Eating consciously
 

Being pescetarian is, for me, a choice that I made as part of living consciously. When I've eaten meat in the past it is a symptom of falling back into spiritual sleep. At times it is easy for me to detach from where meat comes from or what happens to the animals in the process. I didn't have to worry about such things because I indirectly paid others to do the dirty work for me. I know full well that if I ever had to kill the animal myself, I simply couldn't.

Waking up is part of my choice to remain awake and aware of what I'm eating, where it comes from, the sacrifices that are made etc. It's about being sensitive to life and suffering and above all my own choices and responses to that.

I'm not saying all this because I feel everyone should do the same. I just feel good about my choices and want to share what being a pescetarian means for me now. I feel I'm evolving spiritually and part of that is making conscious choices about what I eat. I fully accept that others may make different choices and continue to eat meat despite being fully conscious. I don't judge. I only know what feels right for me.

I wish I didn't have to eat fish but due to chronic health problems I don't feel able to cut it out at present. Same with eggs. Despite this I am sensitive to where fish come from and the fact they feel pain. I am hopeful that one day I will be able to live on a fully vegan diet.

So I don't see pescetarianism as separate to my spirituality, but all part of the same thing. It's a way to apply my spirituality to everyday life. I think it's all about being conscious and sensitive to how I react to life and choosing to remain this way rather than fall back to sleep.

Kudos to you!

I fully agree with you, that unless you yourself are willing and able to do the deed, you should not benefit from it. That's why when I was younger I went to witness a cow being slaughtered and butchered, went to a dairy farm and interacted with the calves, went to a chicken farm to see the conditions they were raised in and went fishing to catch, gut and cook it myself.

I still eat meat, but not very often. When I do I am fully aware of the whole process and what it is exactly that I am eating.

I definitely recommend that everyone out there, spiritual or no, see and experience what happens to animals. Only then can you truly come to a moral decision about eating meat and animal products.

Yes, all the dying are grateful when people are aware. Makes their pain so bearable. And by the way, it's not 'what' you are eating. They are 'who's'. They have family, friends, likes and dislikes, favourite foods and favourite games....who's.

For the past days I've been trying to notice how what I eat affects me spiritually.

In dreams it seems I get to experience the fear of the animal that I ate the day before.

Avoiding meat makes me less moody, less angry in my thoughts, I get calmer and the quality of my dreams improve a lot.

For the moment I definitely agree that eating certain foods, specially from the vegetable kingdom, makes a person purer. It is even poetic to say that your food grew from the soil, bathed in rain, sunlight and moonlight and then it was harvested for you to eat, as opposed to saying that an animal was butchered, gutted, cut into pieces and now you're frying it in a pan.

But I'm no hypocrite, I've been omnivorous all my life, and it may be difficult to change old habits. Nonetheless, I wish to learn and improve.