The more we ignore something, the more power it has over us and the more it influences us. When we take a clear look at the food produced using modern methods and what we have to accept, we find misery, cruelty and exploitation. That is why we avoid looking deeply into our food if it is of animal origin and continue to float in this great river in Egypt (de Nial).
This practice of avoidance and denial applied to food automatically carries over into our entire private and public lives. Deep down we know we can’t look deep anywhere. When we do this, we must take a hard look at the enormous suffering that our eating habits directly cause.
So we learn to remain superficial and willingly blind to the connections we see. Otherwise, our regrets and guilt would be too painful to bear. Therefore, we choose to ignore the pain and suffering that our diet causes and remain ignorant and inattentive.
Because we are unwilling and unable to see, confront, and take responsibility for the hidden ocean of horror that we allow those as sentient and vulnerable as we are, we remain hardened and blinded by our choice. We choose to be blind when we purchase, prepare, and eat the flesh of other living beings. By becoming desensitized to the pain we inflict daily on defenseless animals, we also become desensitized to the beauty of creation that we suppress and disconnect from at every meal.
The desensitization of millions of children and adults to the extent required by the daily consumption of millions of tortured animals sows countless seeds of human violence, war, poverty and despair. These consequences are inevitable because we can never reap peace, joy and freedom for ourselves while sowing the seeds that lead to us hurting and enslaving others.
We may speak of love, kindness, freedom and a gentler world, but it is our actions, particularly those we habitually practice, that determine what future outcomes we and others will experience. The cycles of violence that terrorize people both throughout history and today have their roots in the violence of our daily meals. Although animals cannot retaliate like other humans, our violence against them retaliates in the form of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, constipation, and more.
By imprisoning and killing animals for food, we have brought violence into our bodies and minds. Our meals require us to eat like predators and see ourselves as such. We nurture and justify predatory behaviors and institutions that are antithetical to the inclusiveness and kindness that come with true spiritual growth.
Because cruelty is inevitable in the confinement, mutilation, and slaughter of animals for food, we have been forced from childhood to be distracted and inattentive perpetrators of cruelty. As small children, we have no idea what “veal,” “turkey,” “egg,” “fish,” or “beef” actually is or where they come from. We don’t know what terror descends on helpless creatures to create the readily available concoctions spooned into our little teething mouths and developing consciousnesses.
Over time, we accept this indoctrination of denial and cruelty as normal and our meals become rituals of distraction and repressed sensitivity and guilt. The price we pay is the weakening of our innate intelligence and compassion.
Aloha!
Sources:
www.routledge.com
www.psychologytoday.com
The article For some, ignorance is a “blessing”. appeared first on NaturalNewsBlogs.