Can a truly spiritual person eat meat?

[Starlight]

One of the main characteristics of being Spiritual is 'Compassion'. As spiritual development matures, compassion and other good qualities become more and more manifest. As the character becomes uplifted and purified the behaviour i.e speech and actions automatically also become uplifted and purified. Therefore a compassionate diet is a sign of genuine spirituality.

Individuals may still be basically good even if they are consuming meat. However when compassion blossoms more fully advanced souls refrain from the inherently cruel meat eating diet. Furthermore the eating of flesh lowers the vibrations and pollutes the soul thus represents a negative influence on the individuals' true happiness and spiritual development.

This is a metaphysical and spiritual fact as taught by great spiritual beings throughout the ages and can be seen as self-evident by sincere people who are not deaf to their conscience.

[Snow Goose]

I was a vegetarian for 23 years, about a year or so ago I started eating meat again. Does that mean I changed? Well kind of I needed to ground which starting to eat definitely helped with.

I'm I less compassionate this year than last? No not that I have noticed, I have felt more in tune with nature tbh.

[Swami Chihuahuananda]

Yes. I'll simply use one example : indigenous peoples of North America .
Some very connected to Nature, Spirit World , eating meat. I used to
believe (brainwashed?) that I had to be vegetarian to be spiritual. Logically,
if my spirituality is so fragile that a piece of meat would ruin it, maybe I
wasn't all that spiritual anyway. That's when I slew the sacred cow

(and had a nice steak ).

[bloke]

The Dalai Lama.

[shoni7510]

I had a dream where Jesus fed me a well cooked piece of steak that was so tasty and looked so appetizing and I woke up still chewing.

[Hemera]

This is a complex issue and while I'm sympathetic to it (I eat fish but no meat) it's not as straightforward as saying truly spiritual and compassionate people don't eat meat. People who are more awake to the exprerience of pain and suffering often try to reduce their contribution to it and that is a wonderful thing, but it's all a matter of consciousness. Some people may do wonderful good in the world but are conditioned into eating meat and it's so natural for them that they don't question it. Some people have such severe stomach/health issues that eating meat is their only option if they can't eat vegetarian sources of protein - this can be argued as having compassion for oneself in giving the body what it needs. And of course some people argue that meat can be produced humanely to reduce the suffering produced in factory farms, which opens up a whole can of worms of its own.

As I said, a complex issue, and one that often provokes strong feelings. It's good to be mindful of one's feelings about the matter. At the end of the day there is never a right or wrong answer, or any answer at all really in this case, apart from doing what feels ultimately right for each person.

[Jyotir]

duplicate post

[Jyotir]

Originally Posted by Starlight

One of the main characteristics of being Spiritual is 'Compassion'. As spiritual development matures, compassion and other good qualities become more and more manifest. As the character becomes uplifted and purified the behaviour i.e speech and actions automatically also become uplifted and purified. Therefore a compassionate diet is a sign of genuine spirituality.

Individuals may still be basically good even if they are consuming meat. However when compassion blossoms more fully advanced souls refrain from the inherently cruel meat eating diet. Furthermore the eating of flesh lowers the vibrations and pollutes the soul thus represents a negative influence on the individuals' true happiness and spiritual development.

This is a metaphysical and spiritual fact as taught by great spiritual beings throughout the ages and can be seen as self-evident by sincere people who are not deaf to their conscience.

Hi Starlight,

It seems utterly incongruous doesn’t it?

Personally, I completely agree with your premise and conclusion, although it’s always going to be a personal choice - like every other choice we make as individuals (including spirituality) that affect others and the world. Not everyone is prepared and ready - let alone willing (and able) - to make that choice.

Not only is vegetarianism likely important and maybe indispensable for any individual spiritual life, it may also be essential for saving the planet, which humans are destroying by continuing to ignorantly perpetuate an animal agenda and regime - simply from the momentum of a virtually sacrosanct ‘tradition’ - the established convention and long habit which in part is residual from the last ice-age when agriculture was severely challenged.

In the current era, from every possible perspective (excluding individual medical necessity):
physiological, nutritional, epidemiological, economical, environmental, animal rights - spiritual is perhaps the least obvious and visibly consequential - there is really no valid justification for eating meat. It’s just a habit, that like all habits are hard to change, because the familiar inertia of self-indulgence is a very powerful force that is hard to supersede - mentally, emotionally and physically.

One day, eating dead animals will seem as aberrant, appalling, and pernicious as owning slaves, but this will take some time. In the meantime, it helps to be an example to others, which in some ways is the best most convincing argument.

~ J

[ocean breeze]

The animal is already dead, and ready to be served. Might as well use its body as a source of energy rather than let it go to waste.

[Hemera]

Originally Posted by ocean breeze

The animal is already dead, and ready to be served. Might as well use its body as a source of energy rather than let it go to waste.

That would be logical if talking about roadkill but sadly the majority of animals are bred and raised to be killed for human consumption. If people stppped eating meat overnight, there would be no need for factory farms. It's supply and demand- people want meat, animals are killed to get it and most suffer horribly. This is the foundation of vegetarianism.