Do Not Eat Meat.

Refrain from killing. Would you spear your own son or daughter? Yet you still shave off it's skin and boil it's flesh.

Refrain from killing. Do not shoot a bird from the sky. What has it done to you or your family?

Refrain from killing. How much flesh will you consume before your apepetite is satisfied? Yet you continue to eat the hearts of parents and children.

Refrain from killing. You will be judged for the meat you have consumed, and you will be speared and shot with arrows a thousand times, and a thousand cauldrons of hot oil will be poured down your throat. And you will be reborn into this world with two horns and fur.

My trip to Richmond was quite worthwile. In all honesty, I should've stayed a little longer to call up some old friends, but... ah. Circumstances.

What I was really hoping for was to give the Larrivee factory a tour, but, they only do tours on specific days of the week which didn't coincide with my schedule, so that was too bad. So, instead, my dad took me out on a spontaneous tour of history. We went to the house that they first moved into, and that Irene was born in somewhere in Delta, and then we headed off to Surrey to visit some old family friends. (The friends were not expecting). Since everyone's now retired, hey! We have time to do anything! So we went out for a Greek lunch which was absolutely out of this world. I should've taken a picture, but it was both delicious and massive. AND, it only cost 6.75 per person.

My dad has a point when he questions Calgary: I just don't understand it. The property value is going so high and yet, there's no good place to eat! I have to admit, Vancouver food and culture puts us to shame, and it's so much more affordable! Even with PST.

Anyway, to kill off some time before dinner, where we're to meet up with my cousins, we continued to drive around town. And dad's showing me all these religous centers, mosques, churches, temples, you name it. And they're huge places neighboring each other. And he asks me see Jon? There are so many religions! How am I supposed to know which one to go to?

Anyway, we pass by this gargantic Buddhist temple, and I go Holy Crap, can we go in there? So we pull a U-ee, park the car and approach the steps.

Lots of steps. I should've taken a picture, but I wasted all my memory on this chipmunk. The idols were huge too. We walked in during some kind of prayer, so they had the bells and gongs going. A nice monk directed us towards the courtyard if we weren't going to partake in the ceremony thing, but they all spoke Mandarin so I couldn't understand a word.

However, they had some nice translations in the courtyard which proved semi-interesting. A whole wack of posters with nice paintings about refraining from killing. And at first, I thought it was some political comment on why Canada should not partake in the Afgan missions.

But no, they just meant, stop eating meat.

I was a little dissapointed.

We were offered some tea and we sat down and had a conversation with a follower (not a monk), but again, it was all in Mandarin so I just sat and looked pretty. When we left, I inquired on what the conversation was all about.

Dad: Oh you know, all believers of a particular faith always seem obligated to convert you.

Me: Did you ask him if he ate meat?

Dad: Of course! And yes, he does.

Me: Jeeze, he does realize he's going to get speared a thousand times and be forced to drink a thousand cauldrons of hot oil right?

Dad: Yup, but he says there are different levels of Buddhism that you can choose to follow.

Me: I see, I don't quite follow.

Dad: Me neither. That's why we're getting out of here.

But man, King Crab for dinner! That was some damn good meat.