Will Tuttle
author of
The World Peace Diet
Veganism is, I’ve found, a litmus test of religious teachings
and religious teachers.
To the degree that religious
teachings do not explicitly encourage veganism, which is the practice
of nonviolence and lovingkindness, to that same degree these teachings
are hypocritical and disconnected from their spiritual source.
As we make connections and become open to feedback, it will be
increasingly obvious that one of the greatest gifts any of us can give
to the world, to the human family, to future generations, to animals, to
ourselves, and to our loved ones is to go vegan and dedicate our lives
to encouraging others to do the same.
The inner feminine is our
intuition, our sensitivity, and our ability to sense the profound
interconnectedness of events and beings, and it is vital to peace,
wisdom, joy, intelligence, creativity, and spiritual awakening.
With every baby calf stolen
from her mother and killed, with every gallon of milk stolen from
enslaved and broken mothers, with every thrust of the raping sperm gun,
with every egg stolen from a helpless, frantic hen, and with every baby
chick killed or locked for life in a hellish nightmare cage, we kill the
sacred feminine within ourselves.
By ordering and eating
products from the industrial herding complex that dominates the feminine
with an iron fist, we squelch our opportunities for maturing to higher
levels of understanding, sensitivity, and compassion. We remain merely
ironic in our quests.
What goes
around comes around. We must as a species stop the violence that is
inherent in our meat habit. This should be of paramount importance for
all religious movements and teachers. It is the call of spirituality. If
our religions don’t hear this call, we must revitalize them or create
new ones that do.
The great
philosopher Schopenhauer, in criticizing how some Christians treat
animals, wrote, “Shame on such a morality that fails to recognize the
eternal essence that exists in every living thing, and shines forth with
inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun.” All of us are
celebrations of infinite mysterious Spirit, deserving of honor and
respect.
Every day, we cause over thirty million birds and mammals and forty-five million fish to be fatally attacked so we can eat them, and it’s universally considered to be good food for good people. With these meals, we feed our shadow, which grows strong and bold as it gorges itself on our repressed grief, guilt, and revulsion.
Jesus’ exhortation that we love one another and not
do to others what we wouldn’t want done to us is the essence of the
vegan ethic, which is a boundless compassion that includes all who can
suffer by our actions.
Your question and comments are welcome
