Total Thoughts (December 6, 2009) - Cessation of External Conflicts, Care of the physical body and Intense love

Total Thoughts:

Cessation of External Conflicts, Care of the physical body and Intense love (On Wings and Wheels pg 63-65)

 

• Love is complex and hard to find - We should consider how the word 'love' is misused and overused in society and reflect on what it means for ourselves. We should reflect on how love towards God is a path; a journey
  
• Lust can be blinding- Once we understand this, it can help us move forward
  
• There is no definition of love - Love is a spectrum and it holds different levels of intensity for different individuals. We should reflect on what it means to us and how it relates to our personal relationships
  
• It is difficult to communicate love - We should think about how we can love people that we can't communicate with
  
• Reflection deserves importance - We should realize that reflection is a key contribution to our personal growth process
  
• All discussion topics help us see the bigger picture - reflecting and understanding the topics (euthanasia, love, vegetarianism, morals, ethics etc.) helps us on the journey of self-realization
  
• Highest moral advice is to love thyself - if you can't love yourself, then you can't love others. In order to love thyself, you need to know thyself. This is the journey we are all on

 "We may often give without love, but we can never love without giving" - Swami Chinmayananda

 Inspire-Love-Be

Total Thoughts (November 29, 2009) - Vegetarianism

Total Thoughts:

Vegetarianism (On Wings and Wheels pages 56-62)

 

• We tend to view compassion differently - Something to reflect on is how we can feel compassion for a cow, but not for a carrot
• We have a limited conception of pain - Often, we don't consider whether plants can feel pain and how every substance has energetic value
  
• Consider the least amount of harm to the environment - Where do we draw the line? i.e. fish oil and other byproducts may be good for our health, however natural drugs are also a byproduct. We should understand the amount of benefit and injury that these substances cause
• Cause and effect is significant - We can shift perception if we remove cause and effect. If everyone had to kill what they wanted to eat, then perhaps everyone would gain a new perspective
• There is a lot of pressure to eat meat - For some, the vegetarian diet is cost prohibitive as it is more expensive to be a vegetarian. Meat also has a strong association with culture (i.e. Thanksgiving etc.) which makes it difficult for some to sustain a vegetarian diet. We should consider that if there were more vegetarians, then it would be easier for others to stay vegetarians
• Corporations perpetuate the issue - We should understand the role the corporation plays in communicating the accessibility/appeal of a meat diet
• Tendencies of the mind seek out the taste of meat - When you are full, chicken is not appealing, however when you are hungry even a piece of bread is delicious
• Being vegetarian is not as hard as it may seem - Once we try and commit to education and a routine we can realize that it is not as hard as we may believe it to be
  
• It is beneficial to be vegetarian - it is a moral, environmental and health conscious lifestyle decision
  
• Same criteria for vegetarianism can be applied to wearing leather goods - We should understand why we have different criteria to evaluate whether we should wear leather goods. We need to consider the impact, and what is justifiable (i.e. we eat for sustenance, and we wear leather shoes for comfort and foot support)
  

 

"The straight path is as difficult as it is simple. Were it not so, all would follow the straight path" - Gandhi

 

Inspire-Love-Be