Going Veg
Upcoming EVENt
Attention:
No July Monthly Gathering!
Because of the Independence Day holiday, there will not be the usual first-Monday presentation on 7/7/08.
No Meeting!
Have a great holiday!!
Upcoming EVENt
The Vegan Lifestyle --- It's For Real!
Dr. John Gobble,
DrPh, MPH, RD, LD, CHES
Monday, 6/2/08, 7p, McNail-Riley House, 601 W. 13th (at Jefferson), Eugene FREE - Map
Veg Wisdom
Vegetarianism is a philosophy that manifests its reverence and respect for the well-being of all sentient life by advocating and striving for the ultimate adoption of a plant-based diet. - Stanley Sapon, PhD
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Veg Wisdom
Life has taught us that love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Going Veg > The Benefits
Here is a concise and to-the-point summary of some of the benefits we reap when we go veg. Thank you, Jenny! Nice job!
If you could improve your health, help alleviate world hunger, reduce animal abuse, reduce global warming and environmental damage and save hundreds of thousands of litres of water, simply by refraining from doing one simple thing ...would you?
Well, simply by refraining from buying animal products you can achieve all this.
Today, more and more people are realizing that choosing to be vegan is far more than a mere 'dietary choice'. It is about rescuing the planet from destruction and preventing human suffering as well as non-human suffering. It is about creating a sustainable future.
In third world countries, children starve next to fields of soya and grain destined for export as animal feed for Western nations. For every 10kg of plant protein fed to cattle, only one kg is converted into meat.
The irony is that whilst the world's poor are dying of poverty, millions of affluent Westerners are dying from heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancers, largely caused by eating animal products.
Water scarcity is reaching crisis point. According to the CSIRO, every kilogram of meat consumed requires up to 100,000 litres of water to produce. In contrast, rice, our thirstiest crop, requires only 1500 litres.
November 1st is World Vegan Day ... the perfect day to make the decision to try a more healthy, sustainable, and compassionate vegan lifestyle.
Reprinted with permission from Jenny Moxham, Monbulk Australia
Why Veganism?
Why Veganism?
People choose to be vegan for health, environmental, and/or ethical reasons. For example, some vegans feel that one promotes the meat industry by consuming eggs and dairy products. That is, once dairy cows or egg laying chickens are too old to be productive, they are often sold as meat. Some people avoid these items because of conditions associated with their production.
Many vegans chose this lifestyle in order to promote a more humane and caring world. They know they are not perfect, but believe they have a responsibility to try to do their best, while not being judgmental of others.
Source: Veganism in a Nutshell, Vegetarian Resource Group
Ahimsa
WHAT IS AHIMSA?
Ahimsa is a Sanskrit word for non-killing and non-harming. It is not mere passiveness, but a positive method of meeting the dilemmas and decisions of daily life. In the western world, it is called Dynamic Harmlessness. The six pillars of this dynamic philosophy for modern life (one for each letter: A-H-I-M-S-A) are:
Harmlessness with reverence for life
Integrity of thought, word, and deed
Mastery over oneself
Service to humanity, nature, and creation
Advancement of understanding and truth
Ahimsa is explained in detail in Ahimsa (American Vegan Magazine) Volume 41, Number 4, page 19.
Visit www.americanvegan.org
Yoga of the Heart
Excerpts from Yoga of the Heart - 10 Ethical Principles for Gaining Limitless Growth, Confidence, and Achievement by Alice Christensen
"A Yogi, for instance, would say that the quality of sweetness "lives" in fruit and is transferred to your body when you eat it, expressing itself in you as a feeling of sweetness. Likewise, the quality of excitement lives in spices, so when you eat spicy foods, the quality of excitement expreses itself in you.
In the same way, it is felt that violence lives in meat. This concept is discussed in ancient Yogic texts, where the eating of meat is compared to eating the quality of violence itself. By killing in order to eat, you have moved into that primitive feeling of fear and aggression, and the violence that lives in the meat expresses itself through you. That is why a vegetarian diet is usually associated with Yoga and the practice of Nonviolence.
...The reasons for a vegetarian diet are much deeper than the simple principle of not causing harm to a living thing. Shaivism teaches that hatred springs from meat and that violence hunts you like an animal, through meat. It goes on to say that the way an animal dies has an effect on you, even if you yourself have not done the actual killing.
Some of the old books on Kashmir Shaivism actually outline three specific crimes against living things (animals or human beings). The first is taking away life, even though the animal or person is innocent and has done nothing to deserve death. The second is the crime of inflicting great pain while killing. And the third is the crime taking away its strength by trussing it up and tying it down. These old books further say that one has to pay dearly for acts such as these and that it takes 20 lifetimes to pay for such violence. All violence is a result of the spiritual body being ignored, denied expression, and repressed."