Food is not just food || Acharya Prashant, on veganism (2017)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ~~~~~~~   Video Information: An interview with Kip Andersen, 29.03.2017, Advait Bodhsthal, Noida, India   Context:  ~ Which food should we take? ~ How to know, which food is eatable? ~ How to understand the veganism? ~ Would bringing the focus to our diet change anything? ~ What is the corelation between food and climate?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00In a sense, it's like premonition or prophecy or anything, I don't know, in the scriptures

00:29or even with yourself, do you see us heading in a direction towards this perfection, completion,

00:38along with our diet and what not?

00:41I'm seeing that, I'm seeing that, I'm seeing that.

00:43You see, it is not for nothing that the Buddhas of this world have been speaking, walking,

01:08striving.

01:11On one hand is the wave of the intellect, productionism, consumerism.

01:27On the other hand is also the entire stream of mystics, saints, people who respond to

01:42the call of the heart.

01:49If you look at the last few centuries, even the declaration of rights of man came just

02:03300 years back, then came the declaration of rights of slaves, and in the last century

02:16came the declaration of rights of women.

02:26I'm seeing that in the current century, we will see a very clear declaration of a new

02:37relationship between man and environment.

02:44Climate change will catalyze that new relationship, the threat of climate change.

02:57In a superficial way, it will be called as an acceptance of the right of animals to live.

03:07Just as last century saw man accepting the rights of women to vote, you will soon see

03:22a broad consensus emerging on the right of all species to live and survive in their own

03:31particular way, whether or not that way is agreeable to man.

03:36That will happen, that has to happen.

03:40That has to happen for mankind's dignity and mankind's survival.

03:49Mankind cannot survive even in a physical way, and I'm just talking about the self-interest

03:53of mankind.

03:54Mankind cannot survive in the physical way if mankind does not know how to relate with

04:06stuff outside of his own body.

04:12It would be simply calamitous.

04:16So those who will understand will live out of understanding and hence live in a harmonious

04:29way, in a way of love, and those who will not understand will be compelled because

04:37of their own self-interest to live harmoniously, otherwise their physical survival will be

04:44threatened.

04:45So both ways, both ways it is going to be very fresh and very new.

04:55If you really understand what it means to love a jungle, wonderful.

05:06And even if you do not know what it means to love a jungle, you still better respect

05:13the jungle, otherwise you will be eliminated.

05:20That is going to happen.

05:23After men, slaves, women, homosexuals, transgenders, now it's the turn of animals to assert their

05:39rights in their own way.

05:41They will, they are, they are doing that already.

05:47It does feel like in just even the past few years that it's happening, right, I've been

05:58doing this for 10 years or so, just in the past few years, does it feel like that to

06:03you or just things are happening faster now and like you said these progressions?

06:09Yes of course, things are happening faster now.

06:11You see, when I look around, even in this gathering, there are these 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

06:196, 7 of us are males and each one of us is carrying a beard.

06:24Do you know what the beard implies?

06:27The beard indicates our animal nature.

06:30So mankind is more readily accepting its animal nature, we are not as suppressive of ourselves

06:37as we used to be.

06:40Have you not seen this?

06:42Have you just noticed the proportion of men sporting beards these days?

06:48And it's, I hope, just not a passing fad.

06:53This means that I'm all right with my hair and the hair indicates the animal.

06:59I'm all right with my hair, I don't really have to shave it all off.

07:03The razor is society, the razor is the intellect, the razor is the intellect.

07:11Man is becoming more comfortable with his own skin and in his own skin.

07:19Man is seeing that to be a man is to have God in the heart and the soil in the body.

07:40One has to be very comfortable with the soil, very, very comfortable.

07:45And the soil has all the animals, the soil has all the jungles.

07:49If you are not comfortable with the animals and the jungle, you will never be comfortable

07:55with yourself.

07:56Bearded, you are likely to be less afraid of the dog, believe me.

08:11Have you seen how most people are so suspicious even of street dogs?

08:23Those who are suspicious and afraid even of a little puppy or a cow, to them I say, keep

08:39your beards.

08:42The beard is not merely facial hair, it is more than that, it is more than that.

08:54That does not mean that I'm a beardist or something, it's just that I saw all of us

09:03having this, so I found it apt to use the beard as a symbol, as an example.

09:13It is changing, it is obviously changing.

09:17You see, whatever technology had to offer, a lot of that it has already offered.

09:25You look at physics, physics is reaching its boundary.

09:32Man was living in hope, in utopia, that the solution to the internal discomfort will come

09:42from outside, from science, from technology, from objects, from material.

09:46It has not arrived from there.

09:49So that hope has been shattered.

09:52The expectations that we had from the machine have not been answered.

09:59The machine has failed.

10:00The machine did what it could and the machine has been useful, but the machine has not given

10:06to us what we really wanted from the machine.

10:09Knowledge and science have not really given us what we really wanted from them.

10:14Internally man is still hungry, internally man feels still an alien and dispossessed.

10:24If you look into man's eyes, they are still searching, rootless, wandering.

10:32Man is still looking for his anchor, for his source.

10:40So man will have to necessarily look into some other direction.

10:52Inside all the directions have been exhausted.

10:55So now only one direction is left, inside.

11:00Man will have to look inside and when you look inside, you will find there is a little

11:04rabbit there, an elephant there, a whale there, some fish there, lots of trees there, all

11:11these birds there.

11:12It will be difficult for you then to have them for breakfast.

11:18What would it be like then consuming your own liver for breakfast?

11:22How sane is that?

11:24Well, I think it's awesome, is there any final things you'd like to share?

11:45There is no need to suffer, there is just no need to suffer.

11:53Most of that which we do arises out of the suffering principle, the principle that suffering

12:05is obligatory.

12:11It is the easiest thing to see, but also the most difficult thing to communicate.

12:18It is not necessary to suffer.

12:21The moment you know that it is not necessary for you to suffer, you also stop living in

12:29a way that makes others suffer.

12:33The moment you know that your own life can be alright is also the moment when you stop

12:50messing with others' lives, stop suffering and you would also then stop being an agent

12:59of suffering.

13:03Withdraw from the support that you give to your own suffering, withdraw the support that

13:11you give to your own suffering and you will find now there is no motivation left to make

13:19others suffer.

13:22That must be obvious.

13:23The more you suffer, the more you want to make others suffer.

13:26Don't suffer, don't suffer, all suffering is totally needless.

13:33Suffering itself is sin, don't suffer.

13:39See the squirrel agrees with us.

13:43He gave us a tails up just now.

13:51Don't suffer, don't suffer, don't suffer.

13:57All suffering is totally foolish.

14:01One is not born to suffer.

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