He was my teacher in English, and he was so precise and accurate in the usage of right words. He was a grammarian, and a very good writer. He was the best teacher I had in high school. I admire his intelligence, and moral rectitude and integrity. His memory was very sharp, retentive and photographic.  He was a voracious reader.

In our class of forty or so, he assigned us to read a novel in the library for our term paper. You would not believe it – he knew if you copied it from the book, and he knew if it is not in the story. He knew all the books in the library, and the stories in those books, to be able to tell you who the characters are, and what they are in the story. And he meticulously read our reports one by one, sentence by sentence and word for word. He knew exactly which line is from which book in case you juggle up and create your own report. When the term paper is returned after being checked, you will see his numerous corrections in tenses, in word usage, in sentence construction, in paragraphing, in contents, and everything.

He was my coach who trained me for the Talent Unlimited contests which were held annually, and participated by representatives from various high schools in our province. I won the contest for 4 consecutive years, and I thanked him for the books he lent to me, and the guidance and support he gave me. I learned from him how to be precise and factual, how to be conscientious in my study, how to be confident, and above all how to be on time, rain or shine.

He was our ROTC commandant, and he punished late comers. He would guard the gates of the school compound, and those who would not pass by the gates are punished by letting them climbed back and pass over the high concrete wall where they  entered the school premises. He is a small guy, but he shouts like a commander of the army. He was not only a stickler but a martinet too who was greatly feared by all. Most of my classmates had to “push up” many times whenever they are late. He does not accept alibis. To him, 5 a.m. is 5 a.m.  – rain or shine! You must be on time no matter what.  This is the best virtue I learned from him: to be punctual at all times whatever the condition.

The most important thing in life is to know God and be acquainted with Him. No other earthly endeavor can be better than this. It is  the ultimate goal in life.

But people have other goals in their lives. Most people want to be rich. Money is the strongest motivating force of all endeavors in life. People believe that money can buy everything they want;  that it can bring them happiness, joy and peace.

People have not understood that in the end they will see God face to face. In the judgment day, God will not ask how much wealth you have acquired here on earth; God will not ask how many diplomas or doctoral degrees you have finished. We cannot bring anything with us when we die.

All striving under the sun apart from God are useless. We may acquire great wealth, but they will vanish like smoke. We can have happiness and joy,  but they are flitting and transitory.

People have not learned their lessons in life. In spite of the many sufferings and afflictions in life, they are still blind to the glaring fact that money cannot buy health and happiness. Many rich people are paralyzed in their sickbed suffering and afflicted. So many wealthy people die in their diseases in spite of their huge wealth. They are unhappy in spite of all their material possessions, and lofty positions in society.

Why should people remain blind and deaf to these facts? Why should people endeavor continuously to reach the unreachable to the detriment of their body and soul? If only people can understand that all their endeavors, no matter how successful, are only useless straws when they do not have God in their lives.

People need God in their lives. There can never be a lasting peace and happiness without God in our lives. God is the sustainer of our lives, and all our needs are provided by Him. Our strength and our very life emanates from Him, and all our endeavors are useless apart from Him.

To know God is the ultimate thing in life. God is the beginning and the end; the Alpha and the Omega. Whether we live or die, we shall always be with the Lord. And He will judge us according to our works in this life.

So let us endeavor to know God and be His intimate friend. While our strength is still with us to kneel in prayer, and our voice still audible to call upon him and praise his holy name, let us search for Him eagerly as we search our needful daily food. For we cannot escape from Him. Whether in life or in death, we are always with Him. And we shall see Him face to face during the final day of reckoning.

Our Island is along the typhoon path. During my childhood days, typhoons occurred 10 to 15 times a year. It caused great destruction to houses, crops, livestock, and even human lives.

I remember how a very strong typhoon battered our island in the mid sixties. Coconut trees fell down; some were uprooted; and still others were cut in two. Nipa roofs were flown off like light papers on the air. Metal roof sheets zoomed like flying trapeze on the air – so very dangerous like flying swords! And whole roofs were completely blown off from houses!

During typhoons, people risked their lives to help other families in the community. Men helped their neighbors bring their motorboats or canoes from the seashore to higher and safer places to avoid them being destroyed by the high waves that smashed on the boulders at the shore.

Our house was just a few meters away from the shore. During typhoons, the waves would almost reach our house. We were afraid that the waves would erode our house to the sea, or shatter it to pieces. My father had to secure our house by tying it with abaca ropes to a coconut tree in our backyard. But the coconut tree was cut in two and fell on our nipa roof. Fortunately, the wooden trusses held on and the tree did not crash on the floor. We took cover beneath the table, and thank God, nobody was hurt.

All around the house were wet including our clothes, mats and blankets.  We could not sleep. It was cold and dark, and the wind was blowing vey hard. There was no food to eat. It was impossible to cook. Our stove was drenched in the rain, and the firewood were soaked in rain water too.  We could not ignite a fire because the strong wind blew it off. We could not do anything but wait till morning.

I always remember how very dangerous typhoons were in the island. They not only wrecked havoc and destroyed crops, lives and properties, but they also left fear in the hearts of islanders. Besides the very strong winds, high waves and heavy rain that those typhoons brought, there were also flash flooding sometimes that eroded soil, big trees and rocks from the mountains. Our neighbor’s son was buried alive under the mud that eroded from the mountain during one of those flash flooding.

The island where I used to live is still on the typhoon path. But due to the climate changes that are happening now around the world, it is no longer frequented with many typhoons in a year. Thanks be to God; the islanders can now plant their crops safely and hope for an abundant harvest.

Two mysterious things happened in my life that cannot be explained up to now. They were so weird and so beyond the scientific logic of cause and effect.

One of these events occurred when I was seven years old. It was the 16th of August that year, during the last night of our barrio fiesta celebration. I went to the plaza to hear the band play and to watch the people and visitors from the nearby barrios danced there.

It was the custom in the island that every family should prepare something for their visitors during the fiesta. Most prepared palatable dishes, but our family had nothing to prepare. That morning, we ate our breakfast at grandpa’s house.

The curious children went to the plaza very early that night to listen to the music of the band. I was one of those who flocked early, and I liked to hear the trombone and the saxophone play. My attention was completely caught by their music. I squeezed myself into the crowd, and drew nearer to the stage where the band was. But the big guys pushed me off to the side.  I was a young lad then — no match for the elbowing of older folks.

The guys in front of me were taller, and they completely covered my view of the band. I was disappointed,  so I planned to go home and take my dinner instead at grandpa’s house.  As I was about to go, as if told by a small voice, I groped my fingers on the ground and found a small paper bag. I pried it open in the dark and tasted it – it was very sweet! I consumed the whole thing without knowing what it was. Probably my guardian angel gave it to me knowing that I had not taken my lunch yet.

The other event took place in Abu Dhabi last 1985. Arabian nights are truly very romantic as depicted in children’s books. Every night I gazed at the sky and watch with wonder the myriads of bright stars in a very clear blue sky. And I always gazed at the Ursa Major or Big Dipper to locate the North Star.

One morning, I woke up to respond to the call of nature. It was past three in the morning. I went out from the portable cabin and gazed upon the sky. I noticed the Big Dipper in such a position as if a liquid was being poured out from it. I thought God must have been pouring out His blessings to His people. Something in me told me to wish three things upon it and it will be granted. Withou hesitation, I uttered these words: “I wish power, wealth, and health.” The most incredible thing happened in an instant. It was so unbelievable that I was transfixed while looking at it. The third star of the Big Dipper counting from the brim or “the pointers” twinkled three times and ascended higher everytime it twinkled. I rubbed my eyes if I was only dreaming. No, I wasn’t! The star twinkled three time, and ascended everytime it twinkled. I stared at it and observed its vicinity if it was an unindetified flying object or an airplane passing by. There was no UFO and no airplane as well.

We live in a Seventh-Day Adventist community. Most of our neighbors are Seventh-day Adventists, and they are very good neighbors to be with. We learned from them not only the spiritual things about God but the healthy lifestyle as well.

Way back in 1996, we bought a lot in this community. It was a little bit cheaper then. We constructed our house on September, and by January 1997, we started to live here until now.

My wife and I like the place very much. Our home is abundantly supplied with cool fresh air throughout the day. It faces the east, where tall trees from a nearby academy  supply the fresh air every day even during summer.

Besides the good location, the place is very conducive for the study of our children. The academy is near to our home – we are just a few meters away behind its concrete fences. My daughter and her classmates just take a walk when going to school, and there is no need to take a ride.

We like our neighbors too. They are Seventh-Day Adventists who faithfully keep the seventh-day sabbath. We like their worship time everyday. We could hear beautiful melodious songs from our neighbors as they worship every morning.  It is very nice listening  to praise songs and hymns – it lifts up our soul to God! In the evening, they have their worship too. We could hear the whole family sing songs of praise to the Lord, and  see them kneel together in prayer.

Our neighbors are kind and helpful too. Whenever we have problem, whether spiritual or financial, they are ever ready to help us. They would serenade us at dawn whenever one member of our family celebrates his or her birthday. What a  joy and happiness to be serenaded on our natal day!

Every Friday afternoon, at 2 p.m., our Seventh-Day Adventist neighbors stop from all their secular works.  It is their Day of Preparation for the holy sabbath. As soon as the sun sets on Friday, they stop from all their works to keep the sabbath holy. During Friday nights, at 7:30 up to 8:30 in the evening, they go to church to worship and pray. The following day, Saturday, they go to church again to worship the Lord throughout the day until the  end of the sabbath hours when the sun has fully set. They are sabbath keepers, and they are called Seventh-Day Adventists because they keep the seventh-day sabbath, which is Saturday, and are waiting for the Second Advent or coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

These are the beautiful traits of our neighbors that have win us over to Seventh-Day Adventism. Their way of worship, and their healthy lifestyle are  the best presence evangelism that effectively  converted us. So, in August 1999, after completing the required Bible studies, we were baptized – the whole family: me, my wife, and the children, including my mother-in-law. And by God’s amazing grace, we have remained faithful Seventh-Day Adventists up to this day.

Man is very important to God. On the sixth day of Creation, God created man in His own image. Man is God’s masterpiece of Creation.

God created everything in this universe for the well being of man. The psalmist who realized this profound truth wrote with awe and wonder: “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4).

Man was created a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5), and made him to have dominion over the works of God’s hands, and put all things under his feet (Psalm 8:6).

Oh, what a great privilege for man to be so pampered by God! What is man indeed that God would be so mindful of him?

God was so delighted when He created man from the dust of the ground. He gave life to man by breathing His very own breath into man’s nostrils, and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).

Oh, what a wonderful and inspiring fact! The very breath of the  LORD God Almighty is in man’s nostrils! It is inherent in every man, and no diseases can ever thrive in him if he can fully realize and understand this awesome truth!

God spoke these things into  existence: the light, the firmament, the dry land and the sea, the grass, herbs and trees, the sun, moon, and stars. He created the fish of the waters, the fowls of the air, and all living creatures of the Earth. God created all these things, and prepared all these before creating man. All provisions for comfortable existence were made ready for man before he was created by God. What a loving providential God!

God created the universe and all the things in it for man’s well being. You may not believe this, but astrobiologists discovered 154 finely-tuned parameters in the whole universe that  show God’s tender love for man.  This wonderful phenomenon called anthropic coincidence or principle  is the coherent interrelationship and delicate fine-tuning of all things in this universe. These are parameters of a planet such as the Earth in relation to its moons, stars and galaxies whose values fall within narrowly defined ranges that make physical existence of man possible.

Let us talk about one of these amazing anthropic coincidences: the delicate complex composition of air. The air we breathe is precisely composed of 78.084% nitrogen, 20.9476% oxygen, 0.934% argon, 0.0314% carbon dioxide, 0.001818% neon, 0.0002% methane, 0.000524% helium, 0.000114% krypton, 0.00005% hydrogen, and 0.0000087% xenon. What a very delicate composition! Any alteration in only a few parts per million is fatal! What is the wisdom that keeps this extremely delicate composition intact all days throughout the ages?

The above delicate composition of the air that we breathe is just one of the many anthropic coincidences or principles in the universe that not only show God’s amazing love for man, but also prove that this Universe was created by a Master Designer, God. Another example of these anthropic coincidences is the distance of our planet from the sun. Had the distance of the Earth from the Sun been lesser than 93 million miles, all life on Earth would have been scorched to death, and if greater, the Earth would have  been frozen and lifeless.

There are many more anthropic coincidences that show God’s love for man.  The Earth’s magnetic field, oxygen and nitrogen quantities in the atmosphere, the delicate oxygen to nitrogen ratio, the levels  in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, water vapor, the ozone,  plus a hundred more interrelated anthropic coincidences that link the planets, stars, galaxies and all forms of life in the whole universe are among the many anthropic coincidences or principles that clearly declare the importance of man to God.

Sometimes I wonder and ask these questions: What if our solar system is located at the outer edge of the spiral arm of the Milky Way  galaxy – where shall we be catapulted in the universe? Or if our solar system is  located near the center of our galaxy, shall it escape the tremendous gravitational pull  of a black hole  as it plunges towards its  “Schwarzschild radius”? How dreadful it is to be engulfed in this Whirlpool of No Return! All communications are  totally cut  off from the universe once inside the black hole’s “event horizon”, and final death occurs at its  “singularity” point where all fundamental particles are stripped to vanish completely.

These are possible disasters so fearful that we do not dare to imagine them in our minds. Thanks be to God – He put  everything in order, and designed the whole universe for the well being of man. Truly God loves man very much for he is His masterpiece of Creation, and he is indeed very important to Him.

What a loving Creator who made all things in this universe for the well being of man! What a humble God who condescends to the level of the lowly mortal such as man! What man will not love Him in return?

Rock music is harmful. It destroys not only the spirituality of man but the physical body as well. It is the cause of half a million teenage suicides in the world -  that is nearly two thousand deaths a day!

Studies done by scientists on plants and animals confirmed the harmful effects of rock music. Plants subjected to rock music were stunted during the experiment, and eventually died. When the brain of mice were dissected after exposure to rock music, it was found out that their brains have undergone abnormal structural changes. The neurons in their brains have grown out wildly in all directions without connecting to other neurons, and there was an abnormal amount of messenger RNA, a chemical used by the brain for storing memory. This could be the reason why listeners to rock music are more prone to use illegal drugs and engage in extramarital sex. This is also the reason why listeners to heavy metallic rock music are much more likely to commit suicide.

Rock music destroys the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe of the brain is the center of wisdom, conscience, and spirituality. A person with damaged frontal lobe becomes more animalistic, antagonistic, and violent, and without any feeling of sympathy or remorse for any cruelty done. He does not know to distinguish between right and wrong.

Rock music produces hypnotic trance in its listeners, and stimulates them to obey and do the thing being repetitively suggested in it. Most of these suggestions are pornographic, sadistic, murderous, and satanic. No wonder listeners to rock music have weird behaviors suggestive of demonic possession.

Rock music is indeed very harmful not only to the mind but to the whole body as well. Plants exposed to rock music withered and died! You could just imagine how dangerous it is. It is even more dangerous than a signal-number-four typhoon! Rock music is very stressful. It stimulates the blood pressure to rise, pulse rate and heart beat to rise, causes chest pains, and may trigger heart attack.

Do you know that more great minds were vegetarians?

Some people usually taunt the vegetarians as anemic, sallow, weak and ghastly. They believe vegetables are only for cows, and people must eat flesh meats to have proteins in their diets. Eating vegetables, they say, reduces masculine virility and libido, and they fear that they might not be able to “rise to the occasion”.

These mockers are not aware that more great minds were vegetarians. Among the great minds who were vegetarians were Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Plotinus, Diogenes, Epicurus, Porphyry, Immanuel Kant, Voltaire, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Charles Darwin, Albert Schweitzer,  Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Thomas Alva Edison, Shelley, Emerson, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi,  George Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nikola Tesla, and Norman Walker.

Pythagoras was considered the “Father of Vegetarianism”. He formulated the Pythagorean theorem, besides other mathematical and geometrical findings, and other findings about the movement of the Earth around the Sun. Six hundred  years before Christ, Pythagoras and his adherents practiced strict vegetarianism. Pythagoras believed that man’s full philosophical potential can only be achieved when his body is physically fit and healthy. Long before the word “vegetarian” was coined in the 19th century, people who practiced vegetarianism were called Pythagoreans. Many Greek philosophers, besides Pythagoras were also vegetarians.

Albert Einstein is also a vegetarian. Though it is believed that his playing the violin during his childhood  had greatly improved his intelligence, his being a vegetarian was among the primary factors that helped him to become the greatest scientist of the 21st century. His Theory of Relativity was the greatest discovery of  all times, and has still remained to be a puzzle to many even to his peers until now. Other science greats who are vegetarians are Sir Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Alva Edison.

The list of great minds that are vegetarians is long. Most in the list are philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, inventors, musicians, spiritual leaders, presidents and leaders of nations, artists, painters, writers, novelists, actors, actresses, and singers.

Man was originally vegetarian. Fruits, grains, nuts, and vegetables was man’s original diet given by God,  and flesh meat eating was allowed only after the Flood when there was a total destruction of vegetation on the surface of the earth. When men started eating flesh meats, diseases appeared, and men died prematurely. Please read my previous article “Why Flesh Meat Eating Is Harmful To Health”, and know more about this.

Studies in anatomy showed that man is vegetarian by nature. Man’s digestive system was originally designed for vegetarian diet. His teeth are similar to fruit-eating animals such as monkeys. He does not have pointed canine teeth like those of the carnivorous animals.

Man was originally vegetarian. Like the herbivorous animals, his jaw has three distinct motions: vertical or up and down, lateral or sideways, and forward and backward. Carnivorous animals have only up and down motion of their jaw when masticating their food.

Man was originally vegetarian as his intestines indicated. Like the herbivores, his small intestines are longer and his large intestine is shorter. His digestive tract is similar to animals consuming largely nuts, fruits, and vegetables.

Man was originally vegetarian as the following facts show:

• Like all vegetarian animals, man perspire through his skin, and not through the mouth as is common in carnivorous animals.

• As a vegetarian, man drinks by suction, while the carnivorous animals drink by lapping the water with their tongues.

• Man is provided with an enzyme called ptyalin in his saliva for the proper digestion of starch in his body. Carnivorous animals cannot digest starch.

• Man’s blood types A, B, and O are similar with the herbivores such as apes.

• The bile salts found in man is similar to herbivorous animals.

Man was indeed a vegetarian originally as his anatomy shows. It would be for man’s advantage if he returns to his original diet: fruits, grains, and vegetables. If man will continue to consume flesh meats, he will have diseases and afflictions, and his life on this earth will be shortened.

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