In Chinese traditional medicine, there are some incredible sources of natural remedies for all kinds of ailments. One of these many interesting remedies believed to be able to cure various conditions is called a bezoar.
A bezoar is a mass of food found trapped in an animal’s stomach system, usually from consuming grass and herbs. In particular, bezoar stones found in porcupines are believed to be used to cure cancer, diabetes, dengue fever, typhoid, epilepsy, hepatitis as well as many other conditions.
In Malaysia, there is a high demand for porcupine bezoar stones and medicinal shops can charge as much as RM700 for under a half gram! There is a lot of money to be made from obtaining these stones and people are very keen to make a profit from those looking to find quick-fix miracle cures.
However, the high demand for porcupine bezoars means that countless porcupines suffer needlessly in order to meet that demand. Recent news stories have given heart-breaking insights into such suffering. People who try to profit from the bezoar stones keep the poor animals in cramped cages and the porcupine is butchered for its meat and the stones are removes from its stomach to be sold on. (You can read one such story here: http://dailychilli.com/news/1364-how-bezoar-man-caught-rearing-porcupines-in-cages).
Recently, I have had bouts of illness and have been searching for remedies so my health can improve quickly. However, whatever I experience when I am ill is nothing compared to the terrifying trauma and brutal treatment poor porcupines are faced with. If I were to use porcupine bezoars in order to heal, I would not feel good about my health and recovery at all, knowing that a porcupine had suffered a horrific death. Especially when I can find alternative methods and remedies. Hence I refused to use this. It is your choice, but have compassion for animals please.
Porcupines suffer tremendously and there is no 100% guarantee that the bezoar stones will cure people of their condition. There are many other ways in which we can treat our ailments and illnesses. Why do we need to force unnecessary suffering upon porcupines and other animals to tend to our health? It makes no sense that we should feel positive about our own health improving when the cause for this is an animal having been slaughtered on our behalf.
In our practice, we pray to take on the suffering of all beings so that we can develop compassion and loving kindness towards all sentient beings. Imagine how hypocritical it would be to pray for the benefit of all sentient beings while we are happy for a poor defenseless animal to die a horrible death for our own gain. That doesn’t provide any benefit for the porcupine at all – only terror, suffering and pain!
When we are ill, we should definitely look towards getting better as quickly as possible. No-one wants to suffer; everyone wants to live in peace and without pain. We should keep this in mind when considering all other beings too: they also want to live in peace and without suffering. There are many, many ways that we can treat our illnesses and conditions and as spiritual practitioners, we should always endeavor to check that the treatment we seek out is free from causing suffering to other beings.
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