Osho: Thinking to Drop Vegetarianism

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Osho always favours vegetarianism; we show here the only time we heard him contradict this and the reasons for it.

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Vegetarianism is the only thing that traditional people can easily appreciate in my commune, hence I am thinking to drop it! My reasons are totally different from their reasons: my commune is vegetarian purely for aesthetic reasons – it is ugly to kill. It is just an aesthetic approach. I have no religious antagonism towards non-vegetarian food, because the soul is never killed – that’s what all these religions say.

The logical conclusion will be: then non-vegetarian food is not a religious problem at all. You are simply separating an animal’s body from his soul – making his soul free of the body, helping his soul to be released from the body. That is the logical conclusion of all their so-called immortality of the soul. If the soul is immortal then why be so worried about killing? Then there is no problem. The soul will find another body somewhere maybe a better body, a younger body, more vital.

[…] In the new commune I have the idea that it should be optional, because I don’t want to be associated in any way with tradition. If only this thing is there for the traditionalists to enjoy, I will drop that too.

Osho, Zen: Zest, Zip, Zap and Zing, Ch 4 (excerpt)

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