In July of 2008 I will have been a vegetarian for 20 years.

As I come to this milestone anniversary, I consider my original intentions and relay some of my experience. In many ways I am not the same person I was 20 years ago, yet I have remained vegetarian all the while. I am constantly asked why I am vegetarian so I thought I would write it down.

Becoming a vegetarian was not due to a concise decision to stop eating meat as much as it was a natural step on my path toward enlightenment. How could the product of a passing spiritual phase have withstood 20 years living in a carnivorous society?

I was raised in a wholesome environment that offered regular exposure to country living, including hunting and farm-raising various animals for food. I grew up with the experiences of shearing sheep, milking cows, collecting eggs and even the slaughter of pigs and cattle we considered our pets. I’m cool with the lifestyle yet I’ve made a distinction between the Animal and the Plant kingdom for my personal diet for twenty years.

I was born a ‘spiritual’ person. I was raised following a religion and even became an ordained reverend ~ lol, no kidding! After leaving home, I diligently studied philosophy, theosophy and religion. By the time I was 20 years old, I was actively pursuing various forms of mental and physical yoga. I had moved to California and was living in the land of open-minded people and the land of fresh produce! Each day was a spiritual experience which I can remember to some degree but today I am far from the person I was back then.

My passionate studies of Chakras and the Human Energy system, including the practices of Kabbala, Raja, Hatha and Kundalini yoga, led to a expanded awareness which accepted a vibrational value to all matter, including thought. Yes, at times I had an awareness of the vibrational qualities of all things including ‘things’ such as negative thinking. I was very in touch with myself and made an effort to participate in actions which were free from negativity.

My original reason for becoming a vegetarian was to avoid the negativity involved with consuming the denser vibrations associated with eating animals. It isn’t solely the meat that is the source of the negativity. There are several heavy vibrations involved with the eating of meat, including the thought that in the final moments before slaughter adrenaline races through our soon-to-be food and we end up ingesting fear. “You are what you eat.”

The rate of nearly one million confined, genetically selected, antibiotic-stuffed chickens killed per hour seems like gross exploitation to me.

Cattle ranching a rainforest in South America potentially depriving humanity of untold cures from plant medicine as well as destroying earth’s most precious assets seems unnecessary to me.

Fast-food corporations doing whatever they can to lower standards and raise profits had just gone so far beyond my childhood experiences of gathering a supply of meat that I could no longer participate.

The reason I’ve given for the past 20 years is, I choose not to participate.
I do not eat animals nor lend my resources to the industry.

I am not evangelical about my own behavior. I don’t care what you do.
Sure I have a leather belt and many shoes made from hide. I eat eggs and drink milk, sometimes from farmers who automate and unfavorably manipulate their cows but if you think about the results of my behavior for the last twenty years, I think we can safely estimate I have not eaten:

5 duck, quail and pheasant
10 deer, elk and bison
30 cows
75 pigs, sheep and goats
500 fish
1000 chickens, geese and turkey
3000 shrimp, shellfish and crustaceans. (mMmm, lobster in butter…delicious)

When I imagine all of these animals in one place, I am rewarded with a sense of happiness which I do not consider when making my choice to continue being a vegetarian. The fact is, I have made a difference. Like I’ve said, it is a personal choice. I really don’t care what goes on around me. I have chosen not to participate for my own benefit and there is a positive benefit to the animals and the earth as a result. In this aspect I make less of a carbon footprint.

There are so many “conversations” to continue writing about being a vegetarian for 20 years but I will end this entry now with a mantra: To my honorable teacher, I give reverence ~ Om Sri Gurubhyam Namahas.

Nature is my church.

(Wow Nadiana, you’ve struck your first chord with me. I guessed this website would be an interesting project. Now I break my rules on talking about politics and reply.)

You may find it interesting that the word “Tibet” is likely derived from an Arabic word which means “the heights”. Tibet is often referred to as the “Roof of the World.”

As far as earning their right to independence through war; I know that in 1949 a Chinese army twenty times larger than Tibet’s forced them into signing an agreement but Tibet is not China.

The Tibetan language split from Chinese over 6,000 years ago.
Tibet and China signed a peace treaty around 1,200 years ago and remained a Central Asian empire for a thousand years. It probably wasn’t until the British invaded Tibet in early 1900′s that things really got messed up and allowed China authorities suzerainty over the internally autonomous state!
The last one hundred years has seen intense dispute regarding Tibet.
If I remember correctly it was about the same time in history that what is now named Malaysia was calling on the British for strength to unify into states who later had the Japanese to thank for invading and shaking off the consequential British control just enough so they could claim Independence.
Who’s going to help Tibet today, India? (sorry, I don’t mean to joke.)

One in five people is a resident of China. That means collectively they have more human power than each country and could win without weapons, just by sitting on their enemy. They can walk all over you. That would be a ridiculous mess, all those people walking all over each country. Hmm.. isn’t that what’s happening anyway?

Always, fighting, fighting, fighting. Everybody likes to fight.

Should we, as observers, be questioning China’s intentions? Are they actively establishing equal rights and developing Tibet’s infrastructure. Are they developing communities with schools and hospitals and better conditions for all, while allowing unmitigated freedom to embrace Tibetan culture? This isn’t 1952 and I really doubt there is are any goodwill intentions.

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About Kim:

I am not a political person. I do not study politics and I do not like to discuss them. I am a spiritual person, much more than an intellectual. Matters of the Government are not my domain, although I do possess natural leadership abilities.

When I was younger my real spiritual development began with a walk into a bookstore in Philadelphia with no idea which book to choose. I bought my first ‘spiritual’ book on the subject of Chakras. That book on Chakras changed my life and I immediately departed on a new path of study. I moved to California and enrolled in San Francisco State University where I first studied the language Sanskrit. I began to read the oldest writings, attend spiritual gatherings, teachings, schools, temples… anything and anyone who could give me insight.

I don’t know where I am going with these thoughts, except to tell you that I never joined any particular faith, group or viewpoint. Many different practices I have learned. During my ‘spiritual’ enrichment some of the highlights are the few times that I was able to be in the presence of the Dalai Lhama. I have heared him speak and answer questions. I really like the way he talks. He is one of the most reasonable speakers in my experience and I appreciate his ability to intellectualize ideas mundane to monastic.

I will share with you something deeply personal and the only thing I can think of when I hear all this Tibet talk. Over the course of my years I have had plenty of opportunities when someone would be inclined to call out to a higher power.
Some people believe that angels protect them. Some people believe in reincarnation and past lives. I don’t know words to describe more than to say I have a “feeling” that someone watches over me. Every time I have really screwed up my life and I am desolate, miserable and depressed, I hear these three old friends laughing at me. I am not joking. The feeling comes to me that I have several friends sitting in the Himalayas watching me. I am here on my life.. for whatever reason that is… doing my time as part of our experiment here… and they are watching me. Times when I am destroyed by attachment to the world, like a broken heart, are very funny to these imaginary ‘ancients’. Anyway if I could describe them: I have always thought of them as Chinese and call them Mongolians. Since I’m revealing this really weird thought of mine I want to tell you that I don’t actively think of such characters nor have I engaged in conversations in my head with them. It is simply my belief as to who my angels are. Time passes and some solely observe.
I have climbed several tall mountains and every summit I reach is only a glimpse into my history and my spiritual world of Tibet.

Is it the Muslim in you that discredits the Tibetan Buddhists? What should they matter to me, raised Christian? I sometimes feel if I didn’t have a daughter, I might go to the Himalayas to live my life as a monk. I think the truth is kept secret in the highest mountains. Tibetans are keepers of “the heights”.

Theirs is not my battle, but I choose to honor and stand by Tibet. Free Tibet. It will allow China to focus on the 1.3 billion they already have. What’s another 3 million people to such a mass?

Here are other topics I want to talk about:

• One Child Policy.
• CIA in tibet 1972
• chakras
• plastic crap and other Chinese influence
• The 9th sultan of Kedah, Maharaja Derbar Raja
• Intentions of PRC

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