The spirituality of being vegan to me is a celebration of my love for sentient life. It’s an honouring of the interconnectivity of all things. More than that – it’s feeling the interconnectivity at the core of my being. It’s compassion. Love. Non-judgment. It’s a mystical, intangible life force that always inspires me to make the most loving and compassionate choice available. Spirituality ignites my soul, allowing me to dance, open my heart, free my mind and serve my life’s purpose.
My heart guides constantly guides me to take the most loving and compassionate path in life, which also means that I embrace a vegan lifestyle (and have done so for over 24 years).
All For One And One For All
Not only is eating a plant-based diet good for the planet, our fellow animals, it also raises my vibration positively, so that I, in turn, can infuse a little bit more of the divine back into the world around me. It creates an awesome feedback loop, important for my spiritual evolution.
What is good for other sentient life, is good for me. Making compassionate choices works somewhat like a key to unlock a higher paradigm of unconditional love within me. It is a key on my journey back to whole and complete spiritual beingness.
A Profound Spiritual Awakening
In 1995 I had a profound, earth-shattering, spiritual awakening that changed my life forever.
I don’t know why it happened to me – perhaps just because my ‘time had come’. I’d been tormented by the relentless yearning to find meaning in a cruel world. As a very sensitive person witnessing and feeling the degradation of our planet and fellow sentient beings, I felt an intolerable pain; a primal scream. I wanted to die. I’d reached the bottom of the well of grief and it was barren, dry and empty. My world finally caved in. I wanted to give every cell of my being back to the universe. Everything I’d ever loved, dreamed of, hoped for ‘take it back – take me back – I want out’.
I finally gave up the fight and surrendered every cell of my being into the divine. I collapsed, unable to feel anything anymore. And then it happened!
Something extraordinary and unexpected took place…
A white light flooded my entire being, dissolving everything around me, consuming me entirely, radiating the whole field around me, until their was only white light. The universe disappeared. There was no me or you. No up or down. No this or that. The veil had fallen away and all that was left was one pulsating white light of pure unity consciousness. It formed everything, lacked nothing, whilst exuding a paradoxical formlessness. I was that, that was me and so was everything else! I experienced the soul of all other sentient beings, trees, creatures, people, all forms of life, all connected as one pulsating energy. All judgement fell away. Beyond words.
After an experience like that, everything changes! Everything was different. There were no boundaries; just an interconnectedness of all things. No concepts, no intellectual interpretation. I realised my place in the sacred flow of life. We’re all one, all connected.
Immediately after my spiritual awakening, I made instant changes to my lifestyle (including adopting a vegan diet). It became clear to me that a compassionate, plant-based way of eating was not only best for my fellow sentient beings and for Mother Earth, but also for my personal spiritual evolution.
Interconnectivity: Spirituality of Being Vegan
Spiritually, we know that all are connected. We sense it, through every cell of our being. We can feel it in the depths of our hearts. It’s a whisper, inviting us to unfold into the fullness of our being, calling us ‘home’. There is a thread that joins us all together… plants, people, animals, and all sentient life. When we tug at that thread, we find that everything is connected.
What we do to another, we ultimately do to ourselves. At our deepest levels there is a yearning to become whole again and to honour all other sentient beings.
The Awakening Soul
Once our soul begins to awaken, we know in our hearts that all beings are worthy of love and compassion.
True love awaits within each of us, often dormant until stirred, like a hibernating seed, unaware, yet ever yearning for the moment to be set free.
Everything Is Energy
“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,”
a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings
as something separated from the rest,
a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us,
restricting us to our personal desires and
to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison
by widening our circle of compassion to embrace
all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
- Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
Spiritually we understand that everything is made of energy. In fact these days, even science confirms it. Everything consists of a particular vibration. Without vibrational energy, nothing would exist at all. Nothing escapes us. The choices we make in life alter our vibration accordingly, creating karma that either binds us to the density or sets us free.
You Are What You Eat
What we eat infuses into the cells of our body, which then affects our energetic vibration (physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually).
Eating plant-based food that has been grown naturally with care, nourishes our mind, body, and spirit, raising our vibration. For a plethora of delicious plant-based recipes (created from a space of love) please go to my page here: Plant-based Recipes at Kind Earth
However, if we ingest animals (or their products) that have been in a state of pain or suffering in any way, we invite that vibration of turmoil into ourselves. That suffering literally becomes a part of us.
We’ve Lost Our Tribe!
So we know everything is connected…. yet, we’ve become indoctrinated (since the earliest of times) to believe that we are separate from one another. We’ve become fragmented and torn. Broken and disconnected. We’ve lost our tribe!
The illusion of separation has its grip so tightly on the ego that it fights vehemently for its own survival. The ego doesn’t want us to embrace our deepest compassion; for true compassion is about oneness and interconnectivity. True compassion means the death of the ego. Humanity has become destructive, causing great devastation and suffering for sentient life. The violence that is committed towards animals, has however, mostly been sanitised – carried out behind closed doors, protecting us from the blood-shed and horror.
How easy it is to deny responsibility when we don’t have blood on our own hands. Most of us stand behind a veil, believing that we are compassionate and loving beings, because we don’t inflict the torture ourselves. Or do we? We make that choice, consuming flesh and produce from our our fellow sentient beings, calling it food, distanced from the fact, that we are indeed responsible for the brutal deaths of billions of our friends every year. We know this in our hearts. Yet how many of us choose to ignore it?
Be Completely Honest With Yourself And Then Find Peace Within
Whether we consume animals and their by-products isn’t the issue. I am not telling anyone what they should or shouldn’t do. The issue is whether we’ve truly explored it. Whether we’ve really looked at what is going on. Whether we’ve truly owned our choices.
Watch a movie like Earthlings. Join the dots and be completely honest about how you feel. The important thing is that you make your choices from the heart. Don’t stay anaesthetised to what is really going on – make a conscious choice from your heart. True love is honest, transparent, and takes full ownership of responsibility. If you can honestly feel the fear and embrace the suffering that your fellow creatures feel, with every fibre of your being… and still eat them (or their by-products), then you’ve made your choice. Be at peace with it.
The Spiritual Gift of Eating Compassionately
For me being vegan is about making the best choices I can, to honour the light within me, that is connected with the light within you… and all other sentient life. My spiritual journey would be incomplete without honouring my pull towards unity and oneness.
Eating compassionately is a spiritual gift. It not only raises our vibration, but it sends ripples of the deepest love out into our world. It connects us all.
Why I went vegan?
I created a video a while back to talk a little more about exactly why I went vegan all those years ago…
Please feel free to share your own story or ask any questions in the comments below.
From my heart to yours
Anastasia
(Previously known between 2005 & 2018 as Trinity Bourne – read more about that here: https://www.kindearth.net/my-birth-name-anastasia/ )
x
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thank you- this is beautiful
You are most welcome.
Thank you for your comment.
Thank you for sharing. You certainly have inspired me over the years and I know you touch thousands of people’s lives. Your open-hearted sharing is appreciated…..one person changing lives and life on our beautiful planet.
My pleasure Joanne. Warms my heart beyond measure to know that too.
Thank you Trinity, Your video spoke to my soul and reminded me why I made the decision to eat a plant based and mostly vegan diet coming up to 1 year in August.
My cooking was not great prior to going plant based but now I feel that my cooking has greatly improved, I create tasty dishes without recipes, throwing together in a pot all the wonderful flavours and ingredients I adore. I enjoy cooking on the weekends and I love knowing that no animal had to die & suffer to provide food for me.
Going plant based has been the best decision I have made and I know I will continue a plant based and vegan way of eating for the rest of my life.
Thank you for your awesome cook books they have been fantastic in helping me learn and grow to create simple and tasty meals.
Beautiful to have you tuning in here Sue. I feel really honoured that I am part of your journey in this way – makes it so rewarding for me to know that my recipes can inspire and support.
Big Love x
I don’t want to upset you in any way but i can no longer equate veganism with being ethical or spiritual.
A simple question to start – what do you eat in the UK in the winter? Can you trace that food back to source, add up all of the planetary effects of that food and still hand on heart tell me it’s the most spiritual choice?
Just a personal sharing about my own experience. I am very interested in building bridges with others, to help show an example of a more compassionate way of being. I am not talking about being perfect. Every time I step out of the house I risk stepping on a tiny insect that I don’t see – I’ve realised that as long as I am incarnated there’ll be something for me to look at.
Your own exploration is perfectly fine. I know full well that once you pull at one thread, everything starts to unravel… so yes indeed nothing is perfect. I’ve pulled at many such threads in my life time 🙂 In fact, I remember having similar thoughts 18 years ago i.e. how can I live sustainably and ethically in the UK in the winter? Meanwhile I actually spent my winters in Hawaii (which could be considered a very unethical choice given the flights – yet my family and partner at the time lived there). So, I am not claiming perfection here.
My bottom line is not ‘knowingly’ causing harm to other sentient life. In answer to your question — No, of course not… I can’t trace everything back to its source and all the nuances of its journey (even though I might often try! ha ha). I am also well aware of many such possibilities that may happen along the way too. By being vegan I am starting with the most immediate and obvious to me personally. That’s my choice (and hence the title ‘a personal sharing’) and I felt to share incase it inspired others. The point is honouring the truth we feel within ourselves. For each of us that is unique.
Thank you Trinity. I really resonate with your words. I’ve been vegan for 20 years and have had similar mystical experiences that confirm the rightness of a compassionate vegan lifestyle.
It warms my heart to hear that and know that you are tuning in here.
Wonderful to know you have been a vegan for 20 years with similar mystical experiences.
Sharing your light Trinity, man you are so great at it. Love reading your articles, they are always so caring and compassionate. I am honoured to share the light you share for the love of all other sentient life. Thanks for Being.
Beautiful to hear that Charlie.
That’s really touching.
Thank YOU!
Very nice encouragement here, Trinity. You mention the importance of eating plant based foods grown naturally and with care. As you’re probably aware, most “naturally”grown food is actually nourished with animal inputs like waste left from the slaughter of animals or from their feces, which doesn’t seem to me to be grown with care. By eating these foods we are supporting animal agriculture. I have begun to grow some of my food without animal inputs, yet am constantly aware that much of the organically-grown, plant-based food I eat is not free from the suffering of animals. I suppose you are aware of Vegan Organic Network in UK, and we have a growing movement in the US as well, which I’m very grateful for. Someday we will have more choices but, meanwhile, how do you deal with this inconsistency of eating foods that are heavily supported by animal agriculture?
Hi Mark,
Thank you for sharing. I am still working on that one. My approach is to do the best that I can – my bottom line is not to knowingly consume any animal ‘products’ directly. It really saddens me that our world is how it is. It feels heart breaking others don’t make the connection between all of these things.
Personally I am an advocate of veganic gardening. I do indeed know the Vegan Organic Network here in the UK. They’ve been around forever it seems. I tend to use green manures, make my own compost and have explored different methods (like seaweed meal) over the years. I have a massive plot, but have definitely not mastered the art of veganic gardening here on my own – sometimes I have a good crop, some times it’s pretty poor. I will be completely honest too – I’ve used horse manure from locally rescued horses too, as an experiment for several of my growing seasons a while back. I am fine with that method, given that I knew the horses were very well loved and there was no animal suffering involved. I’ve contemplated Humanure too (and know others who have succeeded very well with that) but not gotten that far myself 😀 The old world paradigm needs to change for sure – I am holding that possibility very close to my heart.
So for now, I don’t have all of the answers, but look forward to finding ever better ways.
Thanks for dropping by.
Trinity
Yes, Trinity, humanure is something I will use when I’m in the right location. The Asian countries used it for about, I believe, 6000 years until commercial nitrogen became readily available. Already I’m using human urine, adding it to my compost. It’s quite safe and adds useful nutrients.
“The old world paradigm needs to change for sure – I am holding that possibility very close to my heart”
Thank you! I will hold it as well ☺
thank you Trinity, this is inspiring. i am on a journey, searching, questioning seeking some understanding, I too find it hard to live with the knowledge that animals are suffering so terribly and so often people don’t want to hear about it but being vegan and reading articles like this gives such hope and some peace. I am constantly amazed at the changes for the better though, vegan eating is growing by the day. I love your recipes. Your seed loaf is scrumptious. Thank you , so much. regards Janet
Thank you for your comment Janet, that means a lot to me to know that my sharing’s (and recipes) can help support in this way.
with love
x
This is absolutely lovely Trinity. You are such an inspiration.
excellent article Trinity, thank you. I always get so much out of your posts. I am truly grateful.
You are so welcome – I am happy to hear that.
Thank you Trinity! I am delighted by your post that I discovered toay. It is so interesting that although I have aspired to be more spiritual (meaning getting away from dead religion over the last few years) I am embarking on a path of actually following my life path (reading books like Linda Brady, Discovering your Life Mission, and various related books as well as Michael Newton’s books about souls and the after life) that many spiritual awakenings have happened in my life. Embracing the New Age and asking my guides what is the next move for me, and then unconsciously finding me changing my eating habits to go vegan is a delight!
We do not need to defend ourselves. Being awakened is the path to perfection and the ever coming back to learn new lessons makes it easier when we are aware of our Oneness and the beauty of all living beings. Let the ripples we send out soften the blows to the animal kingdom who are leaving the earth by extinction in protest to how they are being treated.
I will now check out your site and recipes more!
With love!
Hi Anastasia,
I was looking for some inspiration today as I’m feeling the effects of the mundane. As you probably know, there are several ups and downs when going through a spiritual journey. My heart is heavy today, but this article really gives me hope. I just want to let you know that I have linked to it in the “about me” page of my new blog Learn Vegan With Me.
Thanks for the encouragement!
Dear Trinity,
I love your work and the energy of your soul, for sure you’re a beacon of light for the innate growing into their innate nature as the nonsense of their inculcations fall away.
Be love always, great soul 🙏❤️
NB contact form wouldn’t allow me to enter my blog, but if you’d like that you can email me and I will forward that to you 😊
Thank you, this was really helpful
Your words are so humble yet so strong!! Thank you for choosing compassion.
This story resonates DEEPLY with me at this moment. I went to bed one night after I had cried so hard and so intense I believe it unlocked something in me…can I contact you please…
Hi Cix,
Thank you for writing. That’s wonderful to hear and I am glad it resonated and that you are having deep and profound experiences yourself. This is so precious.
I responded to your email and it bounced back, so I am dropping you a quick note here. I am actually busy with culinary work and my other activities so unfortunately, I can’t engage in individual private conversations.
I wish you all good things and huge blessings for your journey.
Anastasia
No worries. I completely understand. I plan on taking advantage of your culinary skills when it comes to eating vegan. Again thank you so much and be well