Sandra: Thank you so much for your answer. That was very helpful. Just this day I was reading in How to Attain Enlightenment the sections on food. I have been on retreats in the past when I became aware that the food provided must have been very well thought out to support our practice. I didn’t know exactly how that was done, because the knowledge about the gunas is new to me this year. It explains so much, and I am grateful and ready to put it to good use. I just ate bread with cheese and had to laugh at myself for doing such a silly thing when I should have eaten a carrot. It will be an exciting investigation to watch closely how certain foods affect both mind and body, and I will understand better what results I see. I am a long-time organic gardener and watch what I eat pretty closely, but now I have new knowledge. The body on loan to me has served me well for a long time, and I don’t expect it not to falter, but I am glad to realize Isvara is ultimately responsible. I know you are a ceramic artist, as was I when younger. Working with clay can teach one a great deal about the matter that these bodies are all made of.
Sundari: You are most welcome. Knowledge is the key to everything in the mithya world, especially the teaching on the three gunas as they relate to the body-mind. With guna knowledge, you can study the hidden or delayed effects of anything you eat and decide for yourself if it is good for you or if it is not and if it is worth suffering for. You have a balanced attitude, and you are a gardener, which is great. Although there are many so-called nutritional experts that will tell you their way is the way, there is no such thing as one rule fits all, all the time. There is essentially no right or wrong about anything in the apparent reality; it all depends on what you value most. And, for many, how much we normalize suffering. Food vasanas are some of the hardest to break. It is quite amazing how hard it is for many to revise their ideas about what they eat in particular and, more importantly, to make the connection between their health and what they eat. I am often astounded by how much people are prepared to suffer to satisfy their cravings. And equally so, I am astounded by the misinformation and downright manipulation of nutritional information by the media. Most people don’t know what to believe, and common sense does not seem to prevail.
Unfortunately, in the apparent reality, because duality is operating, polarization is inevitable when it comes to knowledge of objects. With all the conflicting research and information that is available, it is quite clear that anyone could promote almost any view about anything, especially since the advent of social media. For every hypothesis that nutritional science constructs, an alternative or opposite theory are possible, with all the research to prove it. Though I am extremely knowledgeable on all aspects of diet, I do not prescribe any one diet for anyone, because there is no such thing. I tend to avoid discussions on the topic because of the moral component they elicit and how attached people are to their ideas.
In mithya everything is true and nothing is true. Beyond the few immutable laws of physics and physiology, there is nothing in this world that stands independent of belief and opinion. I never argue with anyone if they hold a strong point of view, because it is inescapably true that when someone is strongly invested in certain beliefs they tend to avoid or fail to investigate equally sound moral or scientific findings that challenge their view. Humans all have pretty strong biases that stand in the way of objective thinking.
Today the moral high ground of veganism is gathering momentum, and it is undoubtedly true that we must all review what we eat, especially animal products. But there is hardly anything to eat any more that does not raise some ethical questions – take avocados as just one example, a vegan staple. The truth behind farming them is pretty bad, slave labour, water-use abuse, drug lords monopolizing crops, etc. And let’s not get started on the monopolies and abuses around all the milk-alternative nut and grain milks that abound! What is undoubtedly true is that all studies based on the vegetarian/vegan belief system (and it has become a religion) tend to be much less open to the opposite view than the ones that included animal products. And that’s because nobody denies that plants are good for us and essential in our diets. I totally agree that plant sources should take up the majority of our food intake. Sadly though, much of what passes as scientific studies regarding nutrition is anything but. Many well-meaning and not so well-meaning “researchers” have confirmation bias and are guilty of flawed research. I was a vegetarian for years until I started doing my own research and was very disappointed to discover this. But it led me to learn to wise up and to be more informed about what constituted “good” nutrition and trustworthy science. I had to overturn many of my own ideas about diet and I have since found very different answers to the moral imperative, especially since Vedanta came into my life.
All the same, at the end of the day, psycho-spiritual factors are as important as a balanced healthy diet that works for you, bottom line. If you are happy and healthy the way you live, that is what counts. We must all follow our svadharma, our nature, and our value system. I agree that the moral perspective of a vegetarian/vegan diet is comforting, no doubt about that. But sadly, it is illusory because one cannot avoid “killing” to survive in mithya, that is just a fact. There is no moral high ground about this. If you are alive something is dying to feed you, even if it’s just the insects and animals that live on and in the habitat of the plants you eat. That is the way Isvara set it up. Is a plant really less conscious than an animal or an insect? It’s alive and does not want to be eaten. What about the enormous tracts of land cleared for monocrops, is that any worse than land cleared for grazing animals? Biodiversity is still sacrificed; many animals die in the process. Vegetarians and more so vegans tend to have a blinkered view and to turn their dietary choices into a self-righteous, militant, cult-like ideology, which does not serve their health, the planet or their peace of mind.
While there are few absolutes truths in mithya, it is an indisputable fact that Isvara placed some absolutely vital nutrients for humans found only in animals, and though some of these are found in plants, they are not of the equal nutritional value. If one gives up eating animal products, it is advisable to make sure you are knowledgeable about how to eat and what and how to supplement if health is important to you. Most vegans have very little knowledge about what they need to be healthy and some getting very ill and weak or suffer long-term damage to their bones.
Just look at the Inuit or the Maasai or the Herero people – among so many other people around the globe who are primarily meat-eaters and hardly eat plants at all, yet are exceptionally healthy, but invariably they are not included in vegan studies. Take Colin Campbell and his The China Study, for instance. He is still the high priest of veganism. But he only studied groups that were in line with his hypothesis and left out the ones that were not, such as the healthy, meat-eating Tuoli people of China.
Have you read the Weston Price research? Illuminating stuff still to this day. In his worldwide study of the eating habits of many diverse people, he found that while there were common aspects to most diets (like most people around the world ate some animal products), what he and many other researchers established is that we all have different requirements due to any number of factors and variables which are constantly in a state of flux. Even 100 years ago, Price established proof that the only diet that is indisputably a health hazard is our modern Western diet with its preponderance of processed food. Without fail all the indigenous tribes he studied where healthy if they had minimal contact with civilization. This is what gave rise to what is now called the “diseases of civilization.” While some of these diverse groups were predominantly vegetarian, the one thing they all had in common was (and still is) that they ate healthy forms of saturated fats, no artificial food-like substances high in sugar and trans fats and drinks drowned in high-fructose sugar.
Nonetheless, what constitutes a healthy diet is an individual thing to a large extent. As with all things, knowledge and common sense are what makes the difference. Any idea that is fanatical and refuses to consider other points of view will be flawed, it’s a given.
~ Love, Sundari
