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What I have learned as a Vegan, And What You Can Too.

While I may have been able to learn all of the following by reading, doing so would have kept the ideas in the abstract. Experiencing the ideas, however, results in intimate understanding. Therefore, applying ideas to real life turns them into powerful and real vehicles of transformation.

Summery and Reflections

I have learned more about topics in which I previously new little or nothing about. I have learned about factory farming, free-range farming, sustainable farming, husbandry, protein nutrition, moralism, Jainism and green living.

All life is equal. Plants are equal to animals. All life desires to preserve it’s life; living is what life does.

If you wish to eat cruelty free, then I ask you eat only what Nature freely gives you. Ripping a carrot from the Earth is hardly a giving act. It is taking with force a life from Nature. Instead eat the fruits fallen from trees and the seeds scattered by the wind. Eat what Nature gives you freely, not what it protects with rocks, soils and emotions.

Killing any life, however small, is cruelty in the abstract.

Conceptually, cruelty need not have any physical manifestation for it to be as real as any other thought, like love. We tend to forget that thoughts, lingering in the abstract, are the foundations of reality. All acts are preceded by a thought inasmuch as a hug is with love. To destroy a divine creation for survival is physical necessity, but to do it without love and respect is abhorrent.

Life that sacrifices itself for continuation of your life needs to be respected, regardless of the shape, size and function of that life.

Ten years ago I attended a three-day Reiki training seminar. Of the many things I learned, one was to preform a simple Reiki technique on my food to imbue it with positive energy. At the time, I had no idea why one would need to. The reasoning, which I have largely forgotten was not explained in a manor that I could understood. But now I am beginning to understand that it was a form of respect toward that die for me to live.

Cores Concepts

Veganism is a lifestyle, way of life, and philosophy. Veganism is a social artifact created in response to a culture of consumerism that yields unsustainable ecological practices, poor dietary habits, and lack of conscientious thinking and behavior.

Diet: Veganism, when practiced properly, is likely healthier than the standard American diet. Other diets could be just as healthy, if not, more so. Diet and health are complex to understand containing a massive amount of variables. A diet that works for one does not mean it will work for another. It recommend trying a variety of diets to learn what your body response best to.

Biology: Veganism and vegetarianism as a diet are obviously possible. However, it is a biologically unnatural way of sustaining a human. In fact, extreme diets such as veganism and vegetarianism are extremely rare in the natural world. Nearly all higher-order species consume a mix of plant and animal matter with only a few exceptions.

A vegan and vegetarian lifestyles are diets, social constructs and philosophies created by humans. Misunderstood science is used as a tool to support an otherwise sound social movement and philosophy. This is similar to how Fundamental Christians twist science to give power to support their religious reality.

Humans are dietary adaptable organisms, not niched diet species like the panda or flamingo. We can sustain ourselves on a revolving diet depending on food availability, as has been the case over the last 350 million years with our ancestors.

Spirituality: I made a mistake in believing Vegetarianism leads to Spirituality. I have learned Veganism and Vegetarianism are not spiritual, but are lifestyles that can be practiced by those who are spiritual.

Inspected alone, Veganism fosters and promotes a biasness toward lifeforms which posses either emotions, intelligence and/or consciousness. These qualities, intrinsic but not limited to avians and mammals, are argued as a requirement for the experience of pain and suffering. This drawing of a line separating lifeforms based on mental faculties is a perception as false as separating humans based on skin color and IQ. Emotions and conciseness are manifestations of a physical nature in the same manor as feathers and chlorophyll are. One is not inherently superior to another. Despite this, I believe Vegans, proved by the adoption of the vegan diet, are conscientious people possessing well defined ethical values. However, Veganism and Vegetarianism cannot leads to spiritual awareness when it in itself is blind to life in other forms, naively promoting inequality by falsely believing one physical manifestation is more important than another. It is ironic that Vegans advocating animal rights reveal themselves as disrespectful and ambivalent to the other forms life takes. With a little juggling, Veganism can be auxiliary to a spiritual or religious belief system, but is not spiritual in and of itself. It is a social artifact created to solve a perceived social and cultural problem.

Environment: Currently, of all actions a single person can take to “save” the world (strictly environmental), eliminating meat intake would serve the greatest results. We we soon be facing a resource crunch. Eliminating meat consumption frees up resources.

Philosophy: A Vegan is one who practices a lifestyle that abstains from using animals for any purpose (even riding a horse?). A vegans goal is living cruelty-free. Thus a vegan strongly opposes factory farms and other processes which ignore animal rights.

Intention: Being a dietary vegan has instilled energy in my existence. I feel like I am thinking about something which matters.

Perspective: One can easily lose perspective as a Vegan. The primary goal for a Vegan is to sustain themselves without the use of animals. Abstaining from creature meat, dairy and animal products does a great deal towards supporting that purpose. Abstaining from products and food that contain or made from animal by-products is becoming detailed in fulfilling the goal. Determining whether or not sugar was whiten with bone char even though the sugar itself contains none becomes a questionable use of mental energy. For if one ceases meat consumption, then less bones will be available for secondary industries.

Thus focusing on reducing the primary industries output will have a cascading effect. A passionate and lifelong figure skater, in my opinion, lost focus on the overall goal of veganism when she became upset that the only good, high quality skates are made with leather. She loves to skate and her vegan lifestyle is already doing so much for the environment. Why is she worrying about a small detail? A pair of skates that will last five years. She should do her best as a Vegan while not giving up her love of skating. We all need to keep perspective.