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A Prayer for Compassion

by Jennie Richards · Published November 24, 2019 · Updated November 27, 2019

“This film reminds us that no being should be exempt from grace and kindness and compassion.” ~ Moby

"If you love God and want to honor God, then you need to stop eating animals."

Definition of Compassion: A feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another being who is suffering or stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” ~ Dictionary.com

A Prayer for Compassion is a feature-length documentary that strives to inspire and encourage those already on a religious or spiritual path, to expand their circle of compassion to embrace all life, regardless of species, and make choices in alignment with this value.

Film director, Thomas Jackson, was confounded by the contradiction that spiritual and religious people often embrace that have compassion and yet contribute every day to animal cruelty and suffering by consuming animals. Compelled to do something, but not knowing what, Jackson asked this question: “How is it possible that a compassionate, spiritual or religious person could support an industry (animal agriculture) that is responsible for the unnecessary suffering of trillions of land and sea animals, billions of people and the devastation of the very planet we live on.”

So Jackson decided to take a journey throughout the United States and around the world to find the answers to this question. He sought to explore the teachings of kindness and compassion that form the basis of all of the world’s main religions, “and the not so main ones as well.” And to try to understand why so many people of faith—are doing to others and to animals—that which they would never want done to themselves.

The film explores this conundrum, this contradiction and hypocrisy that humans personify when practicing compassion and kindness yet consuming animals and leaving sentient non-human animals out of their compassion. Can people who identify as religious or spiritual people come to embrace the call to include all human and nonhuman beings, in our circle of respect and caring and love?

Drawing on worldwide traditions including Christianity — evangelical, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Quakers, Seventh Day Adventism, Unity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, the Native American tradition, Unitarian Universalism, Zoroastrianism, and the “spiritual but not religious” point of view — A Prayer for Compassion calls on people of faith and spiritual seekers of every stripe, to come together to bring about a world in which “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them … They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6 and 11:9)

Film Length: 1 hour, 31 minutes

World Premier: November 2019

Watch the Film

Streaming worldwide, watch on Vimeo

Visit the website: https://aprayerforcompassion.com

Take the Compassionate Living Challenge

OUT-TAKES FOR THE FILM

Spiritual Teacher and Author, Nithya Shanti

The Compassion Project – God’s Ideal

The Compassion Project – Compassion as the Highest Form of Love

The Compassion Project – The Good Shephard

The Compassion Project – India’s Holy Cow

Quotes from the Film

First live a compassionate life. Then you will know. ~ Buddha
So for a few moments of palate preference, we’re taking the very lives of animals – just the opposite of compassion.
Our grandchildren will be ashamed of what we allowed to happen on our watch.
What side do I want to tell my grandchildren I was on? Was I on the side of mercy and compassion, or was I on the blind side that helped perpetuate suffering?
Be a vegan and be a champion for the animals, be a champion for the people, be a champion for the planet, and be a champion for ourselves.
It was studying the teachings of Jesus and his kindness, and doing meditations, that led me to be a vegan.
When my daughter was born, I suddenly had a reason to care about what happens in the future.
Vegetarians don’t know what they are doing to animals. Vegetarians are in a misconception, that they are kind to animals–despite their consuming milk and dairy, and creating leather. In India the cow is holy, but people who drink dairy milk and eat dairy products, are committing a sin – it’s sinful, and what is sin, should be recognized as sin. It causes so much harm, pain, suffering and death to animals.
I wish people would stop ‘talking about compassion,’ that they would really practice compassion and stop drinking milk and dairy products, because this is what causes so much pain, suffering and death – to mothers and their babies, and the mass killing of baby male cows.
Cowspiracy (the film) –  Animal agriculture is one of the major drivers of greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions on the planet; the number one user and polluter of water; and a major cause of deforestation; plus, if we used all of the land that is currently used for animal agriculture, instead for plants – we could feed the 9 million people who die from hunger every year.
What can bring all spiritual people together? Compassion. Compassion is at the center of Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and all religions and spiritualism. This is the true essence of spirituality.
Give to others what you would like to receive for yourself. That includes animals. All species.
Animal foods are toxic to our spiritual health, but also to our physical self. We pay other people to do something to bring out the worst of them – raping cows, slaughtering animals, killing baby animals. Then we buy a package wrapped in cellophane or Styrofoam of an animal. There’s a deep disconnection in our society and in individuals, this is the greatest obstacle to our inner awakening.
The teachings of the Buddha is not being followed by many, many Buddhist practitioners. The Buddha said, “If there is no eater of meat, then there is no harmer of life.” But many Buddhists, that say that they are Buddhists, aren’t practicing the most important tenet of Buddhism at its very foundation.
Would you ever deliberately hurt an innocent animal unnecessarily, like for food? Compassion is at the core of our being, and collectively compassion will win.
Pope Francis said, “It is contradictory to human dignity, to cause animals to suffer and die needlessly.”
When what we say and what we do is not in alignment, we suffer.
Looking for the core truth in each religion – Love is the core truth. But domination has affected and infected many religions.
Widen your circle of compassion to include all of creation, not just humans.
Once you know animals feel, think, love, embrace their babies, and hurt, and cry — it’s not a sacrifice to not eat them. It would be an enormous sacrifice TO eat them.
In 2008, during the floods in Iowa, the farmers of a factory pig farm evacuated, but they left all of their pigs locked up in the buildings to die. A couple of pigs managed to escape and we have them on our sanctuary now.
When you talk about non-violence in thought, action and deed, how can you be a practitioner of non-violence if you are consume and eat living beings, and continue to? That is hypocrisy.
If you want to get rid of the greenhouse gasses, get rid of the slaughterhouses. It is a ticking bomb. Do we want that for our children? And our children’s children? How will they judge us? What karma are we sowing? When knowingly we are not taking action? When we know something and we don’t do anything, that also is creating karma that is very negative for us.
You change your diet, and you change your life. We are not supposed to have hard hearts. Not eating animals will open your heart. You don’t put trash in a temple.
When we choose God’s way, your body can heal itself – just remove eating animals.
When you share this information with Christians, it’s like they would rather choose medicines and pills and surgery, than God’s way of eating a plant-based diet and having your body heal itself. They don’t see that they are killing themselves. They are the cause of their own sickness.
God tells Adam and Eve to eat the plants and seeds. And God says that is very good. Genesis 1:29. It’s a pretty consistent theme in the Bible. That a plant-based diet is the ideal, and while meat eating is permitted, it is usually framed in a very negative and often an extraordinarily negative light. We are supposed to be treating animals not only with compassion, but with ‘exquisite sensitivity.’ There are a whole slew of versus in the Bible that we need to treat animals with such deep sensitivity. The Talmud says we are to prevent animal suffering, we are to relieve the suffering of animals in any way we can. On that basis alone, given how animals are treated today in modern animal agriculture, there is NO WAY we should be consuming animals.
The most distorted and misunderstood verse in the Bible is Genesis 1:26, the famous “dominion” verse – Dominion did not give human beings the right to kill animals for food. That is wrong. It’s part of the exact same conversation where we are instructed to eat plants – exclusively. So clearly, Dominion did not give human beings the right to kill and eat animals for food. That Dominion verse is part of that exact same verse says human beings are created in the image of God, therefore we are to exercise “Dominion” the way that God exercises “Dominion” over human beings, with mercy and compassion. These are the two primary attributes of God’s “Dominion” — mercy and compassion.
We found that within three weeks of becoming vegan, our health dramatically improved, and our chronic diseases all went away, and we haven’t taken any prescription drugs for over 25 years.
As a child of God, we are peace-makers.
The most important and first thing you can do to in saving this world, and to living the tenets of God—starts on your dinner plate.
We have no right to take the life of any living being—our hearts should tremble for our violence we do to animals when we eat them. Be a whisper or be a scream, just be a voice for the voiceless being. It’s that simple.
I only eat ‘humane meat’ – I watched this cow who trusted her farmer, and balked at the slaughterhouse ramp, and knew her life was endangered. She could smell death. She could hear death. She feared death. The farmer whistled to her, because she trusted him, and he betrayed her with a bolt gun to her head, and I knew her, I watched her being skinned alive, and her body cut up into body parts – for people who don’t see her as a living being, a sentient living animal, that wanted to live, wanted her freedom – just as they do, they just see dead body parts in the grocery store. But I saw her. I knew her.
We are living at a time there is a great exploitation of animals and the environment. It has greatly harmed our environment and harmed animals, in an unprecedented way. Do we want to be part of that evil practice? Or part of the solution? When we exploit our environment, the environment turns its wrath on humans for humans’ mistreatment of the Earth.
Having Compassion – is seeing that animals are suffering in the way they are being raised and killed, and immediately getting it, and wanting to do nothing again with contributing to the suffering and death of animals.
People are being made ill, by listening to the recommendations of the federal government, which is completely in bed with animal agriculture and makes enormous money from animal agriculture – instead of listening to medical doctors, scientists, nutritionists, and all the voices they should be listening to.
God asked us to eat a plant-based diet. That’s the diet we are designed and supposed to eat. We’re herbivores, not omnivores as some people think. ~ Dr. Milton Mills, MD
Jewish people (in the Torah) have a mandate to be stewards, to care for the creation God has entrusted to us, to be mindful – all the way down to our consumption. We need to live in resonance with the Divine and with the planet God has given us.
The relation of a baby animal to its mother, is exactly the same as the relation of a human baby to its mother. We must respect all babies and mothers, of all species, by not harming them, causing harm to them, eating them, or drinking their milk. Dairy causes horrific harm.
We are in a society that is taught to look outside us for our happiness, and our entire socio-economic system depends on this premise and believing it. We’re at a point where we need to change our socio-economic system and find the source of our happiness from within us. We must reduce our demands on the Earth.
The most important step an individual can do today, is adopt a plant-based diet that is organic and vegan.
All beings seek to be free of suffering, so we must have compassion and alleviate suffering for all beings.
At all times in our life, we must have an attitude of NOT injuring another being – in thought, word or deed.
India is one of the largest exporter of beef in the world, due to the dairy industry in India.
When my patient stopped eating dairy foods, within two weeks his diabetes started healing and his eyesight returned. He improved further on a whole foods, plant-based diet. Medicines never cure, they get in the way of healing.
We have a 21-day residential disease reversal program, people who come in with many chronic diseases, we give them a plant-based diet, and within 21 days most of them get off 70% of their medications. The body can heal so fast, if we take away all the things that make the body so sick.
Jains don’t use any animal products, and don’t believe in or commit any violence to others or animals.
The Book of Psalms teaches that the world is built through kindness, we bring heaven down to Earth by perpetuating kindness. In every interaction, in every act of food consumption, in every choice we make – we have the opportunity to elevate the sparks of Holiness. We have the opportunity to objectify and abuse, or we have the opportunity to see the holiness in everything. Each creature is held with infinite love, and to take the Godly perspective of the universe, is to treat every single being with love. To treat every being as an end in themselves. All of our religions in the world teach this in their purest form. The most central question we can ask ourselves each day–is how I increase compassion in the world today, through my choices.  ~ Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, PhD
I am a full-on vegan, because I love Jesus Christ so much. Jesus is all about mercy, compassion, love and life – give life, stop killing, show kindness to everything. Jesus earliest followers were vegan, because of Jesus. The connection has been buried for a long time, for cultural reasons.
The big question about Dominion – God has dominion over us; God tells us exactly what it means – it means compassionate love, loving, nurturing, hope-filled, tender love. This is how we are to treat God’s creation. The Bible tells us exactly what Dominion is. God tells us. If you love God and want to honor God, then you need to stop eating animals.