Is food a barrier towards spiritual practice?

Originally Posted by knightofalbion

1) But they don't kill the animals themselves - bad karma - they get someone else to do it.

Does it work like that? I mean, if you're eating meat, then you're still partly responsible for it's death and suffering are you not? So still bringing about bad karma?

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by NIRVANA

1) My diet was balanced the problem was it was having a detrimental effect on my life. Maybe people are different some people flurish on a vegan/vegetarian diet others become ill.

It could be down to our genes

2) The food chain is very eco-friendly wasting nothing nurishing each other. I do sometimes think if there is a god why has god created the food chain by giving up edible bodies.

1) If your diet was having a detrimental effect on your life, there must have been an imbalance somewhere.
People usually fall down on the issue of protein. It does require some research to discern that you've got everything covered. There's a science to it.

Some people do claim the same thing - that they followed a vegan diet and became ill. Famously Denise Minger for example has seemingly made a career out of putting down veganism...
She gave an interview to NAIA a few months ago. For the first time, as far as I'm aware, she declared what she was eating. (She was a 15 year old schoolgirl at the time and she followed this diet for two years) "Fresh fruit and vegetables and smoothies and some nuts here and there - all unheated."
No wonder she became ill. And veganism gets the blame...!

2) I rather think it is man who has made these things "edible", not God. Some primitive tribes used to engage in cannibalism. Apparently, human flesh is edible too!

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by peacegarden

This is fascinating. So not eating meat helps to raise vibration, and eating meat grounds you?

Is there no way to remain grounded even though we are raising our vibrations? Is this not necessary on the spiritual path, to have feet on the ground and head in the clouds, so to speak?

Eating living foods (Fruits esp.berries, seeds and nuts) raise your vibrations. Eating meat lowers your vibrations. Quite apart from the compassion/oneness of all life issues, if you're genuinely on the spiritual path, why would you want to lower your vibrations?

"Eating meat grounds you". Do you think that there are no grounded vegetarians/vegans? The great majority of the world's masters, saints and teachers of righteousness have been vegetarian/vegan.
In any case, wisdom is down to soul evolution.

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by peacegarden

...If you're eating meat, then you're still partly responsible for it's death and suffering are you not?

Indeed, there is complicity. 'You' are the demand fuelling the supply.

There is not the tradition of vegetarianism in Tibetan Buddhism, that there is in Indian Buddhism & Jainism. The harsh winter conditions in Tibet might give them an excuse. Desperate times and all that.

[JOHNTY]

Greetings to you All,

For over 33 years I worked in a factory slinging lumps of steel around from one machine to another. It was really hard work with sleep patterns disrupted by shift work. Of those 33 years the last 30 were me disrupting my family by me becoming vegetarian - and, eventually, them too. No pressure from me, either. I'm now retired (no, wait a minute I still work weekends in a superstore ) and I'm still vegetarian. I have good sight, good hearing, no arthritis and as far as I can tell my brain and mind are still okay. I'll be 70 next year.

I became vegetarian in June 1976 and have no regrets. As for feeling the urge to be grounded well, this should not occur if you are eating the correct amount and a good variety of foods: fruit, nuts, vegetables and wholemeal bread and rolls. In other words it all depends on how interested, or how lazy you are in looking after your body - the physical home of your spiritual self.

If you are spiritual and vegetarian or vegan then you will know just how beneficial it is to ask God to bless all food and liquids that go into this temple of yours - it gives them an added boost and you added protection.

As I said, eat correctly and you will not feel the need to ground yourself by eating anything, or any part of anything that once had a face because it just wont occur.

Your health and spiritual outlook is entirely up to you but here is a bit of advice gained from experience: do not eat anything that contains white flour: bread, cakes, biscuits etc, avoid cow's milk, you can get used to drinking tea and coffee without it (if you investigate you will discover a huge range of tastes and strengths to satisfy all tastebuds) and they are best drunk without sugar. As for milk well, there are a good range of vegetable and nut milks - I use and like rice milk - that can be used on cereals etc.

And lastly, no matter how holy we are, at some time or other we all get ill and have to see our doctor. Be up front and tell him or her that you are vegetarian or vegan and do not want any medicines that have got animal by-products in them (and there are loads) and that definitely includes capsules made from gelatine. My doctor never batted an eyelid about this and neither did the pharmacist who, sometime later, told me with a smile and friendly nod that I'm the only person who has asked and demands this service.

All this may sound mind-blowing, tedious and boring but you get used to it until it becomes 'natural' all the way around.

[knightofalbion]

A fine post, Johnty.

Respect to you for standing by your principles and following the path of compassion.

As you say, the body is the temple of the spirit. However we perceive Truth, we should live as kindly and as harmlessly as we can, in all ways.

[Xan]

If you are spiritual and vegetarian or vegan then you will know just how beneficial it is to ask God to bless all food and liquids that go into this temple of yours - it gives them an added boost and you added protection.

I would say that even if you are a meat-eater, blessing everything you take into your body with light would be beneficial... including the animals you eat but didn't kill yourself.

I notice the term "vegetarianism" when it shows up, because to me it signifies a system of beliefs that people can get quite righteous about being the 'right way'. But as I see it dietary needs are very individual, just like our spiritual paths.

People refer to India as the mecca of vegetarians, but from my visits there in recent years I find more and more of them becoming "non-veg" as they call it.

There's only one thing that's universally true... the Universal Truth of Being. Everything else is variable.


Xan

Originally Posted by knightofalbion

Indeed, there is complicity. 'You' are the demand fuelling the supply.

Originally Posted by Xan

[/color][/b]I would say that even if you are a meat-eater, blessing everything you take into your body with light would be beneficial... including the animals you eat but didn't kill yourself.[b][color=Purple]

It's not just that though is it? I mean, to say it's ok to eat meat so long as someone else kills it, well it's kinda selfish is it not? It's like saying "I don't want this bad karma, so I'll let someone else take it for me, someone who's ignorant enough not to know the consequences of their actions".

It seems kinda hypocritical when we're supposed to have compassion for all sentient beings, the animal is still dead, and someone picked up bad karma for killing it.

I'm not having a go, I still eat meat on occasions, but I must admit I'm being more drawn to leaving it behind.

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by Xan

1) I would say that even if you are a meat-eater, blessing everything you take into your body with light would be beneficial... including the animals you eat but didn't kill yourself.

2) I notice the term "vegetarianism" when it shows up, because to me it signifies a system of beliefs that people can get quite righteous about being the 'right way'. But as I see it dietary needs are very individual, just like our spiritual paths.

People refer to India as the mecca of vegetarians, but from my visits there in recent years I find more and more of them becoming "non-veg" as they call it.

3) There's only one thing that's universally true... the Universal Truth of Being. Everything else is variable.


Xan[/color]

1) That is something that irks me. People who declare that the animal willingly made a scarifice (of its life) so that 'you' could eat its flesh. How do they know? Did they ask it?! No.
The animal didn't want to die anymore than you or I do, certainly not in the manner it did in the slaughterhouse.

2) I don't think anyone held up India as the "Mecca" of vegetarianism. India is a vast melting-pot of ideas, beliefs and cultures, but it does have a huge number of vegetarians and a long history of vegetarianism stretching back thousands of years.

3) Truth is constant and eternal, it is only our understanding and perception of it that alters. Eventually all souls on earth will follow a vegan diet, a spiritual vegan diet, because it is the way of love and non-violence. Wisdom tells you that that is inevitable, in the fullness of time.

[knightofalbion]

Originally Posted by peacegarden

It's not just that though is it? I mean, to say it's ok to eat meat so long as someone else kills it, well it's kinda selfish is it not? It's like saying "I don't want this bad karma, so I'll let someone else take it for me, someone who's ignorant enough not to know the consequences of their actions".

It seems kinda hypocritical when we're supposed to have compassion for all sentient beings, the animal is still dead, and someone picked up bad karma for killing it.

I'm not having a go, I still eat meat on occasions, but I must admit I'm being more drawn to leaving it behind.

Beautifully put, dear PeaceGarden. A soul is blossoming before our eyes!

It is something for people to reflect on certainly. They lack the coldness of spirit and hardness of heart to kill the animal for themselves, but have no qualms about getting someone else to do it on their behalf...

In all things one must listen to that quiet voice within.