BHelmet
The Living Force
Interesting topic. Getting back to the morality vs. conscience issue, I think the point of the original question is to challenge the unconscious bias people tend to have about the issue at hand. There is plenty of eating things that are still alive that goes on in this world. Big fish eat little fish while they are quite alive; certain birds start eating rodents when they are quite alive; snakes gulping down animals; cute furry otters eating things still alive. Yank a carrot out of your garden - it's alive and then you start chomping on it. This is part of the STS nature of the present existence.
A "primitive" culture might mimic nature in this and I don't think there is any morality or immorality about it either way. There is also the idea of Qi and how much life force and what types of energies are assimilated in the eating process. If the food comes in a can and is processed, well, not so much life force. The most life force available is in something alive. As for the fear/emotion/biological secretions of the doomed organism that is on the menu, I think this varies. How aware is the victim that it is being harvested? Cows in a feedlot generally walk willing right through the rubber curtain onto the killing floor without much of a clue. I have seen it. It happens fast. If a hunter plugs an animal in the wild it may or may not be aware of its impending doom. A bizarre calm/surrender can come over a mouse that my cat has caught when it realizes the game of life is over for it.
Actually by eating something that someone else killed and butchered for you creates a disconnect and sanitizes the whole process so that the matter of killing and taking life can be avoided. In many native cultures there is the acknowledging and thanking the killed creating giving up it's life for the sustenance of the one taking that life: a bit more STO even though the animal never got a chance to say "sure, I will give my body to you and your gift to me will be that I can reincarnate and continue my soul journey". Mostly, I think it never happens that way, though.
Anyway I do recall divers in Mexico bringing up oysters right out the ocean and serving them up, undoubtedly still alive. Best oysters I ever had. I was very young. Didn't overthink it.
My main point is this: I think an action is defined more by the intent and state of being of the actor rather than by the action itself. Case in point: killing is clearly the ultimate STS taking of the free will of another. That is part of why I resisted the Viet Nam draft back in the day. But if some psychopathic rapist was about to attack my daughter and I had the opportunity to bury a nine iron into his skull, I can't say for sure I wouldn't do it.
If I were to eat something alive with glee of pain and suffering I might be inflicting, well that is one thing. But if I am grateful and aware of the sacrifice of some part of life for the sake of my so-called higher conscious evolution, that might be another thing entirely.
At some point in the process, the thing eaten is killed/dies and is consumed, anyway you look at it. OSIT I can moralize about it all I want but none of that changes the basic fact. Eating a tidy package of sliced bacon (which I did this morning) doesn't change the fact that a pig lost its life. I did not stare into its eyes or hear it squeal. But I am aware of the process. I can not conclusively state it is an immoral act for somebody to gulp down a locust while it is still alive in the desert.
A "primitive" culture might mimic nature in this and I don't think there is any morality or immorality about it either way. There is also the idea of Qi and how much life force and what types of energies are assimilated in the eating process. If the food comes in a can and is processed, well, not so much life force. The most life force available is in something alive. As for the fear/emotion/biological secretions of the doomed organism that is on the menu, I think this varies. How aware is the victim that it is being harvested? Cows in a feedlot generally walk willing right through the rubber curtain onto the killing floor without much of a clue. I have seen it. It happens fast. If a hunter plugs an animal in the wild it may or may not be aware of its impending doom. A bizarre calm/surrender can come over a mouse that my cat has caught when it realizes the game of life is over for it.
Actually by eating something that someone else killed and butchered for you creates a disconnect and sanitizes the whole process so that the matter of killing and taking life can be avoided. In many native cultures there is the acknowledging and thanking the killed creating giving up it's life for the sustenance of the one taking that life: a bit more STO even though the animal never got a chance to say "sure, I will give my body to you and your gift to me will be that I can reincarnate and continue my soul journey". Mostly, I think it never happens that way, though.
Anyway I do recall divers in Mexico bringing up oysters right out the ocean and serving them up, undoubtedly still alive. Best oysters I ever had. I was very young. Didn't overthink it.
My main point is this: I think an action is defined more by the intent and state of being of the actor rather than by the action itself. Case in point: killing is clearly the ultimate STS taking of the free will of another. That is part of why I resisted the Viet Nam draft back in the day. But if some psychopathic rapist was about to attack my daughter and I had the opportunity to bury a nine iron into his skull, I can't say for sure I wouldn't do it.
If I were to eat something alive with glee of pain and suffering I might be inflicting, well that is one thing. But if I am grateful and aware of the sacrifice of some part of life for the sake of my so-called higher conscious evolution, that might be another thing entirely.
At some point in the process, the thing eaten is killed/dies and is consumed, anyway you look at it. OSIT I can moralize about it all I want but none of that changes the basic fact. Eating a tidy package of sliced bacon (which I did this morning) doesn't change the fact that a pig lost its life. I did not stare into its eyes or hear it squeal. But I am aware of the process. I can not conclusively state it is an immoral act for somebody to gulp down a locust while it is still alive in the desert.
