Can a truly spiritual person eat meat?

[naturesflow]

Originally Posted by r6r6r

All humans are spiritual people. Some of them eat meat, others dont.

Some humans believe there freedom to anything means that they should do anything irrespective of consequences/karma.

Eating meat is unnecessary and the act of doing so is detrimental to self and others.

And then there is eating beef compared to other animals.

Beef is a bigger problem than other sources of meat

....Producing beef requires significantly more resources (e.g. land, fertilizer, and water) than other sources of meat. As ruminant animals, cattle also produce methane that othersources (e.g. pigs and chickens) don't.
Eschel et al. 2014 estimated that producing beef requires 28 times more land, 6 times more fertilizer and 11 times more water than producing pork or chicken.

....As a result, the study estimated that producing beef releases 4 times more greenhouse gases than a calorie-equivalent amount of pork, and 5 times as much as an equivalent amount of poultry.

...Eating vegetables produces lower greenhouse gas emissions yet. For example, potatoes, rice, and broccoli produce approximately 3–5 times lower emissions than an equivalent mass of poultry and pork (Environmental Working Group 2011). The reason is simple – it's more efficient to grow a crop and eat it than to grow a crop, feed it to an animal as it builds up muscle mass, then eat the animal.

I was one told by a naturopath R6 that beef takes some phenomenal amount of time to break down in the human body, is that true do you know?

[Pagandell]

Originally Posted by virtue121

Dear KnightofLenity,

I like your styling: a knight implying bravery and strength but also chivalrous, kind and gentle. That is a wonderful ideal that I aspire to also.

I recognize that every individual Being is essentially equal. Yet on the other hand there are many beings with a deeper understanding and better character than myself *currently*. Also there are individuals about equal to myself and those with a more shallow understanding and less healed character in some areas *currently*.

Some individuals have their divinity more obscured than others from the viewpoint of the dualistic world.

What does the term 'spiritual development' mean to you? Intrinsic to the term is the idea of progress implying quite easily different levels in one sense. No need to reject such an idea. The deeper we can embrace the absolute equality of being the easier it is to accept the self evident reality of different levels of understanding etc from the everyday/dualistic way of thinking.

There is a spectrum of consciousness from unconscious minerals, through plants, simple insects, fish, simpler and more complex animals to humans. Then, within the circle of human beings, there are the more instinctive/emotional types, the more intellectual types and then the more intuitive/spiritual types. Then there are those such as the Buddha who has realized Nirvana. These are rough descriptions only of course.

Now animals start off slave to their instincts just as many humans are at times. For example if you put your hand down fast next to a fly it doesn't really have much choice but must fly off, its instincts take over.

They will miss their mother, fear for their young, grieve, take comfort, be joyful in a moment of freedom and sunlight etc.

So when a hunter kills an animal it may be a male or female, have their own personality, perhaps the animal..he or she..has dependents, young ones that will miss them and will starve when they do not come back to tend them. To interfere with a family of creatures or an individual creature through the violence of murder is not gentle, kind or chivalrous is it? That is a fact which we can be:

1)largely unconscious of,
2)semi-conscious of but denying and obscuring with false intellectual arguments
or 3) we can be deeply aware of it.

Those who are deeply aware of this fact and embody those noble virtues (that you yourself respect) will- like a knight- defend such weaker creatures. They will clearly not needlessly hurt or injure them. They will not stick up for the transgressors for that would lead them astray. Rather they would speak out against bad behavior and false beliefs.

That is a duty to do so. Do not demonize judgement, lectures, comparisons, preaching or healthy constructive criticisms. Rather see the good in these natural aspects of yourself and employ them to benevolent ends.

Best Wishes,

James

Just love this, music to my ears

[Clover]

Good morning/afternoon,


Closing the thread down for a cool down/clean up.

No need for personal attacks. Ignore feature could be beneficial, self control better

Be kind.

Cloves

[Lynn]

Hello Members

This thread will not be reopened. Do not start one like this again as it will be removed. This debate has run its course. We are not here to judge different cultures and food choices. There have been too many "wars" fought over such issues in real life. Spiritual Forums is not a place for such battles.

Lynn
SF Admin