Does eating meat preclude graduation to 4th D STO?

[Monica]

A more compelling question might be:

How is our polarity affected when we knowingly, consciously decline opportunities to open our hearts to compassion and service to others?

It depends on how often a person knowingly declines the compassionate choice.

If a person makes 100 choices in the day and 97 are compassionate/ service to others choices, then that person, on that day is polarizing highly positively.

Perhaps. But it might not just be in the numbers. Another factor might be the strength of each choice, and the amount of effort, will and focus it takes to make that choice.

For example, I used to have a really strong spider phobia. I was absolutely terrified of spiders!

Some years ago, when I started gardening, I decided to make peace with spiders. Instead of squashing them when I found one in the house, I caught them and took them outside. At that time, my choice to take them outside probably carried a lot of weight, since it was so hard for me to do that.

Now, many years later, I take them outside routinely. It's no longer any big deal. So I would speculate that my choosing to take a spider outside 100 times now, would carry less weight than taking one outside just once did, 20 years ago. My single action 20 years ago was more polarizing than 100 such actions now.

Another example: I routinely give money to the homeless people on the street corner. I don't give a lot of money, but I give what I can, based on how much cash is in my pocket. I usually talk to them a bit too. I look them in the eyes, recognizing them as other-selves, and ask them how they are doing, what got them into this situation. They usually light up and tell me a bit about themselves. I get the impression that they don't get asked that much. Then I tell them that I hope their situation improves.

This, too, is just normal to me. I don't think it's particularly polarizing, because it's just a normal part of my day. For a really poor person to give her last dollar, it would probably be much more positively polarizing than it is for me. Or someone who has resentment towards homeless people, or a strong political view about homeless people on the side of the street - for them to do the very same thing I did, would likely be much more polarizing for them than it is for me.

Me being vegan is now just a normal part of my life. My choosing to eat lentil soup instead of fish is no longer particularly polarizing, I'm guessing, because that was a choice I made long ago, and it's now just a normal part of life. But for someone who is still conflicted about eating fish, or who has just recently opened their eyes to fish as other-selves, to make that same choice, might be much more polarizing than it is for me.

Conversely, it seems to me that making the choice to decline an opportunity for compassion would be much more negatively polarizing for someone who is aware, than for someone who isn't aware. For example, for me to drive past that homeless guy, or squash that spider, would be much more negatively polarizing for me, because I know better.

As Edgar Cayce said, With ability comes responsibility.

This is just speculation but it makes sense to me, that the amount of polarizing depends a lot on the individual circumstances, and what was involved in making that choice. I just don't think it's so easily quantifiable.

If we pretend that it is quantifiable, ie. make trade-offs, such as "Oh I'll go ahead and squash that spider because I gave a dollar to 5 homeless guys today" then that would probably actually be negatively polarizing, because we'd be trying to manipulate the system, instead of just being in the moment, finding the love, and choosing compassion in that moment.

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