Being a Vegetarian

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

@ Steve: I've been re-reading what I wrote, which I forgot in part. Yes that's all interesting evidence that a vegetarian usually has no need to worry and to use supplements, just a little knowledge of food chemistry is needed, the amounts indicated by agencies are very often cautios, being their purpose to avoid problem in 95% or 99% of the whole population.
Also, if you eat pulses, just about everything is provided. Except B12, which is provided by even modest amounts of milk or cheese.
If you don't, there are ways around, as it turns out by the simple research I carried out.
 

i wonder if the body has a mechanism that makes u want to eat what u need? i seem to b gravitated to pulses on occasion. i do feel that uncontrolled desires of any kind lead to psychological and health issues. People need to separate needs from desires; that is not always an easy one. Because it seems like saints have less and less needs for anything since they r completely satisfied with what they are.

Amma has a tremendously busy schedule. She was asked by her devotees why she wasn't eating. Her reply was 'why? i didn't eat yesterday'. This kind of nonchalant attitude towards eating is an inspiration for fasting for those with more 'normal' desires and eating habits. i remember preparing food for monastics. What always interested me is that they were usually quite uninterested in getting fed and instead liked talking to other devotees. Usually they took quite a while to eat anything. They expressed a lack of interest when i offered them food and it was real good food! Sometimes they would thank me if i for instance i got them something to drink but generally speaking there was a lack of interest. i believe there was a lesson in it for me as i look back on this and many other things in my life.

What i have noticed about myself is that the more stimulating were the people around me or the more i have been surrounded by nature the less desire i have for food. It is as though there are other things to stimulate your diet. (LOL) U see things or smell things that give u such a wonderful feeling. If you fill your senses with to many dark foods (Especially meat) or too much sense pleasures u deny yourself more subtle spiritual pleasures and dull your spiritual sensitivity. i still remember the smell of for instance flowers at the beach when there were none around. But there are such things as astral smells. i have found that what Paramahansa Yogananda had spoke of as living off 'cosmic energy' is in part true in my own life. The more blissful i have felt the less the need or thought of food. U r digesting a higher form of food. At some point in our sadhana we take more of an interest at what is happening within us instead of stimulation from the outside world. With regard to the outside world; the senses become more developed to aroma touch and sites... so we do not need to 'gorge' our body with so many outside sources. It is just something to keep in mind as we grow spiritually.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Killing animals is a violent act. There is karma for violence. To say that we do not kill them is like saying i didn't kill six million Jews during Hilter's rise to power i was just a Nazi. U see u can't b a part of violence by eating animals and say u aren't. The fact is that the animal u ate would still be living if it was not for you. i will admit having some violence of my own when i kill mosquitoes. Haven't got beyond that yet.. their vampirious hypodermic needles in my flesh. Ahimsa is non violence to all creatures. It is a spiritual quality that made Gandhi so great of a man.

[guest88]

hi Steve,

You can argue I feed the demand for the meat industry but think of how much is already in motion, even if I were to stop eating meat. Numbers may be skewed but you do a quick search and will find millions if not billions of animals are killed every year for the profit.

My stopping doesn't stop what's already in motion.

If I were to successfully cut meat from my diet, the horror still exist.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

hi Steve,

You can argue I feed the demand for the meat industry but think of how much is already in motion, even if I were to stop eating meat. Numbers may be skewed but you do a quick search and will find millions if not billions of animals are killed every year for the profit.

My stopping doesn't stop what's already in motion.

If I were to successfully cut meat from my diet, the horror still exist.

 

There is no reason to jump on the band wagon of horror. When u go to a grocery store you think of it as food u don't think of it as that cow out in the field. U might not quit eating meat but there is no denying the horror in it. Some day almost every one will be vegetarian. It will probably be a crime to kill animals. Someone will have to start the trend for it to happen. i do not mind being a trend setter for what's rite when most people r doing what's wrong. It matters not that the whole world is practicing cruelness. It matters that we are practicing kindness and love.

[ding dong]

@aya,

No one eats their dog, as far as I'm aware.

[guest88]

Hi Dingdong. Welcome to the forum. =)


I think that depends where you come from. I've seen a dog cooked for consumption before. . .

If these images are offensive please feel free to remove them or let me know and I will remove them immediately.

[ding dong]

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Good lord. I vote for removing the graphic pictures and leaving the cartoons which make the point.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

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Good lord. I vote for removing the graphic pictures and leaving the cartoons which make the point.

It often takes graphic pictures to change people. Some cultures kill dogs and use them for entertainment as they breed them to fight each other.  Some people believe dogs r cute so it should b unlawful to kill them; others would have a pig or a deer as a pet. I have seen people who have  different animals as pets and would not think of eating them.

Often Americans belittle  the people of India for worshiping cows. Yet really it is a way of justifying their own  horror in killing them. Indian people have respect for the cow because it provides so much food and fulfills so many needs without killing it.

Anyone who has been at a pig roast will see the same graphic reality. There r people who have watched humans get killed for entertainment it is just a matter of sensitivity and where u draw the line. We must recognize that at one time it was very unpopular to question the entertainment of the day when most people went to coliseums and watched Christians being torn apart by lions. Today it is unpopular to question the cruelty towards animals. It is all a matter of conditioning and what a culture accepts. Our culture is also very sick. It will take history to prove it. When we our born within a certain culture we begin to consider its sickness as normal. Although being normal will some day be considered quite sick. But those with a more spiritual approach and a sensitive approach to life see beyond the cultural trappings of the day. They find it more important to speak their truth even when they recognize that for instance: the viewing at a forum like this is cut in half when such topics r discussed in detail.

Paramahansa Yogananda had pet deer in India and the United States. i am sure he never thought about venison and interestingly enough people say we r eating venison tonite and beef tonite instead of saying deer or cow. Dog meat is called fragrant meat or mutton of the earth....as if to somehow take the horror out of it.  Ramana Maharshi also had animals that he held to b very spiritual. Maybe u know more about the stories surrounding him Brock.

[mccoy]

Times are a'changing it would appear.

Maltreating or killing pets or getting rid of'em is a criminal offence now in Italy and I believe in all Europe.

Veganism is uptrending right now, more than lacto-ovo vegetarianism, and that's because of a developed awarenss of animals' rights.

[mccoy]

i wonder if the body has a mechanism that makes u want to eat what u need? i seem to b gravitated to pulses on occasion. i do feel that uncontrolled desires of any kind lead to psychological and health issues. People need to separate needs from desires; that is not always an easy one. Because it seems like saints have less and less needs for anything since they r completely satisfied with what they are.

Sure the body has a mechanism which regulates cravings according to needs. But, as you say, greed and desire are confounding factors.
The ideal body-mind setup would not create a craving for sugary and creamy colored pastries (toxic food). That's an artificial desire created out of habit. The body would legitimately need bread and butter and honey, its need for carbs and fats has been deranged though by bad habits, so the need gets hijacked by desire.

[ding dong]

Ramana said unequivocally that Lakshmi the cow had attained full liberation at her death. I heard one story where he looked at some people and said, "Look at Lakshmi. Do you know what state she is in? She is in samadhi." A guy on facebook even claimed that it was because Ramana was a recluse and that "even he couldn't take it" when she died and so he made that story about her enlightenment. Seems like a ridiculous interpretation to me that doesn't really tally with the facts. People make such statements very confidently, though. Who knows? Ramana said that he was visited by Siddhas in animal bodies often. Take it how you will. He also said vegetarianism was one of the best aids to spiritual practice because it produces a sattwic mind.

I personally never eat meat. When I read about Yogananda many years ago, I decided that meat eating wasn't for me. It was the easiest thing I've ever given up because I never liked the taste of meat much anyway. It is really the things on top of meat, like ketchup, that really tastes good to me. But there aren't many options for vegetarians in the small town where I am at this writing. Meat is a staple here. Still I manage. There are scant vegetarian options in fast food, although after 8 years of vegetarianism you learn all the veggie items on the menus. Family gatherings are awkward.

[ding dong]

I like Yogananda's word, "propereatarian".

Ramana said once you're enlightened it doesn't matter if you eat meat or not, "just as once there is a great fire, it doesn't matter what fuel you throw on it". But he equivocally said it's a great aid beforehand. And he said that cows like giving milk as it relieves them of pressure on their glands.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Ramana said unequivocally that Lakshmi the cow had attained full liberation at her death. I heard one story where he looked at some people and said, "Look at Lakshmi. Do you know what state she is in? She is in samadhi." A guy on facebook even claimed that it was because Ramana was a recluse and that "even he couldn't take it" when she died and so he made that story about her enlightenment. Seems like a ridiculous interpretation to me that doesn't really tally with the facts. People make such statements very confidently, though. Who knows? Ramana said that he was visited by Siddhas in animal bodies often. Take it how you will. He also said vegetarianism was one of the best aids to spiritual practice because it produces a sattwic mind.

I personally never eat meat. When I read about Yogananda many years ago, I decided that meat eating wasn't for me. It was the easiest thing I've ever given up because I never liked the taste of meat much anyway. It is really the things on top of meat, like ketchup, that really tastes good to me. But there aren't many options for vegetarians in the small town where I am at this writing. Meat is a staple here. Still I manage. There are scant vegetarian options in fast food, although after 8 years of vegetarianism you learn all the veggie items on the menus. Family gatherings are awkward.

Thanks for the anecdotes about Ramana and the enlightened cow Lakshmi. i know that i have heard that animals are unable to express divine consciousness because they do not have the cerebral spinal system as humans do to raise the consciousness upward. Such beings are always shaped like a star. However for various reasons i have found God can make any exceptions he wants to his laws. In the case of Lakshima i have faith that Ramana knew that their was something very extraordinary happening there. Perhaps one of the reasons was to remind us that we never can really know what we are killing so it is best not to kill at all if we can avoid it.

In this physical dimension at this time in history we are a small group of people compared to the 'herd mentality' i have seen many spiritual
aspirants return back to the herd mentality. It is very sad. But some of us will continue on. As Krishna says 'Out of a thousand there is one who seeks me. Out of a thousand who seek me there is one who finds me.' He also lived in a higher time. The numbers are probably much much smaller in these times.

[mccoy]

I like Yogananda's word, "propereatarian".
Ramana said once you're enlightened it doesn't matter if you eat meat or not, "just as once there is a great fire, it doesn't matter what fuel you throw on it". But he equivocally said it's a great aid beforehand. And he said that cows like giving milk as it relieves them of pressure on their glands.

Today the term 'flexitarian' is used, to express the same concept. Yogananda's term si more explicit though.

I agree with Ramana that milk is a gift from the cows and not to drink it would be a sin of omission.

[mccoy]

I personally never eat meat. When I read about Yogananda many years ago, I decided that meat eating wasn't for me. It was the easiest thing I've ever given up because I never liked the taste of meat much anyway. It is really the things on top of meat, like ketchup, that really tastes good to me. But there aren't many options for vegetarians in the small town where I am at this writing. Meat is a staple here. Still I manage. There are scant vegetarian options in fast food, although after 8 years of vegetarianism you learn all the veggie items on the menus. Family gatherings are awkward.

That reminds my home when a young boy!! Actually it was my father whose staple was meat. I was relieved when I stopped eating that. After innumerable tough pieces of meat requiring interminable chewing, eating cheese was a heaven