Why I am not a vegan

[Diana]

i love meat. so does my cat

Isis, you and your cat be well. I have regained my cool this morning and apologize for losing it yesterday.

I understand how difficult loving the taste of something can be. But there are usually deeper prompts at work. For instance, I love potato chips and ice cream. In both cases, it is emotional comfort food for me. So if I'm feeling stressed, I want to eat ice cream.

But I know that neither are good for me in any way, except self-medication, and that is a temporary fix with long-term consequences.

Loving meat may have its roots in the fact that meat is full of certain hormones that are released when the animal dies. If, in fact, you ate the meat of a cow who died naturally and was not slaughtered, then the hormones released when an animal is killed and in fear weren't there. However, like me and my comfort foods, you may like meat because you are addicted to the effect it has.

This point is why spiritual leaders are almost always vegetarian. It is a gentler way to live and conducive to spiritual progress. And that is precisely why it's appropriate to talk about here. I am not saying that one can't progress spiritually if eating meat. But like STS, at a certain point one has to make a choice to be STO, or one cannot progress further according to the LOO.