Q: Has the body any value to the Self?
M: Yes, it is through the body's help that the Self is realized.
Q: What about diet?
M: Food afFects the mind. The right food makes it more g sattvic. For the practice of any kind of yoga, vegetarianism is absolutely necessary.
Q: What about those not accustomed to a vegetarian diet?
M: Habit is only adjustment to the environment. It is the mind that matters. The fact is that the mind as been trained to think certain foods tasty. Nourishment may be obtained from vegetarian food no less than from flesh. But the realized person's mind is not influenced by the food eaten. However, get accustomed to vegetarianism gradually.
Q: But if it is a matter of non-killing, then even plants have life.
M: And so do the tiles which you are sitting on!
Q: Could one receive spiritual illumination while eating meat?
M: Yes, but abandon it gradually and accustom yourself to sattfyic food. Once you have attained illumination, what you eat will make less difference, just as on a great fire it is immaterial what fuel is added.
Conscious Immortality
M: Yes, it is through the body's help that the Self is realized.
Q: What about diet?
M: Food afFects the mind. The right food makes it more g sattvic. For the practice of any kind of yoga, vegetarianism is absolutely necessary.
Q: What about those not accustomed to a vegetarian diet?
M: Habit is only adjustment to the environment. It is the mind that matters. The fact is that the mind as been trained to think certain foods tasty. Nourishment may be obtained from vegetarian food no less than from flesh. But the realized person's mind is not influenced by the food eaten. However, get accustomed to vegetarianism gradually.
Q: But if it is a matter of non-killing, then even plants have life.
M: And so do the tiles which you are sitting on!
Q: Could one receive spiritual illumination while eating meat?
M: Yes, but abandon it gradually and accustom yourself to sattfyic food. Once you have attained illumination, what you eat will make less difference, just as on a great fire it is immaterial what fuel is added.
Conscious Immortality
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