Veganism Path Of Enlightement

Food should nourish and feed the body and leave us energized and refreshed. The human body is a machine and needs fuel that keeps it running in peak condition. There are many reasons one take switch to vegetarian diet.
Many times our choice to become vegetarian isn’t only for health, environmental, or economical reasons, but also spiritual. There is a heartfelt connection between vegetarianism and the deeper side of nourishment. We must learn to nourish ourselves not only physically, but also spiritually.  Spirituality first came with compassion for all living beings. With no this core value we cannot achieve the peace within that we seek.
How do you feel spiritually when you consume a meal that contains meat? You’ve probably never given it any thought, but that may because spiritually you feel nothing after eating a meal of meat aside from tired and sluggish. Go on a diet of meat makes our bodies less functional, and we think of nourishing our bodies in terms of our organs and blood, but we don’t often think about how what we eat can impact the most vital organ in our body, the brain.

When you consume a vegetarian diet, you begin to sense physically lighter and healthy. When your body is healthy, your mind is also lightened. Most cultures that focus more on spirituality and enlightenment are also vegetarian cultures. From the beginning of recorded history we can see that vegetables have been the natural food of human beings. Early Greek and Hebrew myths all spoke of people originally eating fruit. Ancient Egyptian priests never ate meat. Many great Greek philosophers such as Plato, Diogenes, and Socrates all advocated vegetarianism.

In India, Shakyamuni Buddha emphasized the importance of Ahimsa, the principle of not harming any living things. He warned His disciples not to eat meat, or else other living beings would become frightened of them. Buddha made the following observations: "Meat eating is just an acquired habit. In the beginning we were not born with a desire for it." "Flesh eating people cut off their inner seed of Great Mercy." "Flesh eating people kill each other and eat each other ... this life I eat you, and next life you eat me ... and it always continues in this way. How can they ever get out of the Three Realms (of illusion)?"

These are cultures that are considered more enlightened and focused more on spirituality than is Western culture. If we are to evolve into more spiritual beings, then we must begin to manage our physical lives in a way that will enhance our spirituality, and this means taking the path of vegetarianism as a path to enlightenment.

Best and eye opening Books to read of  veganism on spirituallity (compassionate way of living)

World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony
One thing that sets this book apart from any of the others that describe the problems associated with a meat-based diet is the focus on the spiritual aspects of our diet. When we take food into our bodies, we are also ingesting the energy contained in this food. Animals that are tortured and filled with terror and agony as they are killed are filled with this very negative energy. When humans eat their flesh, we are also ingesting this fear and anger. This affects us deeply. We cannot live with peace in our hearts as long as we are filling our bodies with the pain and suffering of other beings.

Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness
Peppered with examples from Freston's own path to more conscious, healthier living (quitting smoking, becoming vegan), the book methodically addresses what it means to be healthy in mind, body and spirit and how the three are inextricably intertwined. Some of Freston's prescriptions—such as cleansing, meditation and yoga—are familiar and feel like Hinduism and Buddhism lite—but her contention that [w]e cannot thrive as individuals without tending to the ills of this world and all its inhabitants is powerfully argued. The book devotes considerable attention to promoting vegetarianism (It's about having integrity in the most fundamental of our actions—eating), and in keeping with the book's attention to incremental change, Freston introduces ways for even the most hardened carnivore to start leading a cruelty-free life. With compelling chapters on dealing with crisis and an innovative section on personal energy management, Freston invites—and equips—readers to become their own healers in moments of sickness, despair and loss.

The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights
Buddhism ought to be an animal rights religion par excellence. It has long held that all life forms are sacred and considers kindness and compassion the highest virtues. Moreover, Buddhism explicitly includes animals in its moral universe. Buddhist rules of conduct—including the first precept, "Do not kill"—apply to our treatment of animals as well as to our treatment of other human beings.

Eating Animals

Like many young Americans, Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian. As he became a husband, and then a father, the moral dimensions of eating became increasingly important to him. Faced with the prospect of being unable to explain why we eat some animals and not others, Foer set out to explore the origins of many eating traditions and the fictions involved with creating them.
Traveling to the darkest corners of our dining habits, Foer raises the unspoken question behind every fish we eat, every chicken we fry, and every burger we grill. Part memoir and part investigative report, Eating Animals is a book that, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, places Jonathan Safran Foer "at the table with our greatest philosophers."