[Buddha-l] Victimized Vegans?

[Franz Metcalf]

Joy et al.,

Joy wrote,

> Food is a very complex matter. We don't eat only food when we eat. We 
> eat affection, family and social links, national identity, religious 
> identity (pasha, ganacakra, eucharist etc.). We eat as much links as 
> food. And now with brands, we even consume food. So when we give up 
> specific foods, we give up more those specific foods.

Beautifully said. Surely, the symbolic power of totem meals, the 
dangers of binge eating, and the emotionality of nostalgic foods reveal 
that when we eat food, we also eat life, we eat our past and our whole 
experienced world. No wonder McDonalds gives away all those toys. And 
no wonder I find my eating to be the most immediate and reliable place 
of my personal practice.

Franz

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Non-obligatory non-Buddhist content, the conclusion of the Taittiriya 
Upanishad:

I am food, I am food, I am food! I am the eater of food, I am the eater 
of food, I am the eater of food! I am the poet joining them together, I 
am the poet, I am the poet! I am the first-born of the Right. Before 
the Devas were, I was in the center of the immortal. He who gives me 
away, he preserves me. He who eats food, I, food, eat as food.