Author, speaker, spiritual teacher and mystical poet

What book is on your bedside table?
The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism from 1600 to Modern Times by Tristram Stuart (W.W. Norton & Co).

Page-turner or doorstop?
The pages turn themselves. This is the history of food that your grocer, mother, and history professor never told you about.

Would you put it on your Desert Island list of must-haves?
Both desert and dessert. It is a read-and-re-read must-have in the lifeboat, even if the sharks are circling.

Describe the book in one sentence.
The story of how discovering India confronted Christian Europe with millions of people whose vegetarian diet echoed the idyllic descriptions of the Garden of Eden and gave rise to the whole-food culture.

If you designed a poster for the book, what would it look like?
It would show all the major European philosophers and intellectuals at a huge dinner table debating whether to be a vegetarian or carnivore.

List three new words you learned from reading it.
That seldom happens, but okay: noirism and biocentrism and, oh well, two will have to do.

To whom would you recommend this book?
Epigastrically challenged omnivorous polyglots, vegan PETA-loving tofu-munching herbivores, anyone killing themselves with junk food, philosophers, political scientists, history buffs, and anyone who hates being lied to. People who eat food.

How often did you find yourself re-reading a paragraph because it was so delicious?
Often enough that I began to think of myself as a bovine book browser with four stomachs trying to absorb the rudiments of the subject. Moo is OOM spelled backwards.

They say that everyone has one great novel in them. What would yours be about?
The adventures of a boy and a girl who turn the world upside-down looking for historical truth. They find it, write a book, but can’t get a publisher to touch it—too smart for the market. Jeb Bush is president. Gas and water cost the same. McDonald’s introduces a new GMO salad with their “whatever” burger.

Finding the peace inside you

by Gangaji

Most of us in the West lead extraordinarily privileged lives. Most of us do not have to worry about where we will get our next meal or if we will have a place to sleep tonight. Most of us are not in imminent danger, and neither are our families. We find ourselves in a precious lifetime where we can set aside our mental habits and strategies of protection and reflect on what is present when the mind is not busy being protective. In this moment, we can stop worrying about the future.
Everyone, even the most privileged, experiences some degree of suffering. But if you look out over the planet, you will see billions of human beings who are undergoing enormous suffering and who are almost totally bound by it. In contrast, the privilege of our lives is that we have the time, space, and opportunity to question the most basic assumptions of human life. We are free to examine our lives and to ask the deepest questions: What is this life about? What is it being used for? How is my time spent? Where is my attention? Is my life meaningful? Am I happy? What is the longing of my heart and soul? Is it a longing for truth and freedom? We have an opportunity to fully consider the most profound, unanswered questions.
In my experience of speaking with people, I have found that the discovery of what one truly wants can be a doorway to realizing true freedom. There may be an immediate response to that inquiry, such as, “What I really want is a better life,” or “What I really want is to be happy all the time,” or “What I really want is the right mate.” Whatever answer immediately arises, it is very useful to then ask, “What will that give me?” If you have the perfect soul mate, what will that give you?
If the answer is, “Then I will be at peace. Then I can rest,” the truth is that this is possible now in this moment. Peace and rest have nothing to do with a mate. The peace, rest, and fulfillment you have been searching for outside, however exalted or sublime, are actually here now. If, in this moment, you can simply discard your outward reference points for what will give you peace, you might recognize that peace is already here, regardless of any internal or external circumstances. In this recognition, you can investigate more deeply to see if there is any separation between the peace that is always present and who you are. What is the boundary between who you truly are and peace?
What emerges in a perfect moment of realization is what has always been present and this usually gives rise to a great laugh. What you have been searching for desperately, furiously, relentlessly, and with great frustration has always been present exactly where you are! It is present now, in you, and it can be revealed to you now as your own self.
Ask yourself repeatedly and directly: What do I really want? Let the answers flow freely, rising up effortlessly from the unconscious without censorship. There are no right answers. Consider these questions a game, a game that can expose whatever beliefs and concepts are still buried in your subconscious.
As you inquire within, let whatever sensations, emotions, and insights that arise wash through you. If you have discovered that what you finally want is peace, happiness, love, or enlightenment, now is the opportunity to see where you have been searching for them.
Tell the truth fully. Whatever the cost, whatever the risk, whatever the consequences.
Excerpted from The Diamond in Your Pocket. On July 26, Gangaji will speak in Vancouver at the Masonic Hall, 1495 W. 8th Ave., at 7 pm. www.gangaji.org or 541-482-3100.