Veggies by Force...

[Monica]

Violence is any act that impacts the life of another.

I am very surprised by your perception of the word. So do you consider childbirth a violent act? I respect your view but this is strange to me.

This is an inherently violent place, this Earth. The Earth is inherently violent. Just by being Herself she takes life and gives life. This is the act, the violence.

I don't see Earth as violent at all. I see Earth as being very patient and tolerant, but it is humans who cause the violence. Earth responds by releasing builtup pressure. I don't see power as violent.

Even plants have feelings. When I awakened I could not eat anything and struggled with just living for in breathing I was killing another-- the act of existing was killing something somewhere. The clothes I wear. The furniture I sit upon. The car I drive. The food I eat. The Insects that meet their death at my hand and/or windshield. This is an act of violence.

Wow. Again I am surprised! I see it totally differently. I see my body as a host, the same way the Earth is host to us. I have some, but not total, choice in what sorts of organisms I invite to inhabit my body. Our bodies contain millions upon millions of microorganisms. I don't see it as violence to them to breathe them in, or even death.

Clothing, as in the case of fur or leather, was obtained by acts of violence. But do you see even cotton as killing something, as violence?

I had the opposite experience as you. I am now delighting in the richness of my wild foods garden. Beautiful, wild weeds are growing in abundance in my front yard, and when I pick them and eat them, I feel joy radiating from the plants. The more I enjoy eating them, the more they seem to multiply! They seem to delight in nourishing my body and I truly believe they are not dying, but merging their consciousness with mine. How can this be compared to an animal whose runs in terror from the hunter? I am trying to understand your point of view.

I had to then choose my life or the lives of others.

Ah, I am beginning to understand that we have a different paradigm. In my paradigm, choosing self over other-self would be divisive. If we are all One, then what is best for me is also best for you. How could it be otherwise? How could there be a conflict? How could it be good for me to eat an animal, if the animal does not wish to be eaten? Why must I choose between myself and another?

My prayer is always that the highest good for all be done. What is the highest good for all will also be the highest good for each of us.

Even committing suicide is an act of violence against self. Not eating is an act of violence against self.

This I agree with.

So what is one to do with all these acts of violence?

Why must we do anything with them, if they are beyond our control? I cannot control a bug who splatters on my windshield. But I can choose to look a calf in the eyes and see its soul, and I can choose to not kill it.

I can choose to talk to the oversoul of the bees and wasps, and politely ask them to please not build their nests by my door and windows, instead of just spraying them with bug spray.

I can choose to turn the beetle over, instead of letting it flounder on its back. But if I accidentally step on it without intending to, I see no point in feeling guilty about that.

I made peace with it all for I had to choose life, my life and that of my child's. So I now eat and eat that which balances me and keeps me in balance. But I still struggle with the ethicalness of being here on Earth and the Violence of Living.

No one is judging you. Thank you for sharing!

I too struggle, but in a different way. I struggle with the knowing that millions of animals are being cruelly slaughtered every day, and I wonder whether I am speaking up enough. My guilt is not from the bug I accidentally stepped on, but from wondering whether I am letting my own fear of not being accepted by other (human) selves get in the way of championing those who cannot speak for themselves.

Many humans are suffering as well, but at least most aware people try to do their part on that, whether it's by being politically active, giving to charities, or whatever. I see the animal suffering and the human suffering as being connected.

The Starfish Story

Once there was a great, great storm. Waves high as mountains, winds strong as giants.
But that's not important

What is important is the next day, when Old Man Acha comes walking down the beach, looking for bodies and treasure, the last remnants of ships gone to sleep in the storm. He has to pick his way carefully, 'cause the beach is littered in starfish, castaways from the deep. The storm plucked them from their watery beds and deposited the poor souls on the sandy shore. Acha steps around them - many still alive. He keeps ambling up the beach, minding his own business, when he spies a youngling. She's throwing starfish into the ocean, many as she can, but still not makin' a dent in the piles. The Old Man, he wonders at this and says:

"Why bother to throw back any? How can it matter when there are so many? You throw back one, you still left with a ton? You never save them all."

That little girl she doesn't even pause to glance his way. She just keeps on flinging those 'fish back in the sea. She stops only long enough to say:

"It matters to this one"

as she flings it into the ocean.