The Difficulty of a True Spiritual Life

If you think you’re so enlightened, go live with your family for two weeks. - Ram Dass

There seems to be an unconscious misconception that the spiritual life is limited to certain days of the week, perhaps some festivals, or certain specific practices such as meditation, Scripture reading or prayer. I do think that this might be more under the older generations and that the younger generations are increasingly changing their views, with many identifying as Spiritual but not Religious (SBNR). Then again it might just be a bias on my side as the change in views increased rapidly at least since the 1960’s (Ram Dass, who I quote above and who died in late 2019, grew up Jewish but became a Hindu around 1967). Of course, changing one’s views does not necessarily means that one suddenly lives a more spiritual life. What does it mean to live a spiritual life and why do I say this is difficult? The quote by Ram Dass is one of my favourites and one I always try to keep in mind. That is because the spiritual life might start with going to church on a Sunday or mosque on a Friday or personal meditation and prayer rituals in the morning, but after that the question becomes this – If those moments do not become clear in your public life, while you driving, spending time with family or doing your job, then what was it for? The spiritual life becomes difficult the moment you move out of your sacred space and into contact with other human beings (or any other beings for that matter). It is easier to stand with your eyes closed and hands in the air on a Sunday morning than it is to keep calm with traffic on the way home. We don’t even have to take it that far – most of us start gossiping or judging the moment we set foot out of Church (perhaps even while worshipping). It is easy to sit in front of your Scriptures and light a candle or incense stick and feel all tranquil, of course that is if you could leave the warmth of your bed in time, then one gets to work, and you must remember to smile at the annoying co-worker. A true spiritual life will be an important part of every decision you make, of every action taken, of every word said. It might not be possible to absolutely control your thoughts but what your reaction with your thoughts is should tell you something – do you stop it, or do you entertain it? “If your religion does not change you then you should change your religion,” said Elbert Hubbard. Rabbi Hillel is reported to have said that the Golden Rule (Do not do unto others that which you would not like them to do unto you) is the whole spiritual practice and that the rest of what we read and believe is only commentary on this rule. In other words, if you pray or do any kind of spiritual practice and you believe that what you believe is the only truth, but you give in to every desire and let your ego reign supreme with no compassion for most other people, then you have not even begun to live a spiritual life. All this can sound very discouraging, but honestly, I am trying to encourage you to pull up your socks and get serious, whatever your chosen path might be. That does not mean there can be no fun in life, but it does mean that we pay attention to how we are having fun. It is going to be difficult; you are going to fail on an almost daily basis. At the same time the alternative is to live an unexamined life and that, said Socrates, is not a life worth living. Fulfilment comes when we are constantly working on ourselves. “I want happiness” said someone to a Buddhist monk, “Take away ‘I’ as that is the ego, take away ‘want’ as that is desire and what is left is ‘happiness’”, answered the monk. Now that we are parents, my wife regularly says, “You know what, we should just forgive our parents”. There was a time that I was angry with my dad on an almost daily basis, and it did not help that he was a pastor. Then I became a dad, never mind the fact that I became a husband, and I realised that I must always watch myself. The moment I cannot answer in a soft manner, I cause hurt. The moment I react in an irritable manner, I cause hurt. Sitting down to meditate or pray after that makes me feel ashamed, so much so that I sometimes feel that perhaps it is better to just give up. I know, however, that the moment I stop working on myself I will do even worse. I hope and pray that, if I stay on living a true spiritual life, as difficult as it may be, one day my children will be able to forgive me. Rabbi Hillel ends his declaration on the Golden Rule with these words: “Now go study”. Whatever religion, spiritual part, or philosophy you follow – study hard and then act in compassion. I encourage you. May the One God, with many Names and many Manifestations, bless you.

Without Consent

Gender based violence (GBV) is a very real, extremely sad problem in South Africa. Although men can also be victims of GBV, it is an unfortunate fact that men are often the instigators of GBV. This is one of those topics that has been debated at all levels of society with many men on the defensive saying that “not all men are the same”. As a member of the male species, I acknowledge that I have used this line before myself. However, there are a few things men do not understand, things that women try to explain. Now, I do not presume that I understand the feelings, emotions, or fears of women. In fact, it is highly likely that I will never be able to fully understand, but I can understand enough to try and make a difference in the minds of other men. Perhaps if I can explain a point or two, and men can hear this from another man (even though this sounds wrong because I think real men should not have to hear it from a man to act right). The first point is that, however true it may be that not all men are the same, how should women know which of us are good men and which of us have less than noble intentions? This is such an obvious point that we must wonder why we did not figure it out on our own. The last time I told my wife that I am a good man and thus proof that not all men are bad, she replied as follows: ‘I know you are good, but if you go for a run and there is a woman jogging in front of you, does she know you are good? Is there any indication, anything at all, that shows her that you are just out for a run? The only thing she knows is that you are a man and the connections in her mind, consciously or unconsciously, are that of danger. So do me a favor when you run behind a woman and cross to the other side of the street.’ The obviousness of this is ridiculous. Most of us want to be seen as good people, and thus it is in our nature to assume that others are good. There are studies that show that people, in general, easily trust other human beings. Yet, we know for a fact that not every person we pass on the street is a good person and that we have no idea what skeletons they hide behind closed doors. Now, on to the second point which concerns specifically that area of GBV known as sexual harassment. Men have this idea in their heads that they can whistle at women whenever they want, call her “sexy” in public, or force themselves on her in private. How do you explain the concept of consent to a male who does not feel uncomfortable when anyone else refers to him in a sexual way? For men it is almost a case of pride, a false sense of their manhood. I absolutely hate the hypocritical conversations where men explain how angry they felt when they found out their girlfriends cheated on them, calling the women all kinds of filthy names, while in the same breath they will brag about all their own “conquests”. This is nothing short of childish and I am ashamed that I was not always free of this in the past. Consent hit me like a brick in the face one evening when my wife and I were on our way to enjoy our date night. Stopping at a traffic light, a person walked up to our car, sprayed some fluid on the windscreen, and proceeded to ‘clean’ the window with a dirty piece of cloth. The feeling of anger was so great that I thought I was going to explode, and my wife had to use all her persuasion to keep me in the car, while reminding me that the person was probably on drugs. This feeling of absolute helplessness soon became a feeling of utter humiliation. In that moment I understood some small, small part of how a woman must feel forced into a situation where a man does not know how to behave himself. May the One God with many Names and many Manifestations, bless you.

Choosing Peace Against Racism

 “I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.” (Mother Teresa)

 

There is nothing that makes me angrier than racism in all its forms and any bigotry that goes with it, but does fighting against it help in any way? Initially, I wanted to name this post “Choosing the Battle Against Racism”, but then I remembered the above quote by Mother Teresa, and I realised that, in all honesty, I am tired of fighting. So, I prefer to use the word ‘peace’ or the term ‘to stand up’. ‘Peace’, in this instance, mean knowing when to speak and, when that happens, to always remain calm despite the burning anger. One way of standing up is what I am doing now – to write about my feelings about racism, sharing it with you, and to hope that I will make some form of positive impact wherever this post goes.

I cannot remember exactly how my thoughts around the subject developed, but I remember speaking out against it even as a child, the more my awareness of it grew. Through the years I had many conversations with both racists and non-racists (including those who honestly believed they were not racist even though they talked in a derogatory way about people who do not look or think like they do), as well as with both blacks and whites. As a white Afrikaans speaking male, I also experienced racism, not only from black racists against me, but also from whites who believe that I agreed with them simply because I looked like them.

In all these conversations I never once heard an argument in defence of racism that made any logical sense at all (so much so that I must think carefully exactly what to say here and what to leave out, otherwise this post will be way too long). I have heard white people telling me that most blacks are criminals because most prisoners are black, forgetting that not only are there more blacks in the country than whites but also things like poverty, and the fact that it is many times whites who are the leaders behind big crime syndicates. I have heard black people telling me that they hate all whites for what they did to people in the Apartheid years, to which I answer that I agree that what happened in the past was not right and I do judge my ancestors for their part in it, but I do not understand why I am being hated because I was not there.

Racism come in many subtle and open forms but the most ironic are those people who try to use the Bible to justify their racism. One of the worst I ever heard, is that the Bible says black people cannot be human as they do not have a crown on their heads (afr. kroontjie). I still have a standing and open invitation to anyone who can even point out the verse in the Bible that says this and believe me, I have searched for it. Others argue that God told the Israelites not to mix with other nations and that means that interracial marriages are sinful. Careful reading of this part, however, reveals that it was not that God had a problem with the mixing but with the fact that other nations did not believe in God. My own arguments include that there is a big possibility that Moses, one of the greatest biblical figures, had a black wife and that the woman spoken of in the Song of Solomon was a black woman. It is possible to argue about interpretation for hours, but I do not believe that it is possible to justify hating any race by referring to the Bible (or any other Scripture worth the description of Holy).

Now, in South Africa there is a mistaken belief that only whites can be racist. I do see this racism from them towards blacks on an almost daily basis. This includes refusing to speak in English to someone who can obviously not understand Afrikaans, or being arrogant, unfriendly, and uncooperative because they are not being helped by a white person. I sometimes have an immense desire to apologise to other races on behalf of those from my own race while at the same time I take it as a personal insult. However, blacks can also be racist even though Apartheid was the creation of white people (and before any white person smiles – this is nothing to celebrate). Being in an interracial marriage I have been mistaken for a European by my fellow black South Africans, but this is not the worst – one manager of a restaurant also called me pale.

Is it so difficult to believe that some Afrikaans men see no difference in race when it comes to love? Believe me, there are more of us than you would want to believe, especially the younger generation. Then again, here is something to remember about the older generation of white males - many of them were too scared to start a relationship with black women due to the times they were living in. Stereotyping is as much a form of subtle racism as it is to be openly racist.

I am not suggesting that we forget (or get over) the crimes of the past or ignore the ongoing injustices being committed on all levels of society. I am suggesting that the older people get over their fear of the unknown and get to know other normal people around them even though they look different (I am not saying do not be careful, crime is a South African reality, but do not only watch the black man because it might be your white neighbour who steals from you. Crime has nothing to do with race). Come on, if my grandparents can do it then any other older person can do it. For the younger people I suggest this: stop believing everything that the older generation told you about ‘all white people’ or about ‘all black people’ and make up your own mind about who can be trusted and who cannot, again this can never be based on race but only on character.

South Africa is not the only nation struggling with this. The USA, with the Black Lives Matter movement, Britain, Germany, Israel, France, India are all countries (and these are only the ones I read about regularly, it is a worldwide phenomenon) where there is a daily struggle against racism and other forms of discrimination. The racial problems, like any other social problems of the world will not be solved any time soon. However, each of us, and especially those of us who honestly want to live the spiritual life, can do our small part in declaring peace, harmony, friendship, mutual respect and understanding. Each of us can act in small ways by speaking up against the uncle who cracks a racial joke at a family gathering, or defend a colleague who is being disrespected, or argue against the unnecessary accusations of racism (the so-called ‘playing the race card’).

Remember this, God made us all. We are all part of God. God is Light and in light all the colours are represented.

May the One God, with many Names and many Manifestations, bless you.

The Meaning of Love

There are so many ways in which we use the word “love” these days that many of us cannot explain what exactly the meaning of love is. We “love” just about anything – our wives or husbands, our children, the cat or dog, the car and the house, KFC, or McDonalds… and we also say we love God. In all this confusion we also do not know if love is an emotion or something else, but we think we can switch it on and off depending on our current mood.

Growing up there were two things I was taught – ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (for those who are reading carefully – the question here is: what does that even mean?) and ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only Son’. These two Biblical quotations were separate in my mind – on the one hand I must love my neighbour somehow and on the other hand God always loves me no matter what. This separation, I believe, is due to the illusion that we are separate from each other and from God – because that is what our eyes tells us. This is not true, because there is also the following thing that is taught – we must become more like Jesus and Jesus lives in our hearts.

As a child I could not bring these points together and plainly accepted it, but as an adult it bothered me. In Hinduism it is believed that God is not separate from us and neither are we separate from each other – the interconnectedness of all. God is a part of us, or we are a part of God, and by default we are a part of each other. In Judaism this is called ‘the Divine Spark in all of us’. If Jesus lives in our hearts, if God is a part of all beings, then we cannot live as if we are separated from each other – we need to love each other as if God Himself is standing in front of us.

Loving your neighbour (and to make this clear – neighbour does not only mean the person next to you but all beings you meet including enemies, animals, insects and so on) thus means loving your neighbour as God loves you. And, from a purely Christian point of view, God loves you with sacrifice. Now we can debate about how cruel it would be if we sacrificed our children for others and that we do not like this idea of a God killing His own Son. But to think like that is to miss the point entirely (no really, you should not sacrifice your children). From where I stand it does not matter whether the crucifixion happened or not (I am not saying it did not), what matters is that if you have never loved someone (including your spouse) until it hurts (not by actually hurting yourself or others but by giving things up that means a lot to you) then you have not really loved yet.

So now we can return to the question asked earlier – what does it even mean to love someone as you love yourself? In the simplest terms, it means that if you love to eat a big healthy meal (or even unhealthy for that matter) you would not give the homeless man in the street just dry bread and milk. Because, if you were that homeless person, even if you would be glad to receive the dry bread and milk, you would wish that someone would give you a big healthy meal. (Again, it is beside the point whether the homeless person should work or not – I will write about this in a later blog).

If you think that most of this is obvious then the question is – why do more of us, especially those of us who see ourselves as spiritual or religious, not do this? The answer is that it hurts, we do not like to make such sacrifices and we do not believe that we are a part of God. Before any fingers points at me – yes, I have tried it many times; I sort of got it right once or twice, I failed multiple times. Continuous effort is the key. This is one of many reasons why I write about it – to spread awareness and to encourage not only others but also myself.

Love does not stop when you said you will pray for the other person or when you gave the bare minimum, but I am also not saying that you must give so much that you do not have anything left. That is also not loving yourself, never mind the other. This is another point that needs to be addressed. While reading a book on the essence of Buddhism the author made an interesting point saying that it is all good and well that we should love our neighbour as ourselves, but what if the person does not love himself? What if the person is depressed? It will then mean that the depressed person, loving the other as he “loves” himself, will wish depression on that person. He then suggests compassion and loving-kindness as better terms. I both agree and disagree with the author to a certain extent.

A depressed person, or one that hates him- or herself, cannot love anyone, never mind talking about having compassion. At the same time, that is exactly what such persons wish on others. If we understand what it means to really love each other, including other beings, then it might not matter which term we prefer. However, the word “love” does bring up the idea of a deep emotional attachment. In this sense the word “compassion” is better as we can then have sympathy and empathy as well as sacrificing without getting attached to the person or being, which might lead to more suffering than anything else. Yet, that will still be a misunderstanding of what it means to really love, and this is where there needs to be a mind change.

Contrary to popular belief, love is not an emotion. Love is rather something we do; in other words, it is a verb. True love is to give or to do something without the expectation of return. Love is as simple as giving a glass of water to whoever asks for it without getting irritated, to give R2 to the person begging at the stop street. Or it is to exceed that person’s expectations and give him a big meal and R200. Love is an effort to reduce the suffering we cause animals and nature by our selfish ways by living more consciously. It is both within our means and outside our comfort zones.

May the One God with many Names and many Manifestations, bless you.

Transformation Process from Omnivore to Vegan: The Personal Touch

I thought that Part Two in this series would be the last part, but my sisters reminded me that I have left out a particularly important component: the personal touch. How far am I in this journey from being an Omnivore to becoming a Vegan? One of my friends described themselves as “flexitarian” saying that they prefer going vegan or vegetarian but at the moment it is still difficult. I think this accurately describe my feet-in-two-worlds situation – I tip my hat at anyone who wakes up one day and decide their done with meat and animal products (or any other addiction for that matter).

So, my personal experience is that it is not easy, but looking back I can see that there was progress. Back when I were still staying in my hometown, I became convinced that vegetarian would be the way to go and I regularly discussed it with some friends. I was made fun of, which is fine by me, but unfortunately that meant no support at all. I knew no vegetarians or vegans personally so I could not ask for advice (I acknowledge that I did not think of Google).

As I read more about famous vegetarians – the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy – I realized that I had to work in that direction, but I found myself failing time and again. I did, however, succeeded in becoming more of an environmentalist by refusing to kill insects unless it was necessary. I remember writing a small piece about how easy it is to love cats and dogs, but to feel nothing when it came to spiders and crickets (or feeling fear for these little creatures in some cases). My mom once joked, saying to one of her friends, “this one is so green…”.

Surprisingly, getting married helped a lot. I am enormously proud to brag that I have a supportive and understanding wife even though she finds some of my ideas a little over the top. When I told her that it has been a goal of mine to become at least vegetarian, if not full vegan, she immediately started to encourage me; and sometimes even admonished me if my actions contradicts my words. Two things she greatly helped me with was introducing the meatless Mondays and encouraging me to push the October Vegetarian month as far as possible (by the way – January is called Veganuary by vegans). Although my reasons are mostly spiritual in nature, my wife focus’ more on the health reasons and thus we try to combine my meatless times with more healthy eating in general. All this even though my wife is not a vegetarian and are not planning on becoming one.

In the meantime, I have made a list of different meats that I want to give up totally as time go by. This came about when I realized that my efforts to give up meat and other animal products all at once did not pay off and that perhaps a more gradual approach would work better. My list focus on meat specifically and are by no means scientific. In fact, I am still a long way from understanding the codes on the back of packages which are supposed to tell you if animal products were used (did you know, for instance, that animal products are used in soap and many cosmetics or in those delicious Jelly Babies?). To give myself time to get used to not eating a particular meat that I crossed of the list, I give up another form of meat every six months (perhaps I should shorten this time frame, but for now this is it). Thus, so far, I have given up eating fat, lamb, biltong (including droëwors, salami and so on) and patties (which means I gave up burgers).

Another surprising source of encouragement is my colleagues. Like any other group of South Africans, we are always on the lookout for a reason to have a small party where we all bring something to eat together before we begin with the day’s work. I must mention here that I am allergic for dairy products (for those who do not know – this is also an animal product) and you should think that this fact makes it easier for me to give it up, but alas I crave cheese a lot (and did I mention pizza?). Now, my colleagues know of my struggles to give up meat and diary products and one of them is a wonderful cook (he really should have been a chef and we are always full of praise for the dish he surprises us with). Before any event we planned he and my other colleagues always come to me to make sure which meat it is I do not eat and when they cook or bake something requiring dairy products, they make sure to use goat cheese for which I am not allergic (but which I will also eventually have to give up as I go full vegan). After this they always make sure not to bring those items – it is a joy to work with such colleagues.

By now I have also read more on what exactly goes into the production of meat and I am horrified. I am now appalled when I hear seemingly normal people (most of us in other words) talking with some enthusiasm about how animals are slaughtered for their meat, when the same person would not talk so casually if the same thing were done to a human. One person acknowledges that if she sees a chicken walk over the lawn and the host inform her that this will be the food for dinner, she become vegetarian for that night. Somehow, unfortunately, this does not translate to the packages we buy in the supermarket and I acknowledge I am as guilty. My choices are thus still very much influenced by this fallacy in my mind; when I must choose between an apple and a Vienna sausage then I will most probably find myself with a pack of viennas on the couch in front of the television.

Nowadays there is a lot of alternative products on the market. For instance, if you do not want to eat meat there is the option to buy tofu or soya. There are also processed foods which are made to look and taste like the real counterpart. Thus, you get vegan cheese, vegan patties, vegan sausages and even vegan biltong. These products can help a prospective vegan to ease the journey a bit as they look and taste more or less like the real deal (for those who grew up vegan or vegetarian – I would suggest you stay away from it). With this last warning in mind there are two unfortunate facts about these products. Firstly, they are quite expensive and thus where giving up meat may help your finances, going over to meat-like products does not. Secondly, it is highly processed foods which means it is also highly unhealthy (a real vegan or vegetarian diet is generally good healthy food).

This is then my difficulties and honest struggles as well as my proud little progress in the journey to become a more conscious consumer of food. It really is all about being aware of what we do to animals, the planet, other humans and ourselves. At the same time, it is an acknowledgement that human nature is frail, and that small steps and little seed may accumulate to bigger things with time. Thus, I hope that what I wrote here will serve as a planted seed that will bear fruit with time or serve as encouragement to not give up. Even if this was just an interesting read (or you vehemently disagree with everything I said or the way I go about my journey), I still hope that it will serve as food for thought.

May the One God with many Names and many Manifestations bless you

Transformation Process from Omnivore to Vegan: Part 2

In the previous part I explained environmental, health and humane reasons for going vegan. I am on this journey to give up my addiction to meat and all other animal products because I truly believe that we do not need meat in our diet and that what we are doing to the animals we would not even wish on our worst enemies. What I did not explain in the previous part was the spiritual reasons for going vegan although I did mention that looking after the environment and having compassion on all living beings are already very spiritual things to do. Whatever the case may be, here follows more specific spiritual reasons.

Two of the comments I received on the previous part is relevant for this part. The first comment was that the person hears what I am saying but to give up meat would be too difficult. The other comment was a reference to the Bible which say that those who eat only vegetables are weak. So, the first comment reminded me that every person are on their own journey and that no matter how much we point out cruelty towards others or unhealthy practices towards ourselves, writing here is only the hopeful seed of positive influence. The second comment is a reminder that people read the Bible (and many other Holy Scriptures) out of the context within which it was written and will grab at single verses which they think support their arguments without taking the whole of the chapter in consideration. Let us then start with this chapter which is Romans 14.

There are two things to remember when reading Romans 14 and that is, first of all, that Christians in the ancient world were still a minority and that the meat in those times were offered to idols before it was being sold (today Christianity are the largest religion with more that 2billion people professing to be Christian) and, secondly, Romans 14 is not primarily about food but about faith. In other words, when Paul writes in verse two that the person who is weak only eat vegetables he means to say that there is only One God and thus if you are worried about the meat because of the false gods then you do not need to worry because there is no other gods, false or otherwise, besides God only; however, if your faith is weak (thus, if you still feel that there is false gods to be worried about) then eat only vegetables. He then says it does not matter because those who eat meat should not look down on those who does not and those who eats only vegetables should not judge those who eat meat (one of the things that I made clear in the previous part was that I understand all of us are on our own journeys, I do not judge, but that I want to put this out there as positive influence).

Paul then continues to explain the same principle about faith with regards to the days of the week: some say Sunday (or the Sabbath) is holy but God made all days and we should live holy on all days. That is the context of this chapter and in the end, it had nothing to do with veganism and meat eating to begin with. People who only eat vegetables, vegetarians or vegans, are not weak. In fact, I challenge any meat eater to go without meat for a month (I suggest October as that is World Vegetarian Month) and see if it is easy, I assure you that you will have new respect for the strength those who do not eat meat.

It is true that Jesus ate meat, but that cannot be used as an excuse anymore than the fact that the Dalai Lama eats meat. As the Dalai Lama has his specific reasons while still advocating that a vegetarian diet is better so Jesus was living in times when veganism was not the social issue it is today. The reasons for this are simple, right in the beginning God gave the plants to humans as food and they only started eating meat after Noah and the great flood, thus after sin entered the world according to the Christian worldview. Why then did Moses allow it in the law? This is the same kind of question the Pharisees asked Jesus and his answer were: “Due to the hardness of your hearts”. This hardness of our hearts is a problem even today, we do understand the reasons why it is wrong to kill animals when there is more than enough food to end famine, we understand that we are cruel, we try to justify it by playing with words; and all this because we insist on our desires, entertainment, power and financial gain.

I have realized this cruelty within myself and decided to face up to it. We are not only cruel to each other, but also to millions of other species (more than 680 species are extinct as a direct result of human activities and more than 1 million are under threat) and to the planet itself. This lead me to realize that we need a lot more compassion as it is explained by the Buddhists and love as it is written in the Christian Scriptures (I will write more about what exactly it means to love in a later post). Compassion is to understand that when we look pass everything that divide us, including race, age, religion, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, politics, species and anything else, there is the Spark of God within all of life. Our interconnectedness, the African philosophy of Ubuntu expanded to include far more than only humanity but to be universal, lead us to realize that if we act hurtful to anything – no matter how small it seems to us – we act hurtful to everything and that have repercussions for the future. It is only compassion which will make us care about a future where we ourselves might not be and yet live on.

Unless ye must, bruise not the serpent in the dust, how much less wound a man. And if ye can, no ant should ye alarm, much less a brother harm.

Abdu’l-Baha

Compassion, in the end, is to always be loving because we know we are not the only ones with problems. It is to always be loving towards everyone and everything, from the most innocent to those who we are sure do not deserve it. There are few things more innocent than an animal that does not understand why it is being hunted to be killed or herded to be slaughtered and yet experience that fear of what is happening. It is easy to look down on animals as creatures we can do with as we please, but ask yourself these two questions – If it is okay for us to kill for food (and buying your meat in packages in the local supermarket is indirectly condoning the killing), why do we experience it as cruel when a tiger or lion kills a human? If cannibalism is wrong because it is murder and, also, that there is enough other food; why then is it okay for us to eat the flesh of other beings?

I sincerely hope, indeed pray, that we will gradually start to live in greater awareness of our actions, that we will ask ourselves if what we are busy with every second of the day is compassionate. Further, that it will not stay with awareness but that we will take action and make better decisions within our own environments and within our own spheres of influence.

May the One God with many Names and many Manifestations, bless you

Transformation Process from Omnivore to Vegan: Part 1

I am on a journey to become vegan (or, at the very least, vegetarian). It is a journey that started a long time ago when I became convinced, for various reasons of which I will explain some here, that eating meat is against what I came to believe spiritually. Unfortunately I am still very much a meat eater but, slowly but surely, I am cutting it out of my diet like an addict who gives up the addiction one slow step at a time. This is exactly what meat-eating is – an addiction. I grew up in a family who believe that if there is no meat on the plate then the meal is incomplete. I grew up in a culture for which to braai is a national activity. So, I have been eating meat for the more than thirty years, most of the time unquestioning and, I admit even now, with delight.

Apart from the lack of support (and I do now have more support than before), it is this last part which make it most difficult to give up meat. It is easy to give up something which you do not like much to begin with. Giving up something you enjoy is more complicated even though you believe that there is something inherently and morally wrong with it. Thus, I do not judge anyone for any addiction they may have. As an Omnist I believe that your journey and the decisions you make on your chosen path is your own. And yet, I feel that this is an important enough part of my own journey that I want to share it and, hopefully, change some mindsets or, at least, trigger some thought.

Personally, I have environmental, health, humane and spiritual reasons why I am exercising my mind and my body to give up meat and the use of any other animal products. On the first two I am no expert, and I will only briefly refer to it. On the third no one need to be an expert – all you need is compassion. I have given a lot more thought on the spiritual reasons and will comment more elaborately on these.

Environmentally I do believe that we should be able to end famine if only we are willing to give up our desire to consume meat. If we do not care for the animals, at least we can, indeed must, care for the members of our own species. The argument is simple: there are enough grain to feed the whole of the world population. Unfortunately, a large portion of grain are used in order to feed the livestock which will become meat. The amount of grain used for this purpose are much more than the amount of meat that is produced at the end of the process. It is sad that we are depriving millions of people of food so that only some of us can enjoy our meat. Keeping meat prices is mind it is a fact that some of us might be forced to become vegetarian soon. This is also a deciding factor in my own family – having a meatless day or two in the week not only lessen our carbon-footprint but also go lighter on our pockets.

With health the first thing people always love to say is that we need protein. This is false because we are actually addicted to protein. Our bodies only need a small amount of protein all of which is present in vegetables and seeds. The amount of protein we take in by consuming meat is much more than we need. Further, although our bodies are able to consume meat and other animal products and we pride ourselves in being omnivore, there are studies that show that actually our teeth are not made to tear meat and our organs are struggling to break down the meat and animal milk enzymes.

As I said, I am not an expert in these areas and it is up to you, my dear reader, to do your own research. However, there is something that we all, who have a conscience, feel and that is humaneness. As I have read more and more into the reasons why I should become a vegan, one of the overpowering factors is our own cruelty. First, we have the ability to lie to ourselves thinking that meat is just that as if it grows on trees. We talk about beef instead of cow and of pork instead of pig but we rationally know what it is and do not hesitate to call lamb and fish for what it is, and yet somehow we can ignore these facts while we cut, burn and eat it.

Second, there is the fact that these animals first need to be killed, slaughtered (murdered?), before its meat (flesh) can be packaged and transported to where we can buy it. An interesting point of view on this is “humane slaughtering” which means that animals can now be killed without any, or at least with the minimum, pain. Even if the animal feels no pain it does not take away the fact that it is being killed. Apart from that, how low did we fall in order to come up with a nonsense term such as “humane slaughtering”? Think about it, the ‘war to end all wars’ lead to no peace at all other than many more wars.

Lastly, and this is the biggest lie we tell ourselves, how is it possible that it is okay to kill some animals and cruel to kill others? Especially in our Western so-called civilization certain animals such as dogs and cats and select few from the bird and fish species and rabbits, are not being killed for food. Here we suddenly know how cruel it is to kill these specific animals while at the same time we feel the absolute irrational need to kill other species. It will be much more honest, however not less cruel, to admit that some we love, some we eat and some we just plain hate. So, we came up with a word such as ‘pet’ (a beautiful word for slave, I suggest the word ‘companion’ for animal lovers), so that when a sheep are especially loved by a little girl and her family that particular sheep is called ‘pet’ and is not eaten together with the other sheep. As for those we hate, we prefer to kill spiders, rats, mice and snakes and give various reasons for doing so without thinking twice that there are groups of people who are more than willing to go to your house, catch these animals and take them to a place where they can safely continue life.

When a man kills a tiger, it is called hunting. When a tiger kills a man, it is called cruel.

It is not only the larger animals that suffers, but also insects. Before I elaborate on this, I need to say this, there is a few times when it is allowed to kill. Firstly, when being threatened, a matter of life and death. When a robber, murderer or rapist threatens you, you have the right to protect yourself; and that is also true of a dangerous animal or insect. Secondly, for survival – if you find yourself in a situation where there is absolutely nothing else to eat then it is again a matter of life and death (I am willing to bet that most of us, in the 21^st century, will never find ourselves in such a situation). Lastly, when you have no other choice. For instance, if there is an insect or other animal in your house which can easily be caught and released outside then it should be done that way, but others (such as flies and ants) are more difficult and then, while feeling sorry for the little creatures, it may be killed in the interest of cleanliness and hygiene.

Now to return to the fact that insects also suffer, we need to remember that no matter how small the creature, it is a living being. The focus so far has mostly been on meat, but what about an animal product such as honey? Here is what I recently learned about honeybees and their owners: We all know that bees collect pollen from flowers which they then take to the hives. What we perhaps do not know is that it is not the pollen itself that gets unloaded at the hive. The pollen is consumed by the bees and in their stomachs it is transformed into honey which is then vomited (yes you have read correctly) out. What is this vomit (otherwise known as honey) used for by the bees? It is the building blocks for the hive and the food that the bees feed to their larvae. In other words, we humans are thieves stealing so to speak out of the mouths of the babes (the same thing we do with cows’ milk by the way). But there are worse to come, in order to move the hives to where the beekeeper want it or when the honey is being collected, smoke is used to disorientate the bees. The reason this is bad (other than the fact that smoke is being blown into the faces of sentient beings – you try not to complain the next time you inhale smoke) is that, when bees are in their natural environment and there is a fire, the smoke is a signal that they should flee. So, what happen is that the bees eat as much honey as is possible in order to build a new hive somewhere safer. The question then is, why don’t the bees just leave the beekeeper the moment smoke is blown into the hive? The reason, and this is the cherry on the cruel cake, is the queen bee. The bees will only leave if the queen herself leave – problem is that the lovely beekeepers removed the wings of the queen.

These then are the some of the reasons why I am busy moving away from eating meat and using animal products. In part two of the Transformation Process from Omnivore to Vegan I will focus exclusively on spiritual and religious reasons. This does not mean that this post was not spiritual at all. As human beings I believe that we are not bodies containing spirits, but spirits living in bodies and thus we are spiritual beings. As spiritual beings I believe we have an immense obligation and responsibility towards the environment and the health of ourselves and all other sentient beings. Apart from that, if the focus is on spirit and not on body then it should also be on compassion and not on dominion. The cruelty we have towards nature, animals and each other show that our focus has far too long been on our bodies and our perceived right to dominate and do as we please. We have made our stomachs our gods.

May the One God with many Names and many Manifestations bless you