2010.10.16 Desire and Responsiblity, Diet

[Shemaya]

"he question becomes, my friends, how to sustain a consciousness that is capable of approaching every meal with the awareness that perhaps the asparagus screamed as it was broken off of its mother. Perhaps the green beans cried to be taken from the vine. Perhaps the steer did not wish to leave its pasture, no matter how pitiful. So you approach each meal thanking the substance that feeds you, that you need, that you must have to live this physical life, in such a way that it and you become part of a ritual that is sacred in nature and that blesses both you and the substance which you are eating."

I like this quote in that it highlights our responsibility from a spiritual perspective. We are dropped into a human body, on this planet in a country, a culture, a family of origin, and all these we have no control over as we grow and develop from infancy to adulthood. Once we are adults, having absorbed and been programmed thusly we are " free" to make choices about diet and many other things like where to live etc.

Dietary choices are really enculturated choices, stemming from both our physical need, we need food to maintain our bodies, but also what we have been taught and programmed. The cultural rubric can be very difficult or easy to change or break free from depending on the individual's circumstance.

The point being that we are called to bring our higher consciousness and spiritual perspective to our individual life and circumstance . Being in gratitude for the sacredness of all life, for that which sustains the physical body, is a blessing that goes above and beyond mere choice about what is consumed.

I feel that no matter what we eat, what is most important is our respect and love for life, for the gift of being alive. For our loving acceptance of ourselves as living beings in a regenerative life cycle, and environment / ecology that sustains and regenerates.

For some, eating animal products is unacceptable. But this practice has been ongoing throughout human history. One is hard- pressed to find a truly vegan society on this planet, and if so, very uncommon.

What is really unfortunate for humanity is that the remembrance of the sacredness of all life has been replaced by love of money and profit. That is where we have gone wrong in our current society. For money, people and animals are oppressed and abused/ tortured on a daily basis. The earth is pillaged. Profiteers take more than they need and oppress and abuse those who are weaker and powerless.

As caring and compassionate spiritual people, our true strength lies in the awareness that we live in a whole interdependent environment, we are part of a whole. What do we chose to value? The sacredness of life? Or our systems of buying and selling and profiting?