I have been meditating since I was a ten year old boy, and I had also been eating a traditional English western diet of meat and three veg, but after my first visit to the One World Festival in 2003 (www.oneworldcamp.com) I was introduced to a Macrobiotic diet which is a Vegetarian/Vegan diet. Macrobiotic food or diet is based around a nutritional balanced diet of proteins, minerals and vegetables, with amazing flavours and texture, the new flavours I was introduced to made me forget about meat immediately and I have never touched meat again, although from time to time I do have shellfish on my home diet and rarely a small portion of small fish (oily fish), that is not to say if out and about and feeling hungry I will not succumb to fish and chips, but never, ever land animals.

I actually can’t say that my diet is 100% Macrobiotic (like Madonna’s) but after much research I recognised the basics of Macrobiotic as a good healthy thing to achieve mainly to its stipulation of aiming for a meal that would consist of between 10 – 15 different items on the plate in the meal (main meal). So creating a meal of such a multitude of items can be awkward but not impossible. You may now be asking what has this got to do with meditation, well the truth is I found it much easier to meditate after dropping meat from my diet!

The secret of true meditation is getting the mind to be quite, from that point all things are possible, from healing old memories through to heightening your Pineal gland and increasing your Psychic and Spiritual connections, from the quite mind flows all the benefits of meditation, when I was a meat eater I would find it difficult to quieten the mind sufficiently to reach the stage that I was aiming for and taking 30 minutes or longer just to quieten the ‘monkey mind’,  once I had dropped meat from my diet five or ten minutes would suffice to reach that meditative state.

Why would this be the case? You may ask, I have some theories and ideas, but I think it is really up to the individual on this choice, it does seem to be a natural direction for those who meditate that once they have achieved a certain level they tend to gravitate towards becoming vegetarians.

Below is a photo of one of my recent meal’s consisting of:

Beetroot, Cucumber, Radish, Tomatoes, Spring onion, Celery, Leaves (rocket, spinach, lambs lettuce, Chives, red lettuce) Garlic, Chilli, Pine nuts, Green lentils, Kidney beans, Brown rice and wild rice, Tofu (beech wood smoked with sesame seeds and almonds) and then I dressed this plate with (not shown) a mix of Olive, Flax, Evening primrose and hemp oils, Soy sauce for saltiness and a Honey and Mustard vinaigrette. Most of this is organic, although not all.

This took 5 minutes to put together on the plate, the Rice, Lentils and Kidney beans I had cooked earlier and kept in the fridge for contributions to my meals. So not a seriously difficult meal to create, fairly cheap and unbelievably healthy.

The protein is supplied by the Tofu, Kidney beans and Lentils, Kidney beans have 4 times the amount of iron than does steak, (weight for weight) while the Soy sauce provides all the vitamin B’s that are so difficult to get, although this is only one meal, I also add on occasions, red lentils, various seed sprinkles (poppy, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower) Sweet peppers, Avocado, pineapple, add whatever you like, the more the merrier, the secret is small portions and lots of different foods. Don’t use white rice, always use brown rice for the minerals and protein content.

This is similar to a typical meal prepared at the Macrobiotic One World Festival, although Macrobiotic diets don’t use onions, the OWF also prepare an alternative menu that would provide fish as part of the meal.

www.oneworldcamp.com