food for thought

[Guest guest]

In the course of one week I saw three different health care practioners who

all told me I needed to eat meat. I was appauled. Mostly because everyone knows

vegetarians are superior! (As far as spiritual beliefs I always felt plants had

life essence in them too and that gardening also killed lots of organisms and

such in the soil, not to mention on the plants. I was an avid gardener so I

knew. So for me killing plants, insects or animals were the same. I could not

spiritualy see the difference and never bought into the idea that animals had

souls whereas insects and plants didn't. I had become vegetarian for other

reasons, which I have now reconciled in myself. )

Well after the 3rd Dr. in one week suggested I should try eating meat, I

decided it was too big of a coincidence to ignore. I was told that if I tried

it for a month or two I would notice if it made a difference or not and could

then decide whether or not to continue it. Also I was told that I only had to

eat small amounts of flesh, fish would do, once a week or so.

So gathering my courage and fighting my superiority complex I braved buying

and cooking a small piece of fish. It was hard and I didn't like it.

The next week I bought a premade piece of free-range thai cooked chicken from

the health food deli. I ate it and much to my surprise LOVED IT! I lived an

hour from the health food store and for the next few days all I could think

about was returning to get another piece of that delicious chicken. I realized

then that I had been a repressed carnivore, for in only one week, I was now

obsessed with getting more chicken to eat.

Needless to say my energy picked up almost immediately and I felt alive and

vital again. So I continued with the small amounts of flesh in my diet for the

next few years. Then I decided to try a strick ayurvedic diet and for my pitta

type flesh was out. Then just a couple of months ago, while sitting in

meditation after yoga class I got a strong inner message telling me it was time

to start eating some fish again.

One thing worth mentioning here for me is that one other really healthy thing

that happened to me when I made the jump from vegetarianism to flesh a few

years ago was the realization of how judgemental I was about meat eaters. I had

decided that anyone eating meat was short of being barberic, certainly lowly and

of gross nature. And boy did I judge those people. If I ever ate with someone

who ordered meat for a meal I had all kinds of repulsion for them going on

inside. Dinners with my family became a mini adventure of pointing out how base

eating ' de d cows' and such were. As well as them telling me I was eating

rabbit food. And no matter how much love my mom poured into cooking that

dinner, I refused to eat it holding my higher ground.

Infact one day at the local health food store I found a flyer on the bulletin

board that was written by strick vegans condemning a local restaurant for

adding chicken, eggs and honey to their menu fare. And when I say condemning I

was shocked at the language and condemnation and threats they had posted

towards these restaurants. I wrote them a note telling them that if their vegan

diets were making them so judgemental, angry and threatening that perhaps they

were poor advocates to me for that diet. For what I've come to realize is that

it's not so much what you put into your body that weighs as heavily as the

purity of thoughts actions and deeds that one has. If being vegetarian makes

you feel superior, more spiritual, of higher nature, great! But if you have to

condemn others for not following the same path, you've missed the whole point.

If being a vegetarian is a wise choice for you, so be it. If eating meat is a

wise choice for you so be it. I can only choose for myself. And if your personal

diet involves feeling a sense of superiorty and rightousness and has you judging

others from that reference point, then one should re-evaluate. Anything that

creates duality is not uplifting to humanity, the mind, the body or the spirit.

Many great sages and saints throughout history have been both vegetarians and

meat eaters. The most realized person I have ever met on this planet is a meat

eater, though I know many very uplited vegetarians also.

I am a type O (which now signifies Open-minded to me).

Thanks for hearing me out and Shanti OM.

PS as a side note I am in my 50's and have watched over tha last 5 years most of

my former staunch vegetarian friends turn to other diets as their health started

failing also. Coincidence or ?

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