I wanted to ask forum members who have elected to become raw vegan for at least partially spritual reasons to talk about your motivations, experiences, encounters and reflections of your journey.

Let me caveat by defining, for purposes of this thread, sprituality as that which describes our non-material experience in life. In other words, the non-material part of our existence. It can include a higher power but does not have to. It can include our sense of connectedness to each other, a deeper sense of ourselves, and our relationship to the world around us.

At the outset, I will say for me personally, that this experience has had deep personal meaning. I feel so much better every day just knowing I am helping to relieve suffering and leave a lighter footprint. Knowing that I make my decision on consumption based relieving suffering and becoming more conscious as a result. I feel that I have gained a greater understanding and senstivity to people, the planet and living creatures.

As I go deeper into meditation, and reflect on past mistakes and accomplishment, future opportunities and staying in the present moment, I just want to say thank you to all of the members of this forum for listening to my message. And I invite you to share your spiritual experiences from a raw vegan lifestyle as you find them appropriate.

Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2010 09:18PM by pborst.

Paul,

I appreciated you sharing how your spirituality has been affected by your choice to have a raw food lifestyle. Although I didn't become a raw vegan for spritual reasons, I find that my spiritual life has been enlivened since changing to a raw diet. That has been amazing to me. Actually, I continue to be intrigued by how raw food has affected my life.

In terms of spirituality, like you, my consciousness has been raised about preventing suffering. I even question killing insects now. I have also become more ecologically minded. My husband and I are planning to sell our current house and build a smaller one that only meets our needs, not our "dream house fantasies." I have been researching eco-home information to be as green as possible/practical.

As to my relationship with people, I find myself being more aware of how I approach people and I am more open to where they are coming from in an interaction. I am anticipating more positive interactions and, lo and behold, have been having more positive interactions. Funny, how that works! Somehow I am calmer and more tuned in when I am with strangers. That has come with age, experience, and past counseling/therapy, but I am even more aware of my role and influence in exchanges.

Many years ago I went to a class to learn how to meditate. When I tried it with the group, tears flowed from my closed eyes the entire time. It scared me so much that I never returned. However, recently, I have become curious again and have been using the internet for information on meditation.

I have no idea where all of this will take me, but I am comfortable with how my life is going.

Robin (a.k.a. Trive)


My favorite raw vegan

I also made my changes originally for health reasons. I was only later that I realized that eating meat, for me, was incompatible with a spiritual lifestyle. How could I kill animals unnecessarily and say that I loved all god's creation? You know?

I realized eventually that true spirituality, for me, is about showing love in the SMALLEST circumstances.....where it may not even be warranted or respected.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Spiritual to me is a feeling of peace and connection to the universe.

How can you connect more than to take into your body live living elements from the ground of the Earth.

Thats it in a nutshell for me.

Vinny

eaglefly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Spiritual to me is a feeling of peace and
> connection to the universe.
>
> How can you connect more than to take into your
> body live living elements from the ground of the
> Earth.
>
> Thats it in a nutshell for me.
>
> Vinny

I agree with you Vinny.
Its the disconnection to our universe that fuels disharmony leading to disease.
If only more people could be introduced to the relationship between what they choose as fuel for their body and the effect that has on mind body and spirit.
The journey is experiential. It can not be reached from the place of the mind and thinking, but rather experienced from the heart and by doing.


pborst
Raw helps me connect to and stay present. Staying present helps me choose raw.
The one serves the other.
Eating a raw diet transformed my life into a type of wakeful meditation.
A life of calm and inner peace.
The same old daily hurdles crop up and the really difficult stuff still occurs, but I place little importance on that stuff anymore. I wont allow it to get 'under my skin' anymore. I simply choose to allow these challenges to deepen my connection instead.

ffx

The Fruit Faery Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
...
>
> pborst
> Raw helps me connect to and stay present. Staying
> present helps me choose raw.
> The one serves the other.
> Eating a raw diet transformed my life into a type
> of wakeful meditation.
> A life of calm and inner peace.
> The same old daily hurdles crop up and the really
> difficult stuff still occurs, but I place little
> importance on that stuff anymore. I wont allow it
> to get 'under my skin' anymore. I simply choose to
> allow these challenges to deepen my connection
> instead.
>
> ffx

So the combination of spiritual practice and eating a raw diet help to reinforce each other for you, sort of a synergy (1+1=3) making you more resilient and less susceptable to life's little headaches, or maybe some of the big ones? lol
Thanks for sharing.

Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2010 05:51PM by pborst.

pborst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So the combination of spiritual practice and
> eating a raw diet help to reinforce each other for
> you, sort of a synergy (1+1=3) making you more
> resilient and less susceptable to life's little
> headaches, or maybe some of the big ones? lol
> Thanks for sharing.
>
> Paul
Hi Paul
Yes synergy!
Im an energy worker/ natural healer/ shamen.
This is why my connection to nature and playing with synergy is so important to me.

I have been experimenting with raw for 6 years. I have tried various approaches. I find that high fruit, low fat suits me best. I like to juice regularly too. This way of eating provides me with the deepest level of connection that I have so far managed to experience.

My brother died a couple of years ago. I reacted by comfort eating cooked foods alongside my family.
Everything spiraled out of control for me for a while. health problems returned relatively quickly. Life became very tricky.
I managed to take control, cut out the cooked and returned to Raw. I can only describe the experience as 'becoming whole' again. My energy was no longer scattered.

Initially I dealt with my brother's death and my family's grieving by comfort eating cooked. However, the deep connection with both nature and 'the now' previously made whilst eating raw was actually stronger. It was an amazing experience returning to raw and the present moment.
This is how I know and understand how for me, the one serves the other.
ffx

spirituality and food patterns- talk about something doctors never want to hear about....

i've been at least 85% raw for almost 7 years now (wow, i had to check my hands, i can't believe it's been that long) and have had 3 children along the journey. my husband leads prayer retreats, and for the first 2 retreats, someone else ran the kitchen (and i had my own private room). after 2 years of people being physically ill while trying to have spiritual growth really bothered me and i took over the kitchen. while the kitchen is not 100% raw vegan, it is 100% organic vegan with soaked grains and legumes and raw options at every meal (raw hummus was a hit). we also had a raw smoothie station set up for those who sought a cleaner diet. And what we noticed immediately was that people's spiritual growth skyrocketed. by offering food that were healing to their bodies, but that could be balanced so that extreme detox wasn't causing discomfort, there were amazing healings, opening up of their souls, and a shift in everyone's life from the experience.

my husband is completely raw vegan for 1/4 of the year (more intentionally than the rest of the year where he's not so stringent), and after this last detox informed me that he doesn't want to 'retox' and is ready to feel this good for a long time. that's a huge shift that has lots of consequences for my family and our life. part of our dream is a house of prayer with a sustainable (biodynamic) farm and a lifestyle around sustainability. as people pray and communicate together in our community, they've also started incorporating raw foods and seasons of veganism into their lives.

it's a journey that we are so very glad we're on, and have enjoyed all the way. body, soul, mind and spirit are all unified if we can allow that those great thinkers who chose to divide them are totally wrong. i believe it is a false theory that led to the last century of unhealthiness and destruction. there is a new spirituality that is rising up along with the rise of health awareness and raw foods. it's very exciting. the saddest thing for me is as a parent i interact with many other parents, none of which have the slightest clue as to real health. mothers really don't understand nutrition, and the children are suffering. i can't convert them all to a wholistic raw balanced diet, but it breaks my heart.

peace-

Live living greens.And fruit.

Dead meat,dairy,grains.

Two totally opposing realms.

Where do I think Spirit has the best chance of living and experiencing itself?

The first one.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2010 02:51AM by eaglefly.

mama Cass that was beautiful

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I came into living foods purely from a spiritual place, and it was from a lot of meditation with the use of psychedelic plants, such as psilocybin mushrooms. I was coming out of a period of addiction and insomnia- rooted in caffeine and sugar- and using psychedelics gave me the biggest-picture perspective that I needed and gently opened my third eye. With my third eye open I saw the truth for what it is, which is raw food. I took it from there... not without mistakes and trial and error, of course, and much evolution still to take place, but I'm eternally grateful for what I did.
Some may say we don't need consciousness-raising plants to tap into the most divine spiritual places, but I would disagree and suggest that that's what they're here for, and perhaps you haven't been there, as it were, because it's a place that simple meditation can't take one to.
Anyway, I think the food/consciousness is what it's all about, in a sense. If we get that aspect right, our bodies will naturally heal, because it's all wholistic.

I don't know how popular this is going to be, but I am a Christian. My church, Christian "Orthodox" (I don' think that is the right name) follows old traditions from the early days of Christianity. The fasting which is required for all church members allows no meat, dairy or eggs, only non-animal food is approved. Big fasts are three times a year (40 days each time) and at least two days a week, every week. So, average Christian will not eat meat, dairy and eggs for at least half of the year. I believe this tradition has to do with some old knowledge that this was the healthy way to live, and connect to the Higher Power.

I have experienced significant changes after switching to raw food. Regular fasting periods have always been rewarding, but as I was allowed to eat bread and other processed foods, I have not accomplished too much regarding my overall health. Having prior fasting experience helped me switch to raw foods easily. It is actually much easier to eat raw vegan than classic vegan - one feels much better, I don't feel like I am sacrificing anything.

Still, I think that important role of the church tradition was to keep this knowledge of fasting intact. It did a good job.

And to answer your question directly: It is hard to be spiritual while on gluten, caffeine, animal products and other heavy food. I feel lighter now, my thoughts are clearer, and I don't get nervous easily. It is easier to focus on spiritual now.

But, I am at early stages, still learning, so cannot speak much.

Rab,

I just wanted to thank you for your thoughtful response. The importance of the Church to you in your life is obviously central to your spiritual journey. And I appreciate your sharing your experience. I found your second post particularly enlightening as it mirrors my own. I'm better able be in the present moment when I haven't filled up on even raw vegan foods but left a little room. The Okinawans call it Hari hachi bu. Eat 7/8ths of the plate but leave a little bit of room. I'm learning that leaving a little space in the stomach helps prayer, meditation and spiritual practice in general. Again, I appreciate your contribution.

Paul