THE RELIGION THAT MAKES VEGANISM MANDATORY

There is no religion that states that all its adherents must be vegan. Jainism and Buddhism from the East, Jamaican Ital/Rastafarianism, Supreme Master Ching Hai, and others, all come somewhat close, but none demand its followers to be vegan to be a member of that religion or sect. Therefore, I couldn’t possibly be any of these religions. I outgrew religions long ago. I had to invent my own, as well as my own vegan, “male/female” God. I call my religion: Truthism.

It’s a simple religion – the precepts are easy enough for anyone to comprehend…."Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, and in my religion, which is not humancentric, “others” means others, including all other sentient beings. In fact, in Truthism, we try not to harm plants, too. We don’t pick flowers. We don’t cut down trees. We try to live harmoniously without harming others, as best we can.

In Truthism, you don’t have to fund anyone. No donations, no almsgiving, no tithing; however it is forbidden to fund human or nonhuman slavery and exploitation. You don’t have to pray to God in public and be enclosed from God’s World by four concrete walls. Instead, you can go to God’s World, find a cathedral of trees, lie down, look up, and rejoice.

In Truthism, you don’t have to study books, Bibles, Torahs, Korans, or a list of commandments; you just have to be respectful of others. There’s no promise of rewards in an afterlife. No, the only rewards you get are in this life: the reward of knowing that you are doing the morally right thing to do, the reward of less risk of life-threatening diseases, and the reward of mind-blowing interspecies friendships.

There are no priests, rabbis, or monks. The God of Truthism endowed each human being with a conscience and that conscience serves as your leader, on a daily basis. Truthism tells us to engage the conscience within, to befriend her; to obey her over the crowds. Truthism teaches us, in fact, not to listen to the crowds, because they, for the most part, are not Truthists and therefore well, insane, truthfully.

Truthism is the kind of religion that once you convert over, it kind of pocesses your life and you can never turn away from its alluring powers. Being vegan is just the first step; it’s not the ONLY tenet of the religion, but it is an inescapable, unavoidable, first step.

Want to join my religion? No problem. It’s free, no paperwork, you didn’t have to be born into it…you just have to see that it’s the right religion for you. Until the day arrives that this religion has more followers, I have to live with trees as my neighbors and the songs of birds as my music, and devotedly commune with the real “Sun of God” that I adore….the star of the show, that goes unnoticed in our capitalistic, consumerist society. The UnTruthists have taught us to fear the sun, and those are the same ones that tell us its okay to eat animal corpses and callously vivisect other animals. The man-made pollution and ozone hole is what is scary; not the sun. The sun is my very best friend; without her, I’m dead.

If you have a sincere longing for spirituality and the mystical in life, and other religions just aren’t up to snuff for you anymore, come follow Truthism. Anyone of any color, race, ethnicity, sex or sexual preference, or age is welcomed. Truthism is a non-racist, non-sexist, non-speciesist, non-ageist religion.

Truthism does not want our lives to be little more than wage slaves. Truthism beckons us to really live life, to work to right all the injustices, to live in and to love the natural environment, and to learn how to love. Truthism sees Love as a verb, sets no limitations on love; and defines it as a lifting feeling; lifting to a higher state of consciousness.

A devotee of Truthism feels the ‘feeling of oneness with God’ when giving a tummy rub to a dog (especially one who has evolved to eat only from the plant-kingdom), when hugging a thousand year old tree, when caressing a bunny rabbit, when “in love” with another human being, when watching sunsets, and other such activities.

In Truthism, it’s not about being better than the next guy, but about tomorrow, being better than you are today. Truthists seek to know their higher nature.

Anyone who wants to join my religion-that’s fine with me. But remember, I won’t be your leader. You have to follow your conscience; that voice within that knows right from wrong; regardless of societal indoctrination; where everything is deciphered through your reasoning mind and your compassionate heart to arrive at the Truth. This is the essence of Truthism.

:-)