Theos-Talk Archives (November 2003 Message tt00084)

Friday, November 07, 2003

Dear Friends:

Re: Diet and vegetarianism.

Could we not conclude there is a difference between motives?  

To be a non-meat eater may imply pity and compassion for the brutes, or
it can mean a selfish desire to purify one's bodily and physical make up
-- for some personal purpose, whether supposedly occult, or esoteric or
whatever.

The main point is that we use and support our bodies through food based
on our knowledge of dietary results. How accurate are such results?
Who has tested them?

What and why does THEOSOPHY recommend vegetarianism? 

Might it have something to do with Monadic evolution and the part we
play as "Manasic" beings in this?  

The theosophical premise is that we, as an eternal Monad, living at this
period in a specific body, which we have "built" out of our past karmic
relations with other "monads of lesser experience," act now, today, as
a basis for their progress. We depend on them for providing us with a
physical and astral basis for reincarnation, and they depend on us for
spiritual or psychic guidance and leadership. This is all internal to
us, of course. But it worth considering as theosophy presents these
considerations.

Is being a VEGAN recommended? Are dairy products "forbidden?" etc...
Consider carefully how the process of milk and eggs, etc are now
mechanized much to the unnatural distress of the animal involved -- a
slavery that approaches the greatest indifference to the actual well
being of those animals that are forced to assist in producing those
foods -- and when judged to be uneconomical, they are executed ,and
their meat offered as food on the markets of the world. Quite a
generous repayment for that slavery, don't you think? Can one imagine
the imprint of such living and forced death psychically, on the atoms
and monadic elementals involved in the forms of those foods? And they
go into us, and there in our bodies, they find a refuge for similar
psychic influences. 

Mr. Judge succinctly offered a common sense solution. He said in one
place:: What comes out of a man's mouth is more important than what
goes into it.

Occultly THEOSOPHY says that meats feed the Kamic (desire and passion)
nature. Are we in "control" of our psychic desires and passions (Kama)?

What is the nature of our "mind?" How do we use and direct it? Who is
the director of our minds? Is our psychic and moral nature involved? And
on that basis what would be an ideal diet? 

As to our bodies. We all know that very few of us are medical men or
women, and, we know more or less of the science that works in and
through the body. Yet with all that detail, our bodies (even those of
the most ignorant of us) carry on the intricate process of digestion,
redesigning, and distribution of nutrients through our blood system, the
elimination of spent or undesirable substances, and all this that passes
through the alimentary canal is subject to the knowledge and wisdom of
the bodily operations of which we are largely ignorant.

THEOSOPHY points to the more subtle electro-magnetic "astral body," on
which the physical body is based molecularly, and cellularly speaking.
It also speaks of the influence that our feelings and thoughts (motives)
have on those energic bodies. So we have the glimmerings of a basis for
controlling that which we place in our mouths as food. It also
recognizes the innate intelligence operating in a body, when healthy or
diseased, and respects it. 

THEOSOPHY is not dogmatic about anything, leaving to each individual the
responsibility for assisting or impeding their own bodily states. It
does indicate that there is much more to the selection of one's diet
than mere physiological, scientific reasons. These ideas merely open
some doors for our consideration in how we treat ourselves. 

The inner attitude of a person is of prime consideration and that is
largely based on the aspirations and motives one employs in living one's
personal life.

The responsibility we have for our bodies is to supply them with the
best available nourishment, taking all we learn into consideration.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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-----Original Message-----
From: Morten 
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 2:10 AM
To: 
Subject: En: vegetarianism

Hallo everyone,

A view:

It could be that a hardcore vegetarian Theosophist quite often resembles
a
refined barbarian with either no or only a small amount of understanding
of
social behaviour. True ?

The readers will have to decide that.

from
M.