I don’t intend here to go into all the arguments for adopting a vegetarian diet – there are many. However, it’s worth noting that they cover both secular and spiritual aspects of life. Details of health and environmental arguments can be found, for example, on the website of the Australian Vegetarian Society at www.veg-soc.org. There are a number of others. Many of the first Liberal Catholics, including our founding bishops, were vegetarians. While there is no direct requirement to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, there are relevant sections in our official Statement of Principles and Summary of Doctrine (SPSD) that indicate that such a lifestyle is desirable as we continue to grow and develop our spiritual life. For example (my emphases): 1 “Believing that God manifests Himself in and through us to the world around us, the Liberal Catholic Church teaches the purification of the body, as well as the mind and the heart. To this end, vegetarianism and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and other drugs of abuse are recommended as ideals” (SPSD p3) And again: 2 “We have ethical duties, not only to our fellow human beings, but also to all the realms of nature, which constitute our world environment” (op cit p3) and “We all share in His life…. That which harms one, harms all” (op cit p14) Finally: 3 “The clergy of the Liberal Catholic Church are unpaid… They therefore normally retain secular occupations, whilst carefully excluding those forms of employment which involve cruelty or exploitation.” (op cit p7) Bishop C W Leadbeater gave a lecture around 100 years ago entitled Vegetarianism and Occultism which has been published as a booklet by the Theosophical Publishing House (reprinted 2001). While this booklet is written in the language of his times, it is surprising how closely Bishop Leadbeater’s arguments foretell those given by advocates today. It is also apparent how passionately he felt about this matter. My quote 1 above refers to the need to purify “the body, as well as the mind and the heart.” One aspect of achieving such purification is the avoidance of all flesh-based food, of not eating “anything with eyes” as a friend once put it. This practice has been advocated from time immemorial by many of the great spiritual masters. They have taught that the physical body must be kept pure if a complete mastery over that body with its passions and desires is to be attained. Vegetarianism is a step in that direction. As an example of the effects produced through eating flesh-food, the vibrations of fear and panic of animals as they are led to slaughter pass into the meat on your plate and then enter your emotional or psychic body. Further, the chemical toxins produced by the animal in its terror can poison your own physical body. In Christian writings, St Paul says “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (I Cor 3:16). And he goes on: “If any man defiles the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” Consumption of meat, alcohol, nicotine and other drugs undoubtedly “defile the temple of God.” You only have to look at all the illnesses that people suffer today, including, for example, bowel cancer and heart disease, to see the effect on the physical body, let alone the unseen and unrecognized effects on the higher bodies, which can manifest themselves in irritability, intolerance and aggression. Quote 2 highlights our ethical responsibilities to “all the realms of nature” and to our environment. This covers such things as the most efficient way of using agricultural land to feed the world’s rapidly increasing population, the minimizing of the production of greenhouse gases, one of the major sources of which is grazing livestock, and the minimizing of water usage. These matters are discussed at length by the Vegetarian Society and other such organizations. Surely they also should be of major concern to members of a church one of whose key ideas is the unity of all creation. We ourselves are part of creation and our role is that of custodian, not exploiter and dominator. Finally, quote 3 returns us to the need to keep our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies pure. Engaging in cruelty, particularly, brutalizes those concerned. CWL says “those who are brutalized…prove themselves brutal in other relations as well.” The quotation notes that clergy especially should avoid “forms of employment which involve cruelty or exploitation.” There is much that could be said about this brutalization. A good example can be found in another facit of modern life, where we are exposed to so much violence, brutality, war and terrorism vicariously through TV and computer “games,” that we become inured to it and it spills over into our streets in real life. We come to accept such things as the norm. Human life becomes coarsened and cheapened. CWL concludes his little booklet on an optimistic and visionary note (p71). He writes: “There is a Golden Age to come, not only for man but for the lower kingdoms [the animal, vegetable and mineral], a time when humanity will realize its duty to its younger brothers – not to destroy them, but to help them and train them, so that we may receive from them not terror and hatred, but love and devotion and friendship…because we are all children of the same Almighty Father.” In the Bible (Is 11:6-9), we read also of this Golden Age to come: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Again, it is emphasized that the Liberal Catholic Church does not seek to impose any specific lifestyle on its members, anymore than it tells them how to vote, or what causes to support. But it is important that we recognize the teachings of many spiritual masters, and not least the example set for us by our founding bishops. We must learn to be gentle and kind to ourselves and gentle and kind to all of God’s creation.
|
2 MAY 2010 |