I am a
Vegetarian because
I am a Vegetarian because I believe you have to listen to your Conscience for your soul to grow in awareness ,so many people shut up or divert there inner voice when eating to the extent they live in a clouded version of reality.
I grew up eating meat I worked on a farm and when you wanted chicken for dinner you grabbed one and either pulled its neck or shut its head in a door to kill it before taking home.
I even went shooting and blasted away at all kinds of things in-fact it was this that turned me.
I don’t know if you have been on a shoot in the country they are very common in the winter here in Devon, some people pay quite large sums of money to take part and they seem fun at first, but you soon realise how childish people become when they have the power to kill in there hands.
Reared pheasants are the supposed targets; hundreds of them are raised in areas of woodland and fed by keepers so the birds are far from wild and therefore have no understanding of dangers around them, many are killed by cars and foxes they are so tame you don’t need a gun you could just kick them to death or just whack them with a stick let alone a shotgun.
When the hunt is on dogs have to be used to scare them in to flying along with plenty of shouting, many of the shooters are half drunk on the shots of whisky they carry with them and from the pre shoot drink many take part in ,some shoots I have seen looked close to a bunch of drunken hooligans rampaging through the woods and forest as the time goes on they become more careless or just stop caring and will shoot at anything that flutters by I know because I was one of them.
The day I finally had enough was a small shot on a glorious day dozens of pheasants had been killed and I had watched many escape with bad injuries a good half of those picked up had to be put out of there misery I had been party to seagulls being shot along with
Pigeons even song birds these were always hidden as it wasn’t really allowed but so many still did it drunk on spirits and killing power, it was close to the end I was beside a friend when a robin landed on a branch in front of us almost instinctively we both shot at it but amazingly it didn’t get hit, at that range usually there would have been almost nothing left but it didn’t even fly off it just looked at us with such trust no fear, my friend was ready to take another shot when I had a sudden realisation of what I was becoming and shouted at him to stop and the robin flew away.
From that moment I realised what a bunch of childish morons we were and at the after shoot piss up I seemed to see for the first time what arrogant power mad we all were there the more they drank the more it showed I felt so out of place .
then they let in the lambs they came in with trusting eyes thinking they were being fed until the first was grabbed and killed then the others cried out with such anguish I was almost in tears and had to get away as quick as I could I never had seen anything so barbaric in my life .
That night we had the lamb for tea and I realised that I had think of other things to take my mind off what it was I was eating I felt physically sick with each mouthful but I couldn’t make anyone understand...
I never went shooting again and I made different friends and found that many of these were unsettled by eating animals’ lots told me they couldn’t eat anything with a face as they could not stand the eyes looking at them as it made them feel guilty ,if the head was cut off they weren’t so bothered. the more I looked the more hypocritical it all became I even mentioned it to a Vicar he snottily told me" animals are to be eaten" and was looking for his bible to give me one of his lectures when one of the quire boys chipped in and said but you told us when Judgment day comes the lion will lie down with the lamb and there will be peace, will the Lamb lie with man or will he be worried he will have him for Sunday dinner, he giggled and the Vicar turned and gave him a cold stare but had no answer.
Every meal was becoming more difficult I was thinking all the time about what I was eating each piece of meat would remind me of how we had treated them, the eggs bought back memories of the battery houses where three were in a cage about a foot square and my job had been to take out the dead ones or kill those who had gone mad and pecked themselves to pieces…trying to eat broiler hens reminded me of the huge barns they lived in where thousands of them existed with so little space they would attack each other or die of diseases that so many of them had. my job there was to go in and again pick up the dead and dying and throw them out the back onto a huge heap with the others… eating pigs was just as bad knowing the drugs we had given them and the fact they only saw the light of day on the way to slaughter…..eating pâté was even worse as it involved real cruelty force feeding the birds to the point of illness.
Then one day I had a chance encounter with a Buddhist monk from Thailand he talked about how the monks avoid killing and eating animals because he believed not only was it cruel but it prevented the body’s soul from developing a true love and respect of all things ,with out compassion he said the soul can not grow, he explained all people have to have a loving conscience to give them a moral code for life or we would eat any living thing even our children or are fellow humans , as we grow spiritually we develop cut of points through compassion. look around at others he said and you will see they have different cut of points depending on there level of compassion for instance a person would kill and eat a fish but not a dolphin ....kill and eat a deer but not a horse... kill and eat a cow but not a dog or cat ,in other countries he told me he knows those who kill and eat dogs bought in small cages but not there pet birds and men who kill and eat cats again kept in small cages but not Pigs as they were thought too intelligent. Each person has his or hers cut off point it has to be or we would all be savages killing and eating everything
even other humans with out compassion men would rape and abuse woman and children without any concern, torture and murder would be everywhere ...prisons are full of those who have no compassion or respect for other humans though even some of them can grow spiritually and eventually realise there immaturity to the point when they can be released back amongst there fellow humans.
I had never met any one so happy, so calm, and so enlightened I was inspired.
From that day I stopped eating meat and would eat without guilt... eat according to my Conscience… battery eggs were out free range in….. Milk I knew from the farm involved the cows being happy or they simply wouldn’t produce... as for seafood, being a diver I loved to watch the fish in the sea and couldn’t eat them with a clean conscience so they were out.
At first it was hard, in those days there were very few vegetarians and many of my relatives would mercilessly take the piss out of me at the dinner table while chomping on a fatty burger… ironically all those have now died of strokes and heart diseases that the doctor put down to diet.
For me it’s not a health thing I would be a vegetarian even if it made me ill but I live by my conscience and if I had to, then that would be ok-- if I lived at the poles where there is no alternative I would eat meat just no cruelty --if I was stranded at sea in a boat with dead people I would be a cannibal... my conscience would agree if it meant survival of the body-- I would eat you if you were dead and I starving but my conscience would not allow me to kill you.
That was over forty years ago being a veggie is much more common now, though there are still those who take the piss but they are usually overweight sucking on fat when doing so and it just reminds me of my lost relatives and I usually feel a bit sorry for them and ignore there insults.
I have rarely eaten meat since and when I have I have been surprised how long it took to digest and how lethargic it makes you.
Meditate
Long ago I learned to meditate its great for relaxation but it’s fantastic to be able to
Watch the mind as it flows…to observe without guilt… to trust intuition as it bubbles up… to spread love to all creatures is such a high.
My children and there children are also vegetarian they all were allowed to eat meat if they wished and they did often to fit in with there friends but they all came back to it due to there love of animals.
I don’t preach vegetarianism but do try to encourage it, so much food is taken from the poor to feed are meat animals while we live in such an affluent society with a huge wealth of protein around us.
So many eat far too much and so many live to eat instead of eating to live...
..In spite of what so many say you are not what you eat ...you are what you digest ...that’s a big difference.
Meditate on it ...how? Find a quite place sit comfortably close your eyes breathe slowly while concentrating on this or whatever... keep doing this for a while as your mind examines all angles slowly it runs out of thoughts....around this time mentally step back from those thoughts and try and just watch just observe ...watch those thoughts don’t get caught up with them notice you’re breathing but don’t interfere... at this point a mind that is easily distracted will fall asleep..
If not you enter a state called contemplation a wonderful place to be you will learn many things about your self here some good some not so good but you will feel your intuition guiding you listen to it and learn.
If your conscious is free you will know what you should do in life that’s really important
You realise you are here for a reason you are aware the universe is infinite in all
Directions so therefore your mind is the centre of the universe.
.the same with time it to is infinite in all directions therefore your mind is at the centre of all time...
You are important you are here for a reason...
...love is that reason....
