Pythagoras to Vege Pizza
Jaitra Gillespie is a New Zealand based web designer with a love for writing and the art of meditation. A member of the New Zealand Sri Chinmoy Meditation Centre, he has been a vegetarian since 1995.
From Pythagoras to Vege Pizza—The Spiritual Dimension to Eating Meat-Free – by Jaitra Gillespie.
Vegetarianism is frequently promoted as either a health or ethical choice. And often argued against only on these terms. Yet there is a spiritual dimension to the food that we eat; for those who wish to follow the spiritual life, a diet of purely leaf, lactose and legume is a positive boon.
From the veggie burger on the wall of the chip shop to the vegetable pie in the gas station warmer, meals without meat have perhaps never been so common; yet few have sampled the full smorgasbord of reasons for going meat-free.
Fads in fitness come and then go almost as frequently as the passing of the seasons; yet physical health endures as the most common reason for a change in diet vegetarianism included. While the preconception persists that the non-consumption of meat is incompatible with proper eating, avoiding paddock-raised or net-caught sources for iron, protein and omega-3 in no way equates to a sub-standard diet the United States Department of Agriculture rates vegetarians as enjoying excellent well-being, and states that with judicious eating, all recommended dietary allowances for nutrients can be gained from non-animal sources.
Although the term ‘vegetarian’ is usually attributed to the formation of the British Vegetarian Society in 1847, as a practise it has existed for at least four thousand years, preached as the ideal diet in the Eastern philosophies of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Vegetarianism is not entirely new in Europe either Continental adherents used to be referred to as “Pythagoreans” after the philosopher and mathematician who advocated a meat-free diet for ethical reasons.
One of the fathers of Western philosophy, Pythagoras was surprisingly Eastern in his outlook towards meat, stating that: “As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”
From the spiritual point of view eating meat is off the menu for a plethora of reasons, some of them moral, some eminently practical as well. While a number of belief systems discourage carnivorous consumption for karmic reasons acts which cause suffering to other beings said to be undesirable there is also a more “selfish” consideration: the detrimental effect of meat on one’s own spiritual well-being or consciousness.
“You are what you eat” is a well known maxim, and like many truisms contains a glimmer of fact. The consciousness contained in meat is considered from a spiritual perspective to be undesirable; one is taking into one’s system literally a lower form of awareness, assimilated in a holistic sense by all the part of the being not just the gross physical. In eating beings whose last moments were agitated and fearful, we absorb these qualities also in a subtle sense and they are anything but what is sought in spirituality.
New York based meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy, the inspiration for several hundred meditation centres around the globe and numerous vegetarian restaurants, recommends a diet free of meat to all who value their spiritual health as much as their physical, and names it a positive boon for those who wish to facilitate the practise of meditation a fundamental cornerstone in all the major spiritual disciplines. Sri Chinmoy writes:
“All the time we are taking in the consciousness of other persons and objects. When we stand in front of a spiritual Master, immediately we take in his consciousness, his vibration. He is offering us what he has to give. Similarly, the animal offers us what it has to give; and what it has to give are its animal qualities. It is up to us to accept or reject these qualities. So for the beginner, or for anyone who is following the spiritual path, it is advisable to have a pure vegetarian diet. This helps considerably.”
On digestion, it seems that arguments against vegetarianism are at best half-baked. For improved physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being, a diet of lactose, leaf and legume is compelling.
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