866:
Veganism, non-violent attitude, eating satisfaction, ‘being
vegan’, they’re all highly self-benefiting. But best not to get too cocky with
it, telling people, “I’m vegan, you know”. It’s sometimes better to let them
find that out for themselves. And we don’t really need others’ admiration or
understanding anyway, because it’s not likely to be forthcoming. And that’s as
good a reason as any, for not expecting it. The fact is that most people’s
reactions to our being vegan stem from a grudging jealousy for what we seem to have
achieved (a certain undefinable self-confidence, is it?), and the self
discipline we seem to bring to our lives. But again, that mustn’t matter to us;
a non-vegan can’t possibly know how it feels. They have to live ‘outside’
simply because of what they eat and wear and use each day. They remain unaware
of what it’s like to be a part of such a noble cause (concerning the ending of animal
enslavement). Nor would they know, in one particular way, how expanded a mind
could become, or how energised bodies can be. I can’t speak too highly of plant
foods and their properties, combined with the head-space that animal-empathy
brings.
For my own part, by ‘going’
vegan, I experienced an energy I’d never experienced before. It comes with the
food I suppose, or is it from a newly empowered conscience. I don’t know how it
works, but it’s a very valuable thing to have – clean energy. It occurs to me
that if it’s so easy to tap into, why doesn’t everyone do it? Perhaps the side
attractions of food, clothing, social conformities, etc, are so seductive and
habit forming, there’s not enough reason to employ that energy. But how
short-sighted that is, since this particular energy is crucial to personal
growth. Taking on vegan principle, applying it to our lives, winning
rights for animals, all this requires that particular energy. It’s needed in
bucket loads for ‘advocacy’ work, since we face huge odds against us. People
are reluctant to give up violence, whether towards each other, to animals, or
to the planet itself; they would rather not change, for fear of the many things
they would have to deny themselves.
But for those who are living
according to vegan principles, we need a powerful source of energy to plough
through the collective resistance. We need its encouragement, energy being the
one big reward for giving up so many delicious but toxic animal foods, and
always having to be so very different from everyone else. By being a herbivore
we optimise the fuel we use. We draw the best energy from the best source. When
feeding three times a day, we ingest high octane fuel, and what
plant-based-food-energy does for us on a physical level it does for the mind
too. I believe plant food makes us think quicker and more bravely too.
I like to think that a vegan is a
free-ranging, freedom-loving, conscience-clearing individual, who looks at
broader issues and isn’t too partisan in favour of any one cause. Having broken
through this one great barrier in order to empathise with animals, we’re able
to see how all the other big issues of the day have common roots, each pointing
to a coming-together in the future. There’s a common foundation of
consciousness, as it effects environment, animals, kids, education and health,
all of which are great causes worth fighting for, for the moulding of the
future. Because vegans have a clear view of how ‘vegan principle’ points to
non-violence, we then see with more altruistic eyes. By developing a sense of
empathy we take the emphasis off the self-serving ‘me’ and carry it across to
‘the other’. Vegan principle empathises
with the interests of others, especially with the interests of the weak; the ‘weak’
inherits the future.
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