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THE FIRST STEP - BECOMING VEGETARIAN

It was a time when the most read bible was "The Whole Earth catalog"; J.I.Rodale's "Organic Gardening & Farming" promoted chemical-free farming and an awareness that everything's connected to everything else; communes began to flourish and soy became "tofu"; "Mother Earth News" raised our consciousness about ecological processes and the consequences of napalm and Agent Orange; Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", "Diet for a Small Planet", and "Small is Beautiful" were becoming best-sellers; vegetarians became aware of "vegans" and they both embraced "Ahimsa".

The year was 1975.

 My wife got us into becoming ovo-lacto vegetarians. At that time I thought it would be a healthy thing to do. Soon after I remembered about a report I did in high school about a white doctor volunteering his services in French Equatorial Africa. He built a hospital in Lambarene. He coined the term "Reverence for Life". His name was Albert Schweitzer.My diet now became instead an awareness, a philosophy,...practically a religion. It's not the food so much. It is the ethics. It is my ethics.The old Sanskrit term, Ahimsa, translates into "dynamic harmlessness", or "extreme harmlessness". Schweitzer, walking through the jungles there, avoided stepping on ants. I just can't say that I can judge which life is important and which should be snuffed out.

Perhaps these are reasons to do it; to know exactly who you are, where you are going, and what is your purpose in life?
But can we go from total unawareness to full consciousness this way. Is it possible?
Okay, I think you can. But first, you must create your own desert. The desert of the mind, isolated from the sprawl of other minds. This requires to live differently. To be your purpose, to be your message...to proclaim your message!
Of course, what I'm getting at is the "vegan message". Having it heard is a constant struggle against the current tide of the times, culture and society we live in today. Let's face it, you won't see vegan Boca burgers being advertised during the Super Bowl!
So what does it mean to live in this desert? Like it or not, it isn't always comfortable having to remind people to respect animal life. You will be labeled counter-cultural, standing up against society, risking peace for a bout of arguing.
Tell me, why in the world must eating a plant be soooo much in need of defense overeating some chicken's knuckle, or pigs tongue?
All we ask is a life based on good conduct and reason. Yes, reason. C'mon...reasonable living already. Healthy living.
How far into the desert must we go to get away from the atrocities?
As Tolstoy says in his 1885 treatise called, My Religion:
"This life you can use by living in conformity to reason, or you can waste it by living in opposition to reason..."
I think it still holds true today.
I want more people to think about going vegan. It's not that hard. Really. I mean, ice skating is harder you know.
Join me. Join the many.
You are NOT incapable of reason!

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LEAPING INTO VEGANISM

"Non-violence resonates so much more profoundly

with the human soul." Sri Daya Mata

 I had stumbled upon a short video clip narrated by Alec Baldwin. It was PETA footage taken in a slaughterhouse. At the end, I hear him say, "If you drink milk you are still supporting the production of veal."
So, really, there it is. Thanks to the accidental discovery of the Baldwin/PETA video, I decided I was fed up being only a vegetarian and therefore a hypocrite to myself. I only wish I would've made the transformation sooner, as I find out now that vegans are a lot cooler than the breed I saw roaming the vegetarian summerfests in 1975!...
...and, hey, I can actually buy Vegan Multi-vitamins and soy yogurt! How great is that?!

When Eric Prescott and crew were at my home studio

 taping my profile for his documentary, I'm Vegan,

it became evident that Eric was intrigued

by my proclamation

that I was "still evolving."
"Still evolving into what" he wanted to know.
I feel the answer is well defined by the

President of the Self-Realization Fellowship,

Sri Daya Mata, from the little book, Sayings of Yogananda:
"...the purpose of life is the evolution, through self-effort, of man's limited mortal consciousness into God Consciousness..."