8955. THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW, Pt. 263

263. EAT ! EAT

I've never liked food; it's

just never meant much

to me, I dislike the eating

of it, the tastes, the smells,

the distinctions and those

stipulations that cooks and

diners  -  those eating  -  make

about this being good or

that being good. It's a

very human, a very

physical, thing. I'm much

more ascetic about things;

leave me be, I'll get by. I

have never much cared

about the human element,

From A to Z, any of it.

There are people who 

will go on and on 

about tastes and 

textures, smells 

and sensations, 

every little bit of 

the entire eating 

and digestion thing  

-  the food, the mix, 

the chew, the fragrance. 

As far as I'm concerned

it's crazy. It's never going 

to stop, and I know that  -  

those sorts of people 

never quit. Even as the 

level and quality of 

'food' goes down, 

they'll just continue, 

transferring their 

lust for the chew to 

some other level 

of food intake  -  

whether restaurant-style, 

fine or not, any of 

that brewed at home 

fire and steak stuff, 

or just the endless 

declensions and 

re-definings of 

fast-food or 

casual-dining 

this or that. That's 

what they live for. 

Like wine people, 

with their 'flinty' 

palates with hints 

of blackberry and
cherry. In places like,
for instance, Brooklyn,

now, and others, there 
are entire sub-cultures of
people dedicated to the
complete experience of
perfect dining  -  converted
space taverns, bars, and 
restaurants where only the
cognoscenti eat the most
perfectly-prepared foods
amidst giggles and smiles.

-

Besides my Vedic 

studies, I'd long ago

 read two books that 

provided me intense 

enjoyment and 

intellectual stimulation

  -  like some idiot's 

four-hundred-dollar 

sit down at a fine 

restaurant somewhere. 

The first one, mentioned 

here in a very early 

chapter, was the 

'Autobiography of 

a Yogi', which I took

 in all and total, at a

 ripe young age, and 

then, later, about 

1968, the 'Secret 

Oral Teachings in 

Tibetan Buddhist 

Sects.' These were 

monumental and 

formative to me. Don't 

get me wrong, they 

weren't Huck Finn or 

Catcher In the Rye, 

but they filled that 

niche needed at their 

times. One of the 

Vedic edicts  -  which 

I always liked  -  was, 

to enforce holy 

asceticism, never 

eat food that you'd 

prepared yourself. 

Only eat what and 

when others give 

to you to eat. It was 

a twofold path  -  

you yourself would 

not be preparing 

anything, and therefore

would not eat anything 

'you' had made, and 

at the same time you'd 

only eat when someone 

else offered to you. 

 That could be often, 

or it could be very 

sparse. I learned what 

and where to keep 

away from so as NOT 

to enhance the chances 

of people heaving food 

at me.  It made sense. It
was all about 'desire' and

human-life detachment.

 The Secret Tibetan Oral 

Teachings, at the same 

time, discouraged eating

 by approaching it with 

disgust  -  you fill your 

gut, uselessly, with things

 that only use up your 

own energy and tax 

your system so that 

you can produce the 

remnants as feces. 

Why then bother? Like
the snake or reptile,
consuming itself.

Now that would kill 

anyone's appetite. 

Sometimes you 

have to 'go long', 

using an extreme 

idea to advance 

the point. That's 

how I understood 

it. At the same time, 

there was a lot of 

'negative approach' 

stuff there.

-

Funny thing was, thirty

years later I'd turned that 

all around, in that, besides 

basically (really) not eating, 

as much as I was able to 

'NOT' eat, I'd forbidden

myself, by a form of 

personal edict to NOT eat

food prepared by others.

Which  -  since I myself

would never go near a 

stove  -  brought it all

down to consuming 

whatever it was that 

my wife produced. 

Poor girl  -  a total 

foodie and a massive 

cook, all good. Totally 

into the tastes and

textures and recipe 

formats and all that, 

of food. I admit

it's all wasted on 

me. But, she does

manage. To this day

I have trouble being

around people who 

are eating, or cooking.

The entire process now 

has become so divorced 

from reality anyway, 

with microwaves and 

convection things and 

the raw food movement, 

and all that vegetarian 

and vegan stuff endlessly 

bandied about, that 

people have actually 

almost convinced 

themselves now that 

they are eating

for the 'good' of 

mankind. Yeah, sure. 

Have another helping, 

there, chubby, of some 

high-caloric crap 

while the kid in Mali, 

with his eyes buggy 

and flies up his nose, 

is sucking on a sponge 

he found, soaked in 

someone's last-night's

beetle-juice gravy.

-

In the seminary, we got 

three meals a day, no 

questions asked. The

quality of that food  -

we got Southern food, 

most always, scrapple, 

pork, waffles, syrups, 

tings like that  - I can't

vouch for. I knew 

nothing about it, nor 

did I know anything 

about what supplies 

were trucked in, and 

from where, or how 

fresh anything was.

In 1961 and those years

after, no one really ever

cared about those things,

except maybe Jack LaLanne

and those Mr. Universe 

guys who went around 

on TV hawking their 

wholesomeness and

carrot juice. Oh well,

you had to be there. 

-

There's never absolutely 

any need for three meals 

a day. The entire concept 

is bizarre. It's a mistake. 

Has to be. I have found,

with some training and 

by real discipline, it's 

possibly more like one

meal every three days  -  

that would suffice. This 

whole three meals a 

crap does nothing good. 

It produces waste, and 

taxes the body; all of 

which then becomes a

cleanliness fetish for 

a million people, 

wiping their butts 

with toilet paper so 

special and soft you

could sleep on it; which

processes of manufacture 

are toxic and deadly, 

ruining waterways 

and fields, and trees. 

The bathroom and 

cleanliness nazis can 

rule the roost with 

their idiotic airwaves 

stuff  - scents and 

cover-smells, 

automatic bowl 

cleansers, sinks 

and soaps and the 

rest, every bit of it. 

All these freaky 

environmentalists 

and people screaming 

about global warming 

and bad water and 

Amazon forests and 

clear skies. they're 

the same ones 

constantly stuffing 

their mouths and 

then cleaning their 

asses with all this 

stuff. That's all a 

real disconnect. 

A basic, human 

asceticism 

would solve a 

lot of the health, 

toxins and well-being 

problems we face. 

Cancer, chemistry, 

sores, digestion ills 

and sickness would 

all be alleviated. 

Nobody in their 

right mind should 

eat three meals a 

day. In fact, people 

ought to learn how 

to fast. We are a 

nation of pigs 

and piglets.