Is Your Sugar Vegan? - The Vegetarian Resource Group

Vegging Out with
Kung Fu and Star Trek
by Richard Marranca
IT WAS NOT LONG AGO WHEN BEING VEGETARIAN
was looked upon as eccentric or radical, but thanks
to many cultural and spiritual changes, this is no
longer the case. Humans always find new influences
and evolve, and fortunately, some of the virtues stick.
For millennia, cultural heroes were hunters and
warriors with giant egos—see Gilgamesh, Achilles,
or the variations on the cowboy archetype. Of course,
spiritual journeyers have always existed—and they
popped out on television in the 1960s and 1970s in
the guises of Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) from Star
Trek and Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) from
Kung Fu. Nimoy and Carradine acted brilliantly, with
strength and dignity, showing the nuances of these
complex characters and humor, too.
On Kung Fu, “The
Shaolin acolytes and
priests... could do
amazing feats of skill
and strength. Yet
they were Buddhist
vegetarians.”
Whatever promotes vegetarianism and consciousness
is a good thing, and looking back, I was fortunate
to have been influenced by these programs—the ideas
rang true and showed brilliant alternatives to conventional
living. They were part of the matrix of other revolutions
at the same time, such as the interest in Asian
philosophy, civil rights, women’s rights, animal rights,
the flowering of arts and music, environmentalism,
global thinking, and space exploration.
Isn’t it interesting that TV showcased two outsiders
of mixed ethnic origins whose philosophy, way of being,
and looks were exotic, even strange After all, it wasn’t
Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, or Scotty who was vegetarian,
nor was it likely that any of the cowboys or storekeepers
on Caine’s trail were refraining from meat.
In fact, that’s often how humans present utopian ideals;
they exist in another era. There was once a time when
people were virtuous, or there will be a time…
Let’s take a look at these voyagers from the past
and future—Caine from the 19 th century and Spock
from the 23 rd century. Typical of mythic heroes, Caine
was an orphan. His father had been an American sailor
and his mother Chinese. During a fierce rain, young
Caine sat outside the door of the Shaolin Monastery
(in China) until the venerable ones let him in. Even
then, he had courage and physical strength, and not
all boys were accepted or later made it through the
grueling asceticism.
The Shaolin acolytes and priests were experts in
philosophy and mindfulness but also in the fighting
art of kung fu. They were masters of chi, that pervasive
energy that exists within and all around us. Chi represents
the boundless, flowing universe. And Shaolin
fighting skills were amazing; they had learned from
great masters and from the animal kingdom (the praying
mantis and other creatures) and could perform
amazing feats of skill and strength.
Yet they were Buddhist vegetarians. Buddhism
recognizes that all is suffering and that one must promote
compassion and meditation to enter nirvana, a
numinous and transcendent state of being. Buddhism
recognizes the interdependence of all life forms. The
first precept—“Do not kill”—is founded upon compassion
and unity. According to Professor Sumalee
Mahanarongchai of Thannasat University in Bangkok,
“The existence of humans and animals is
harmoniously based on causal law. In the
far course of transmigration, there is not one
living being that has never been our father,
mother, sister, son, daughter, or any form
of kinship in various degrees.”
Vegetarianism was part of the Shaolin creed, their
method of conscious living and denial of samsara, the
whirlpool of society. Shaolin priests were aware of life
on a small and large scale, realizing as such Buddhists
do, that Indra’s Net of Gems is full of reflections, that
22 Issue Four 2007 VEGETARIAN JOURNAL