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

Living the Revolution / 293
will confirm the presence of universal spirit in our lives. We can send
into the future the gift which will protect our children from fear,
from harm, from destruction. 11
As our hearts open to deeper understanding, our circle of compassion
naturally enlarges and spontaneously begins to include more and
more “others”—not just our own tribe, sect, nation, or race, but all
human beings, and not just humans, but other mammals, and birds,
fish, forests, and the whole beautifully interwoven tapestry of living,
pulsing creation. All beings. All of Us.
When we are then drawn toward a plant-based way of eating, it is
in no way a limitation on us; rather it is the harmonious fulfillment of
our inner seeing. At first we think it’s an option we can choose, but with
time we realize that it’s not a choice at all but the free expression of the
truth that we are. It is not an ethic that we have to police from outside,
but our own radiant love spontaneously expressing, both for ourselves
and for our world. Caring is born on this earth and lives through us, as
us, and it’s not anything for which we can personally take credit. It is
nothing to be proud of. Refraining from eating and using animals is the
natural result of seeing that is no longer chained within the dark and
rigid dungeon of narrow self-interest. From the outside, it may look like
and be called “veganism,” but it is simply awareness and the expression
of our sense of interconnectedness. It manifests naturally as inclusiveness
and caring. It’s no big deal because it’s the normal functioning of
our original nature, which unfailingly sees beings rather than things
when it looks at our neighbors on this earth.
We owe the animals our profoundest apologies. Defenseless and
unable to retaliate, they have suffered immense agonies under our domination
that most of us have never witnessed or acknowledged. Now
knowing better, we can act better, and acting better, we can live better,
and give the animals, our children, and ourselves a true reason for hope
and celebration.