Question 149: About Veganism and the oneness of all life.

Question 149: Is being a vegan a test for knowing if someone really understands and lives in the Spirit of the oneness of all life?

Let’s start with the example of Jesus since he is regarded, if not the son of God, then certainly a fully enlightened spiritual master. Since it is not recorded in scripture that he advocated veganism, and apparently, he did eat fish, people will say that Jesus did not make veganism a priority in his teachings. He said it is more important to watch what comes out of our mouths than what we eat. The only argument one can make is that Jesus had compassion for all life, but he came at a time of a generally low level of consciousness and people weren’t ready to adopt a vegan diet.

 

If you look at the record of other spiritual masters in past history, very few of them advocated a strict vegan diet. Mahavira, who started the Jain religion, is the only one who emphasized the avoidance of unnecessarily killing other sentient life. Other spiritual masters have advocated a vegetarian diet, or maybe at least avoiding eating beef and pork, especially in more recent times as the general consciousness of humanity has risen in the past one hundred years. Still, not many have advocated a strict vegan diet.

 

That being said, let’s look at the case for veganism as a test for whether or not a person is spiritually enlightened. If you are feeling or knowing that you are one with God and all of God’s creation, then you will not want to harm or take the life away from living things for whatever we do unto others we also do to ourselves since we are all one in the Spirit.

 

However, this world is inconveniently arranged for avoiding the killing of other life forms. Who hasn’t killed mosquitoes, flies, ants, and other small and annoying creatures? And what about all the plant life we have cut down? So, the question is: Where do we draw the line? Only a few people have ever been breatharians, and even fruitarians are very rare among us.

 

The path of realizing our oneness with God is a gradual path for most of us. We don’t jump from being meat eaters to being vegans in one day. If you are on the path to realizing your oneness with God, then you will one day ascend to the spiritual realm and won’t have to reincarnate on Earth or any other physical realm any more. You will live by the spiritual light of our Creator. You won’t need to take the life away from anything else in order to eat and sustain a physical body. On the way to that lofty goal you will gradually enlarge your circle of oneness.

 

So, to answer the question I would say that being a vegan can put you very close to realizing your oneness with all life, but I wouldn’t call it a test. Not all vegans are saints, or have overcome their egos, or have overcome anger, jealousy, or self-righteousness.

 

The rise of factory farms, including dairy farms and chicken egg production, has led to massive animal suffering and the degradation of water, soil, and of our environment generally. Very few of us have a family cow or a flock of chickens. The two items that vegetarians would eat—dairy and eggs, are no longer very pure. Many vegetarians are moving on to veganism. It’s easier than ever to eat a vegan diet. Many food products now have “vegan” on the label. There are vegan supplements for getting some nutrients such

as B12 that we got from animal products. If you are realizing more and more your oneness with all life, then a vegan diet will make sense to you.

 

“Only when we have become non-violent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves,” -Cesar Chavez

“It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.” -Joaquin Phoenix

“I personally chose to go vegan because I educated myself on factory farming and cruelty to animals, and I suddenly realized that what was on my plate were living things, with feelings. And I just couldn’t disconnect myself from it any longer.” -Ellen DeGeneres

“To get mud off your hands, use soap and water. To get blood off your hands, go vegan.” -John Sakars

“The problem is that humans have victimized animals to such a degree that they are not even considered victims. They are not even considered at all. They are nothing; they don’t count; they don’t matter. They are commodities like TV sets and cell phones. We have actually turned animals into inanimate objects – sandwiches and shoes.” Gary Yourofsky