Why I am not a vegan

[Monica]

i wasn't trying to my best to be offensive - i wasn't trying to be offensive at all

my point is that i feel it's ok to eat meat if you know it had a good history & death

maybe if i eat meat every day like Carla then i'll be granted the ability to channel an alien...i think i'll try to channel a painting

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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.

no apology necessary. it's an admirable thing to lose your cool about!

If more people ate meat only once a year, the world would be a much better place!

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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.

I've been a vegetarian for 33 years, and kept dabbling with veganism off and on, but didn't make the commitment to vegan because cheese was a comfort food for me. Ironically, it was the original meat thread, along with Pablisimo sharing info about the addictive substances and hormones in cheese, that got me to go vegan a couple of years ago.

I can't imagine ever eating meat, but cheese was a lot harder because it was a comfort food for me. Being honest about my own struggle with cheese helped me to be more compassionate about people having trouble giving up meat.

That's why I avoid making direct statements about anyone's diet, but prefer to talk about concepts and ideas.

you may like meat because you are addicted to the effect it has.

That, and just simple habit. Habits can be changed, but it takes effort.

Fast food meat is full of hormones which are addictive, cancer-causing, and mood-altering (in addition to being the worst of the worst regarding animal cruelty). A lot of the resistance is the same as smokers resisting info about lung cancer: one who is addicted to a substance will tend to defend it.

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.

Exactly!