Peeking behind the veil II

Following on from an earlier post, I wanted to share another experience I had when the veil between the 'human world' and the 'spirit world' thinned for me, a kind of spiritual emergence, if you will.

I've been a vegetarian for twenty years.  One day, during the 'emergence' I was out for dinner.  I decided to eat a mouthful of beef, lamb and fish, to ascertain if I wished to continue being a vegetarian. 

As I chewed the beef, I tuned into the cow from whom the meat had come.  What had her life been like?  I was immediately shown a field and a herd of cows.  I was the cow, looking through her eyes.  There was only one emotion: love.  There were no words, no thoughts, just silence.  And an all pervasive love.  She was being love.  Would I eat beef again? No, never.  She was too beautiful.

As I chewed the lamb, I tuned into the sheep from whom the meat had come.  What had her life been like?  I was immediately shown a country setting and a herd of sheep.  And again, I was the sheep, looking through her eyes.  Again, there was only love; no words, no thoughts, just silence and an all pervasive love.  She too was pure love.  Would I eat lamb again? No, never, how could I eat a being of such great beauty?

Finally, I chewed the fish and tuned into the fish from whom the meat had come.  What had her life been like?  I was immediately shown a shoal of fish and rushing water.  I was this fish, again looking through her eyes.  And here too, there was only love.  Silent love.  The experience of being...  And love.  She too was love.  Would I eat fish again?  No. 

I have, since then, eaten fish from time to time, for various reasons.  It always makes me uncomfortable.  As though I am eating a brother or sister, a beloved.  Revisiting this memory has had a profound effect on me.

We humans think we are the smart ones.  It's debatable.  That experience was so deeply profound; there was such a quality of purity to the animals, such a sense of pure presence... we humans, for all our thinking, have moved further away from the 'ideal' human than we would like to imagine.  Animals are not here as meat sources; they are here for their own experience, alongside us, not for us.