The World Peace Diet: Eating For Spiritual Health And Social Harmony

232 / the world peace diet
mind and body at a deep level and reconnect us with our true nature.
Because of the fear, shame, and woundedness we have all experienced,
however, they seem to be difficult to attain and practice, and to require
an enormous ongoing commitment to diligent inner cultivation.
Entering the inner stillness of samadhi requires patiently returning our
attention to the present moment, and requires that our mind be undisturbed
by our outer actions. This is why the spirit of shojin, which sees
animals as subjects and not as commodities to be used or eaten, is so
essential on the path of spiritual evolution. The spirit of shojin is compassion
and allowing others to be free, and the practice of shojin in turn
liberates us from the inner mental states that accompany eating animal
foods. These mental states—agitation, worry, fear, panic, despair, sadness,
grief, nervousness, aggressiveness, anger, disconnectedness,
despair, dullness, fogginess, and stupor—are unavoidable if we are
omnivores, brought into us as vibrational frequencies with the foods we
are eating, and generated within us by our own undeniably violent and
harmful food choices and the psychological blocking these actions
demand. These negative mental states generally make meditation a negative
experience and ensure that it will not truly quiet our mind or help
us reach higher levels of spiritual illumination. First we must purify our
actions and stop harming vulnerable creatures. This requires mindfulness,
the ancient spirit of shojin that is the foundation of veganism.
To be effective, to tame the mind, this spirit of nonviolence and
compassion must be actually lived; otherwise our mind will be too disturbed
to enter the inner peace of samadhi. This stillness and serenity of
mind lies at the heart of spiritual life, whatever religion or non-religion
we may hold to, and it requires the inner purity of a clear conscience. It
allows the old inner wall, splitting “me” here from “the world” out
there, to dissolve. With this, a deeper understanding of the infinite interconnectedness
of all life can blossom.
Shojin and veganism are vital because they foster the inner peace
required for spiritual maturity. They are forms of inner and outer training
and discipline that lay the foundation for the meditative exploration
that opens us to the truth of interbeing. This is why shojin is so essential
to samadhi, and why veganism and nonviolence are essential for