To Be or Not Be A Vegetarian: That Is The Question
Yoga students often ask about food and more specifically about vegetarianism and consciousness. often ask about food and more specifically about vegetarianism and consciousness.
For me, the dilemma about food and vegetarianism is derived from two simple sources in the human psyche.
- We, as humans, believe ourselves to be HIGHER than the animals and the rest of life, given a greater intelligence and we even have the presumption to claim that we are Spiritual. In that presumption we fool ourselves into thinking that sparing the fish, fowl and animal kingdom is one of the signs of our superiority and beneficence.
- There are actual blood types, which at the beginning of history, branched out from the
O
blood type which was a heavy meat eater (caveman), to the new found, and later development of theA
blood type (the true Vegetarian, the Farmer and Seaman) which appeared to have settled in India and the east and tend to do better on grains and fish, then the blood typeO
.
Because energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed into something else, and also, because all life has Consciousness to some degree, it also returns as Pure Consciousness when the body form is removed at death. The American Indian who realized this communality of all nature, killed the wild animal and gave thanks to it as a blessing, before they ate it to sustain their life. The Inuit and other cultures did likewise.
There are many vegetarians today who are actually harming themselves by being so, as they are the blood type O
, while there are many meat eaters who hurt themselves also, as they are the blood type A
.
Both types, not understanding the inter–relationship between food protein and blood protein, don't realize that the rejection set up with many foods, causes them illnesses. The differences in blood types is the fructose levels and the protein markers.
Vegetarianism is an ideal that many Yogis aspire to — also many others also, as the taking of life is abhorrent to them, not so much that they don't like meat, but they hate the way in which an animal suffers in order to feed us. Once an idea gets into the mind of an individual it is very difficult to remove. I have one friend who claims he cannot eat fowl, as he can't help seeing the chicken confined in a small cage, nor the beef abattoirs whose means of slaughter is still not perfected.
Well now there is another side to the argument. All the mass produced animals for our meat industries would not have had the experience of life if it were not for these industries. No matter how short their life is, when you think about it, life and consciousness under any condition is preferable to death. I say that as most people and animals do not strive for the
attainment of Moksha in their lifetime, so life as we know it is preferable to the unconsciousness of death. Death of the form
is only acceptable when one has attained Samadhi. Of course, this argument is null and void if one believes in an after life in Heaven, but then that is exactly why that argument was invented.
In the rodeo circuit, there is a great outcry of the inhumanity to the beasts we are parading by forcing our bulls and horses to be strapped up and rode in their bucking fashion to amuse the spectator. I try to remind people, that of all the thousands of horses all over the world that take part in this sport, they have 8 seconds a week of work, with a rider on their back, as opposed to going into a can for dog food consumption. They are not worked more than once a week for that 8 seconds. One has to remember that because these animals are making a living for their owners, they are well fed, well cared for and pampered, so that out of the entire week, they can perform to their maximum for a matter of 8 seconds. This 8 seconds buys them their health and freedom from being canned dog food. If this industry did not exist, the horse would become horribly reduced.
In the wild, we can see that animals are going onto the endangered species list by hundreds a year. The natural freedom that animals have enjoyed cannot exist anymore. The world population is growing so rapidly that we are taking their land from them, and if they get in our way, we destroy them. An example of this occurrence right now is the plight of the elephant in Africa. Besides being hunted for their ivory, we remove their grazing land from them.
But back to what you eat. If you have found a method of eating which pleases you in all manners of ways, in health, in mind and in Spirit, then stick to it, BUT when at certain ages you find that illness ensues then don't be so adamant with your Ideals that you cannot change the food source in order to bring yourself back to health. Our health depends in one way upon what we put into our body. Most people look after their cars better then they do their bodies. When a person is young, their natural regenerative processes are so vibrant that they could eat cardboard and still survive. It is when the body really starts its breakdown around 45 years of age that one should watch very carefully their food intake.
Paramahansa Yoganada was once asked if you one should kill an animal and he replied, that if the animal is going to take our life, then we should, as we are more important than animals. I claim that if not eating meat or fowl is destroying your health, then you must as a member of the top of the predation chain, take an animals life in order to retain your health.
We at least can dispatch an animal posthaste, yet when you see a pack of jackals taking down their prey, it is not a pretty sight, as they tear at it and eat it while still on the run, tearing out its belly and genitals. Of course nature has provided for this atrocity by sending the poor beast into shock in a short while, thus it feels very little until it is truly dead.
For the Yogi, he must ascertain his Conditioning and get rid of it, and begin to see life as it truly is — an Illusion — a Mayic Dream. So as long as you are willing to take the responsibility for your actions in this life, according to the Law of The Land, you can do whatever you want. It is all a Shadow Play. It is not real. Even what you consider life
does not really exist, so you see even the discussion on any of these subjects is a moot one.
Freeing your SELF from conditioning is most important because it allows you to empty your mind enough so that with what little Ego is left you can drive it into the center of the fire of SELF to be consumed and thus attain SELF UNION.
I realize this sounds cold and hard, yet that is what it takes. Annihilate the Ego, that deep rooted Mayic Illusion, which we have become so attached to that we now believe it to be real instead of Reality itself.
It is a strange course that Yogis have put themselves on, and one wonders just how it begins. It begins by awakening, much the same way that you, on a workday must wake up in the morning to fulfill your work day duty, You also arrive at the point where you must wake up to fulfill your Spiritual Dharma.
What prods the man to awaken to go to work, is a number of things. He has slept enough. He is called. His alarm goes off, but inevitably, no matter how sleepy he is, he wakes up to perform another days actions. How long have we been called to fulfill our Dharma? Some awaken when they are very young and some at a late age, as there is no age limit to receive the calling of Realization. How we achieve it is yet another thing. I say that as some will be directed by some to a teacher to practise what will never give them realization. Another may have them do virtually useless œ hr meditations every day, while others think that by sitting and singing and chanting and eating rice and vegetables will purify
them enough to attain MOKSHA. If you are in to Yoga without the desire and understanding of attaining Liberation, then I would ask what for?
I write these words knowing they will upset people. People who are attached to Ideals about so much which is just not true. For me, as a Yogi, this a good thing because it drives people away who are not really interested in learning what must be done to attain Moksha. Thus I don't waste my time trying to help someone who I can't help anyway.
Most people in to Yoga want to get fit — keep fit — and stay young. I understand this. When one begins, the motive is different from what it may later become. I am hoping through these common sense discourses that the motive will be broadened to take in the very basis of Yoga, which is Union with SELF.
A real Yogi could care less about health, wealth, or anything at all. His only concern is to Unite with Atman.
You can never Unite as long as you are attached to the ideals you have about ANYTHING. That is a very broad statement, nonetheless true, because in the final analysis, the mind has to be transcended. Anything that keeps you back from achieving that transcendence is to be eradicated.
I know people who waste time in forming prayer groups. It is laughable. I realize they think they are doing good in the world, and that makes them feel good, but when the mind is being used in prayer — desires are involved.
If Ahimsa, or non–violence was the way, if being a non–killing vegetarian was the way, then all those who practiced such, would have been Liberated. The religiosity, the ceremonies, the incense and smoke, the ochre robes and the trappings of the churches, are all more for the glory of the participant than for any reasonable method of transcending mind.
There are hints in some of the religious texts regarding this — for example Jesus said, For those that pray in public, they have their reward already, but for those that pray in secret shall have me.
Those who pray or practice yoga in public, serve their Ego.
Those that pray or practice yoga in secret or silence do so with no Ego and thus they meet God (obtain Self–Realization).
This is why the yogic life is a lonely life.
The true yogi is not interested in satisfying the Ego, which most yoga schools or classes do especially those that are Westernized.
So even by this, get away from groups, stay on your own. All you need to come to it is Knowledge that the mind must be Transcended, so that you can enter the no–mind state of Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
These Yoga techniques that I and others teach such as Meditation, Kriya, Hatha, Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), Pranayama and Jnana are you really need to take you to The Portal, where you just sit down, get comfortable, and then DIVE DEEP — while remaining aware — not of thoughts but of SELF.
Let the thoughts come and go. Keep trying to remember to concentrate on the Light. Thinking again? Go back to the Light as soon as you remember. It takes time to Transcend, but it will come. Make no excuses for yourself. Do it. Do it every day and many times during the day when you get the opportunity.
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