Page 21 - Living Aloha Magazine March/April 2017 Issue

used, we become more alive, more We might find people saying to us, is founded, at its core on ahimsa,
aware, and more filled with what the “Hey, you can eat how you like, but non-violence, the universal spiritual
ancients called Sophia: the wisdom don’t tell me what to eat!” We realize wisdom that we reap what we sow,
of intuiting the interconnectedness how ironic this is. The only reason and that we’re all interconnected.
that underlies the apparent outward anyone in our culture eats animal- By deepening our understanding
separateness. This is a wisdom based foods is because they’ve of ahimsa and vegan living, we
that is actually lived, not merely been told to do so since birth by can become a force for spreading
intellectualized. There is a pithy and every institution in our culture: freedom, peace, and healing. With
illuminating proverb: “To know, and family, media, religion, government, any inner healing, there will be outer
not to do, is not to know.” education, and business. It’s never healing, and with any healing, there
As Sophia awakens in us, bringing a freely-arrived-at choice: we’ve all will be change. With any meaningful
wisdom, compassion, and healing, been, and continue to be, inundated change, there will be risk. We may
we are relentlessly confronted with with messages that eating animal- find ourselves alone, losing cherished
our acculturated food habits, and derived foods is a natural, normal, relationships because we no longer
as we eat more living, plant-based and essential characteristic of eat the same way, and no longer
foods, and less of the inherently cruel human behavior. respond unquestioningly to the
animal-based foods, we experience I don’t remember my parents pervasive social conditioning.
healing, both physically and on the telling me that I could freely choose We find, though, that we are
deeper causal levels of our being. Our whether to eat the first little blobs connected to a deeper source of
bodies function better and begin to of meat they presented to me, or joy and inner peace. As we bring
cleanse and purify, our mind is clearer, that they explained to me that they our lives into alignment with the
our emotions are more positive, were the flesh of pigs and turkeys truth we have discovered, and the
our relationships become more who had been confined their entire compassion that has grown in our
harmonious, our buying patterns lives and killed in terror and pain. I heart, we realize that the rewards
are more ecologically constructive, don’t remember my schoolteachers are worth infinitely more than
we begin to care more deeply about helping me to understand that fish what we risked. At a deep level, our
the Earth, others, and ourselves, are highly intelligent, social creatures self-esteem returns, and we realize
and we evolve spiritually to a felt with the same pain receptors we have, how participating in the violence
awareness that there is much more and I don’t remember my minister pervading our culture’s meals had
to life than our cultural programming pontificating about the suffering of reduced our awareness and sense
has revealed. In short, we become a dairy cows, whose babies are serially of self-worth. Newfound joyfulness
threat to the established order! stolen from them so we can steal their blossoms in our heart and we intuit
milk, or the TV informing me of the it all directly: truth, compassion,
nightmarish conditions endured by healing—these three are inseparable
chickens on egg-production facilities. sisters. Cultivating one cultivates the
I was never given a choice and was others. We are all connected, and the
To forced into complicity, completely more deeply we heal ourselves, the
oblivious to the repercussions of my
more we bless others. Cultivating
Know, actions. Without knowing the truth, compassion is an essential and
often unrecognized key to authentic
how could I ever practice compassion?
And The exquisite beauty and potential healing. It’s never too late to begin
Not To of our brief adventure on this Earth practicing it! the more we
bless others, the more
is that we can grow, evolve, and
Do, awaken to greater capacities of love we are blessed.
and wisdom. This is the underlying
Is Not message of the yogic tradition, which

To
Know dr. will tuttle, a former zen monk and author of the best-selling book, The World
Peace Diet, published in 15 languages. A vegan and yoga practitioner since
1980, and recipient of the Courage of Conscience Award and the Empty Cages
Prize, he’s also the creator of several wellness and advocacy training programs,
and is an acclaimed pianist and composer. www.worldpeacediet.org

MARCH–APRIL 2017 | Living Aloha VEGAN ALOHA 21