I Do Not Pledge Allegiance

I do not pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

I pledge allegiance to the people of all countries, to every being with consciousness, and to the earth upon which each one of us is ultimately dependant.

Religion, race, species, and country separate us because groups may have different goal.

But every individual has similar needs. We are all brothers and sisters in our need for love and happiness. Our separation is an illusion.

Remember that everything works in a feedback loop. To feel love and happiness and acceptance for others only makes it easier to feel happy emotions in our own life.

Peace out, guys! (:

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When I Die,

I don't want to be embalmed! I don't want to be cremated!

I want to be dumped right back into the ground, where my energy and my matter can rejoin the earth...and the unverse!

I don't want my energy to be used up in a silly, human-induced fire! And NO horrible chemicals in me, please.

Why would somebody want their physical human form to last forever (thousands of years..), seperate from the rest of...everything? That doesn't sound peaceful. I don't want to extend my ego while I'm alive - much less, it doesn't need to be encouraged when I'm dead! I realize I am nothing but a small part if the universe.

But it is not and never has been me against the universe. It is not me and the universe. I AM the universe.

And when this is realized, death becomes so much more than the end of my consciousness.

And after I am dead, I wish for my physical form to rejoin the incredible, ever-changing, ever-moving infinity that is the universe. Disperse my atoms, let my energy go to a thousand different places. May the matter that makes me one day be a bird. A hundred plants. New, beautiful people. And eventually, cosmic dust. Meteors. Stars. Planets. Life forms so far away that the human race will never be able to reach them.

That sounds so much better than sitting in a box in the ground, stuffed full of chemicals. Don't you think so?

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The Teaching Of Buddha

❝Buddha first taught himself to avoid the sin of killing any living creature, he wished that all people might know the blessedness of a long life.

Buddha trained himself to avoid the sin of stealing, he wished that all people might have everything they needed.

Buddha trained himself to avoid ever committing adultery, he wished that all people might know the blessedness of a pure spirit and not suffer from insatiable desires.

Buddha, aiming at his ideal, trained himself to remain free from all deception, he wished all people to know the tranquility of mind that would follow in speaking the truth.

He trained himself to avoid double-talk; he wished that all people might know the joy of fellowship.

He trained himself to avoid abusing others, and then he wished that all might have the same serene mind that would follow by living in peace with others.

He kept himself free of idle talk, and then wished that all might know the blessedness of sympathetic understanding.

Buddha, aiming at his ideal, trained himself to keep free from greed, and by this virtuous deed he wished that all people might know the peacefulness that would go with this freedom.

He trained himself to avoid anger, and he wished that all people might love one another...❞ 

I love this excerpt from "The Teaching Of Buddha." I think it's a great reminder that if we see something wrong with the world, change yourself accordingly, and then you will become part of the solution. Like Gandhi's quote, "be the change you want to see in the world."

Karma Always Wins.

Literally or hypothetically, I believe in karma. I know some people don't; I could go into a flurry of reasons explaining why I do (and, come to think of it, I might in a later post), but today I want to focus on karma and the food we eat. It all makes so much sense.

First, we all know somebody who eats a standard American diet. This person is eating animals that were imprisoned and miserable their whole lives, and then finally tortured (burned to death in boiling water, necks slit while they're still alive and conscious...read the book Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz) as their lives were ended. This person is almost inevitably going to be obese at some point in their life. They have endless health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, high blood pressure, fatigue... the list goes on. Score one for karma.

Now lets take a look at a vegetarian. Generally, this person eats no meat products - although some eat fish and chicken. They also still eat eggs and milk. A vegetarian's risk of obesity and/or most chronic diseases is generally significantly lower, but problems are obviously not rare. In addition, vegetarians still have problems with everyday illnesses like flus and colds.

Next, I shall speak of vegans and raw vegans. I'd say they're both about the same, ethically - so I am grouping them together. Vegans eat no animal products. This means that they are not contributing to the slavery and cruelty that is the egg and dairy industry. Unsurprisingly, their health tends to correlate with their compassion. Vegans generally do not experience problems like anger issues or depression as these are often caused by hormones in animal products. Their chance of heart disease is a whopping 46% lower than that of a meat eater, and a vegan is far less likely to become obese in their lifetime. In addition, they don't have the weight of 600+ lives weighing down on their shoulders. That's big.

Believe it or not, it can get even better. A true fruitarian takes no lives. Plants or animals. It is the epitome of a compassionate diet. What is fruitarianism like? There's so much to tell. So much energy. I sleep well at night. I'm almost never sick. No BO. Amazing capacity to feel and cope with emotions. Good mood. Constant, simple appreciation for everything. Excellent hydration, normally without drinking water. Clean, smooth, comfortable digestion.... I'm serious, I could go on for days, but you're not going to understand the real, simple, natural beauty that the diet really is until you've experienced it. And I want so badly to be able to share the experience with the world. Maybe that will never happen... But I can at least share it with you, and in turn, maybe you will inspire somebody close to you to share it with you...

Religion. Christianity?

Everybody talks about it, everybody has heard of it, everybody has their own opinions about it, their own views. It's kind of a crazy phenomenon. It's a wonderful thing, but somehow we manage to make it bad, evil, so easily. This is going to be a difficult post to tie together, because there are so many different aspects, so many different ways to look at religion, so many different things out there to be discussed, I couldn't possibly get across every one of my beliefs in this one post. But I'm sure as heck gonna try.

At its core, I love everything about the majority of religions. Love thy neighbor. Don't kill. Give to the poor. Don't let yourself be roped into believing your worth is in your possessions. It's wonderful, and the majority of them provide an excellent moral code.

I feel that the flaw with so many religions comes in the fact that it becomes so much about the religion. The physicality of it all. The way you worship. I don't think that is what religion is about. The flaws are in the ways people use their religion as an excuse to discriminate, or hate, do harm, or take part in impure actions.

As far as my religion, I dont know. I can't answer whether I even believe in a 'god': In my humble opinion, god is not a man in the sky, who judges people when they die, and sends them to heaven or hell. He is the manifestation, of the abstract idea of love, compassion, caring, reasoning, thinking, that our brains are capable of. Our conscience, our consciousness, our subconscious. Essentially, I believe that 'God'/gods are an abstract idea made physical, and therefore simplified and made easier to understand. If that makes sense.

I think that a lot of the things in Christianity are just abstract things that everybody experiences and goes through, made physical. The devil? Obviously, the constant struggle people go through with that animal part of their brain. The one that worries about only itself. Deamons? Negative thoughts, feelings, and experiences people deal with. Jealousy. Confusion. Hopelessness. Angels? Those things that keep you hanging on. The things that give you hope. Seeing somebody help a little old lady across the road. Seeing an old couple holding hands or sitting together on a bench. Sunsets.

Heaven and Hell? Picture this. You are dying. You look back on your life, just before you pass away. It was a good life, you're happy with it. Your last thought is a good one. Your last thought. I can't say I know for sure, but I think it would feel eternal. It would be the last thing you thought of. The last thing that went through your mind. It wouldn't end, because nothing else would begin... You know? I don't know how to explain it. So I hope that makes sense. Now picture yourself looking back at a miserable life. Riddled with regret. Why did you walk out on your highschool girlfriend after getting her pregnant? What does your child look like? You never even saw him. Your last words to your mother were "Go fuck yourself," more than 6 years ago now. You're last thoughts, last emotions, would be misery, sadness, remorse. The last thing you experience. Hell.

I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe theres a man who plans out every little twist of our lives before we're born. Maybe the constant contradictions in Christianity is part of the magic. Maybe there's a scary red man with a pitchfork and a tail waiting to torture you for being bad in the center of the earth. I personally think it sort of sounds like a fairy tale, but if it's going to lead you to be a good, content, happy person, then, no matter how silly it sounds to me, I think that there is nothing better than believing in everything Christianity or Judaism (and/or Islam? I dunno.) has to offer. The thing that's scary and sad for me is the idea that there are people that are scared into it. Scared into submiting to a belief, essentially, that very well might not be right for them. "Accept Jesus as your savior so you don't go to Hell!" Y'know? But to each their own. I guess theres nothing I can do about it. Haha.

Christianity isn't the only religion, I know. But it's the general religion of the community I was raised in, so I've had ample opportunities to learn about it, and time to form opinions on it, decide on my beliefs.

I've actually done a lot of reading on Buddhism too, I really like the sound of it, though, as with probably just about every religion, there are certainly some aspects that I don't entirely buy into or agree with.

So am I religious? Well, I don't know how to answer that one. It depends entirely upon how you define religion. Faith? I have plenty of that. Faith in love, faith in goodness, faith that there is always hope. There is always reason for hope. No matter how miserable and dismal and impossible somethign might seem, and it seems like there is nothing to believe in, there is always hope. No matter how painful it might be, no matter how hard it is to always hope for the best, and know things will get better... It is the only way. I understand that. Can this be defined as religion? Maybe, maybe not. But that's my religion. My religion is hope, my religion is faith, my religion is knowing wretched, hopeless things can always be beautiful. Just look through different eyes. Look with love. Look with hope.

Fruitarianism & Religion

I'm going to precede this post with the statement that I don't know a lot about a lot of religions and belief systems. However, I do know something about a few - and of you really look, they all seem to point to fruit being the best and purest of foods for humans to eat.

Seeing as I was raised in a Christian community, in a semi-Christian home, and it's really a pretty simple concept, I'll adress this first: People of the Christian and Jewish faith (and maybe even Islam? I don't know) believe in the Garden of Eden. From what I understand of it, in this Garden of Eden, nothing harmed anything else. Essentially everything was perfect. What did they eat in the Garden of Eden? Fruit. They had to, to have been living truly in harmony with everything else, and not harming anything else. Therefore, the Christian and Jewish Bible (and perhaps Muslim Qu'ran) seem to illustrate fruit as being the first, natural, purest, and ideal food for..well, everything.

Buddhism, too, seems to advocate a fruitarian diet, perhaps even more clearly than Christianity.

8. "'Having abandoned the destruction of life, the recluse Gotama abstains from the destruction of life. He has laid aside the rod and the sword, and dwells conscientious, full of kindness, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings.' It is in this way, bhikkhus, that the worldling would speak when speaking in praise of the Tathāgata.

11. "Or he might say: 'Whereas some honorable recluses and brahmins, while living on food offered by the faithful, continuously cause damage to seed and plant life — to plants propagated from roots, stems, joints, buddings, and seeds — the recluse Gotama abstains from damaging seed and plant life."

These are two small excerpts from the 'Digha Nikkaya,' one of many Buddhist religious readings, which I feel speak for themselves. Enough said.

The last religion I want to touch on is Hinduism, seeing as it is the..3rd (I believe?) most popular religion in the world. Admittedly, I don't know a heck of a lot about this religion. All I do know is that Ghandi, who was pretty much an amazing guy and an exemplatory Hindu, aspired to be fruitarian. He did follow a fruitarian diet for a while, but I have heard that he was somewhat addicted to goat cheese or something, so he had some trouble with that. Nevertheless, his intentions were clear. I suppose perhaps his wish to eat this way had nothing to do with his faith..but I doubt it; I assume he made the decision based on principles that he learned growing up Hindu, meaning that such principals are indeed ingrained in the Hindu faith.

One last thing I want to point out, is that it's not just religion that suggests we ought to be fruit eaters. Most of us believe in evolution. Most of us believe that we evolved from apes, or some sort of monkey like species of the like; I don't know specifics. But I do know that generally, unless I am severly mistaken, animals in this family are frugivores. If we evolved from these frugivores, it is not such a huge leap of faith to realize that - hey. Perhaps we are designed to be frugivores as well.

How many different ways to we need to be told, how clear does it need to be for us before we realize that we aren't supposed to be ripping flesh like wild cats, nibbling grains like birds, or munching herbaceous matter like cows? We are frugivores. We are designed and meant to eat fruit. Forget what the doctor, who won't have a job when you are perfectly healthy, told you. Nevermind that biased experiment funded by the meat and dairy industries, and listen to me; a person who has nothing to gain, but the satisfaction of knowing that I helped a fellow human realize a simple, essential truth: We are frugivores. Eat fruit, be healthy, be happy.

☺