Tasting Lab Week 5
Reflect back on the guided visualization of starting as a seed in the ground, sprouting in the moist warm soil, emerging from your cozy nest into the crisp air and warming sun. Growing to maturity as you are watered and pruned and cared for until you are finally harvested and prepared to be consumed.
- In relation to the ‘other’ how do we experience our ability to empathize and even to some extents share the awareness of another plant?
- Since we are consuming these plants to what degree does that shape our own consciousness?
- Do you feel that these plants have any sentience of their own, and if so how do you think they feel being chopped and cooked and eaten? Can you feel their life-force or unique energy?
- What feelings or thoughts arose for you during this exploration, how did it affect your relationship or sensitivity to other plants and sentient beings?
This is one of the questions I get asked by carnivores all the time. There is always some sort of reference to being aware of the plants feelings or “I eat meat, at least it has a chance to run.”
I do feel a connection to the plants that I consume. I feel their memory and try to trace it back to the sunny fields. I try to remember the hands that touched me when I was just a friut on the vine. I try to connect to that universal oneness that says that we are all connected. That is why I prefer to eat wildcrafted and garden foods. It is not like I feel that other plants carry forward the memories of the poisons used on the ground or themselves. I view food energy as I do most energy-heat energy, light energy, ect. Food energy isn’t good or bad, it simply is there or absent.
I try to pay close attention to the food I am consuming and to eat more of foods that have a strong “aura” for lack of better words.
