I doubt that we'd see him make a statement about that, but I believe he is a vegan, what with his statement about how when one is conscious of what is going into the body, one will choose to consume the best options. Personally, I would LOVE to find him shopping in a Whole Foods or such, and see what is in his cart at the end. While I believe I know, it would be great to have tangible evidence that the statement he made about eating consciously has been twisted around to suit the purposes of those who wish to continue to justify wearing their blinders for a while longer.

haven't seen Tolle at Whole Foods (wouldn't that be fun?), but I have seen him photographed quite a bit hanging out with Sarma Malengailis - the stunning vegan raw chef who owns Pure Food and Wine in NYC. We're going there for my b-day next month... maybe he'll be there, too! ha

I'm in the Pinellas side of the Tampa Bay area.

I am also happy to report that while my ancestors killed great whales, they also were instrumental in the operations of the Underground Railroad. What T'caya says about the collective pain body is what I believe Tolle tried to get across. Each of us has inherited the collective pain bodies of all who came before us. I personally experience this very profoundly when I am in Savannah. I love Savannah, feel that it should be my home. However, there is a massive amount of painful chi in those buildings on the waterfront where the slaves were brought in and up to be cleaned up before they were sold at the cotton exchange. I can feel it when I go down to the river, and I feel it in the railroad yard. I feel it very deeply in the area around the old hospital, where the bodies of those who succumbed to Yellow Fever epidemics were carted from out of the underground passages and buried in the woods outside the city limits. And I feel it very much in the hotel where I inevitably end up staying.... across from the bus station, half a mile from the waterfront. I believe, by acknowledging that there is pain body remnants, and accepting what has been along with what IS, that we help put that old pain to rest, causing it to diminish, if you will, by acknowledging its' presence. It's there, yes, I feel it, and I accept it as something that happened. I acknowledge it and let it go, to gain more space around it. Like that lady who had such an awakening, and then when ET went into the restaurant, the remnants of her pain body found the man in the wheelchair with whom the pain body could detect a compatible energy level. Does any of this make sense?

Oh, and tofu "bacon" is my new favorite food. ChefWalnut was talking about some of the things she made this week - I made a rockin' lasagne and stuffed peppers, and enough tofu "bacon" to sink a battleship. ; >

Okay, I'll bite (pun half intended)...how do you make tofu bacon? I've gotten some Smart Life "bacon" and don't like it much, too chewy for my toothless mouth. This sounds good.

One thing you might do, also Selah, is if you encounter anyone who's died in that area (and if you can't see 'em, you can often feel them), they may not realize they're dead. Send 'em to the light. They'll see it and be able to let go. Just tell them that it happened a long time ago and that they're dead now. Sometimes they don't know it, due to their own collective pain-body stuff.

That will also help.

Blessed Be!

Hi Selah,

Yes, it makes perfect sense and yesterday and today, I’m feeling a lot more of that pain-body stuff (missed my meditation this morning), being immersed in all this tax prep while it’s 76F and beautiful outside. Of course, thinking of some of my negative past doesn’t help either in the short run. Do you know when we moved to Alabama, when I was 12 yrs old my third cousin, the good ole boy that he was, gave me the name of Duncy…perhaps because coming from Virginia, I was a yankee (ha) to him and of course knew little about farm life??? Maybe it was just all that California blood in me??? Who can really know for sure. I might as well indulge all this pain-body stuff while I’m on a roll here, ha! Another reason I tend not to label people. At any rate, I’ve got the worst of these taxes done and will have to meet with the tax people this next week to finalize the rest.

Have you ever been to the Tower of London? That place is creepy to me, knowing all the history there with King Henry VIII and his creation of the Church of England and all the suffering and heads that rolled there when he went against the Catholic Church…Religion has been sooo used for bad things thru the decades. I think stuff like that as well, makes me remember some of my past negative religious up bring? I don’t think we ever really can forget it all…we just don't bring it to the surface that often.

Regards, Bill

I bet Eckhart is vegetarian like a lot of monks I've heard of are vegetarian. They don't go out and seek meat, but if for some reason it is put before them, they don't refuse it.

I appreciate your openmindedness on the topic.

I believe what folks have lost sight of is this: animals are not raised the way they were even 50 years ago. We now have created such a demand, and CAFO's are so profitable that the greed has fed the collective ego to the degree that we now have created GMO's ( genetically modified organisms) and other artificial methods of increasing the production of meat. Chickens have been bred to have a heavier breast and thigh because that is where the big money comes from - and that the chickens' legs break under the unnatural stress is of little consequence to those who don't have to personally view the suffering.

I've read accounts of those who work in the slaughterhouses, and one guy sounded much like what I imagine a serial killer might. He bragged about how he "amused" himself by torturing the pigs immediately before they were to be killed. I won't replay the account here, but I cannot get the images out of my head, they are that awful. It must virtually send someone around the bend to have to work in that environment and I believe they shut down to endure the horrific deeds they are required to perform as a daily course of earning a living. I imagine they must have a similar outlook as those who flip the switch on Old Sparky, Florida's electric chair that many are so very proud of.

I worry that my grandchildren watch way too much violence in video games, films, and television, and I think this detachment is a result of that sort of thing - enabling those who work for the factory farming industry to shut down their own humanity. I worry about the people who work in grocery stores in the area that I lovingly refer to as "the wall O' Death" in the back. Or the Wall O' Torture in the dairy aisle.

And I worry endlessly about what will happen when the next big hurricane goes up the east coast of the US and sends those massive lagoons of pig excrement into the sky, whipping it around until it settles like the ashes of Mount Saint Helen all over the country, the oceans, and all of us. Now, since I've not eaten a strip of bacon in over thirty years, I'd think I'd be exempt from the enormous tax burden that will cause, but I doubt it. And that is assuming we'd not all die of some horrific diseases as a result of all that horror getting into our water system. But, there will be those who will argue that I don't have the right to state my opinion, and that by doing so I am feeding my own ego. When in truth, it isn't ego when it is fact - and the fact remains that light travels faster than sound, and pig poop is a huge environmental concern - FOR ALL OF US.