Roots Archives Forum

I mean rasta is not a religion with definitive practices, locked rituals, it is a movement in which each and every person identifying himself with Rasta lives his faith in his own way. Of course you can find some common rituals, habits but it's not a fixed rule. I know rastas who drink, rastas who donnot drink, rastas who donnot smoke also, some who sleep with their woman all the time, some who sleep in a separate bed when their woman have their menstruations, etc.
The only rule is Truth and Light, and it's not written in any paper and it's not decided by any organisation and it's not fixed in any social habit.
We call it Livity and not religion, do you agree with that Jah Titus ?
Blessings

Yes-I! Nuh religion. But I&I defend Tru Rasta must live ina accordance wid de RULES of de LAW fram JAH/IRATION. Nuh relation wid babylon rules. Just trying most Tru an Natural Way of Life dung here ina babylon. I&I nuh kill, nuh drink alcohol, nuh lie...
De fact is dat always there´s Rastas an some who believe dem a Rastas doing tings dat I&I tink nuh acceptable in JAH sight. Anyway exist different approaches yet: Bobo, Niyahbinghi, 12 Tribes an so on, yunno? Even very religious Rastas in de manner wat yu seh wid a lot of ecclesiastic ritual or someting similar. But Ben according to your point of view then exist babylon rastas too? WAT A FYA!


MASSIVE RESPECT

ITAL BLESS

Of course, and I met some. And those babylon rastas I met were not those I know who donnot smoke herb, neither those who from time to time drink a cup of wine. The babylon rastas I met were living in Shashamane and they were leading the chapel out there in Shashamane.. and some were from the elders. And much others I met in Ethiopia and else where. If I have one advice, don't trust those social habits and rituals to distinguish true and false rastas. Cause even if a man don't kill, don't drink no wine, and cries out the name of Rastafari every day, believe me, he's not always following the words and Light of Haile Selassie, because this man, often haven't seen the True Love of Jah. And this I can tell with my experience. Humble as I am.
Only Jah see and know.

Benjamin is right, outside looks and acts can fool easy. Look at a man's heart.

in babylon you must cover your heart with shields else you lost.

yo me just realize say thread name is "vegetarians & reggae" and not jus "vegitariens", ok i must say i notice that in reggae the amount a people who eat meat is bigger than the ital part but i am not saying eating meat is good or healthy or any other good tingz, but i just notice the happening.

Yes-I! Leggo, Do yu rememba dat song? Yu si a man´s face but yu nuh si im heart...
Ben, mi a humble ghetto man. Neva went to Holy Shashamane physically, spiritually yet. Mi tink dat yu a judging someting Big wid regard to a bad experience or confused situashan yu lived. Yes man¡ ina same way JAH See and Know when yu a put dem IT INNOCENT CREATURES like fishes ina your dish.
Right Don D! At present there´s various Rasta Reggae artists who carry ITAL VEG MESSAGE relevantly as Lutan Fyah, Tarrus Riley, Ras Attitude and others.


BLESS

Never mistake majority with truth.

Most people want money not spirituality nowadays. But that don't make it right.

Right , I'm sorry if those words sounded judgemental and indeed what I say is from what I see and feel. But still don't think I am judging the whole Shashamane land, I only share with you the fact that even in the very place where rastas should be Rastas I met people who really seemed to me far from the way of Jah, Christ/Fari, Holly Spirit.
And this I can tell not only through one bad experience but as a person who lived in Ethiopia for almost one year and who met much rastas out there from different places, who heard, read, discussed so many things with abashans, with priests and true orthodoxs and with rastas.
And what I say is that those I found out being really filled with the Love and Truth they claim were not always those I would have thought from the outside. And Shashamane unfortunatly has brought lots of lost souls who practices the rituals of rastafarians and its exterior/social rules but who donnot follow Rastafari's simplest words : honesty, universal love, humbleness.
But still, me no say Shashamane isn't Holly, and I truly think Ethiopia is Holly, and as you say it's a thing you can only feel spiritually and not physically.
This strange situation is in reality quite logic. The Torah says holly places highly attract negative malhak (spirits) who try to feed themselves at the source. Look at Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who have killed all Jah prophets, who have stoned jah messengers and even crucified the savior.
Bless HIM


ps :plants and vegetals are also innocent creatures from Jahmighty and Yeshoua used to eat fish with the apostles.

I agree that spiritual places can attract the wrong people. Look at Rome, Glastonbury and many holy places in India. Packed full of fakers hiding there dirty heart behind mock spirituality.

I disagree that Jesus eat fish. There's much evidence that he was vegetarian. There is evidence that he spent the years when Herod was trying to locate and kill him in India.

Sadly, the Bible, like most scriptures, has passed through the hands of so many of these fakers and as such needs to be taken with care. Much of it is the word of God, but also too much is the word of men with their own program to satisfy.

I saw a great documentary on the life of Judas and some of the lost gospels. It had a lot of evidence to back up this type of thinking. Judas was a fall guy and not the demon the Roman church later made him out to be.

Hinduism - I hate that colonial word but it is the only word I can use that most of you will understand, I would prefer 'Vedanta', it recognises that all food is sin. It preaches that all living beings to the smallest single celled creature are equal with souls. So even to breath, which kills small creatures, is a sin. SO life itself is a sin. And to mitigate this one must dedicate it all to God. This is why all food eaten by very devout hindus is first offered to God. The idea being he takes and purifies the food, replacing it with what hindus call Prasad, or God's Mercy.

The reason they don't eat meat is because they don't think it is natural and that they beleive we should eat at the lowest end of the food chain, ie: eat no beasts at all.

We really don't *NEED* to eat beasts - so why should we? Only to satisfy our lust for flesh, that is all. It is only acceptable in ABSOLUTE DIRE necessity to avoid starvation as it is our duty to keep these bodies we are using to transport us through this place alive.

I've aeways liked the Vedanta because it goes into incredible detail and answers all the contradictions that I personally found Christianity could never answer for me. Like the oft asked question by wavering Christians or non-believers "If there is a God how come he lets the little children suffer?"

Because of their past deeds is the answer of the Vedanta, or "reap what you sow" in Biblical speak!

We're still around the initial topic although we are raising other issues and point of views.
I would say that there is no "evidence" about Christ life and alimentation except what we can read in the Bible. And the lost gospels you're talking about, even if they are very interesting documents are not at all prooves of anything, they were written after the canonical gospels and came from specific christian groups/sects that did not live in the time of Yeshoua. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene was not written by Mary Magdalen for instance, and there is true evidence about this. I won't enter this huge debate but will only say that you have the right to believe Christ was a vegetarian but according to the holly scriptures, he was not, and even more, the fish has become the first symbol of christians , before the cross, and the first apostles were fisherman, and some of the most important facts in the new testament are concerning the fish. Jesus cooks it with honey for the apostles just before he dies, and he multiplies it too. There is also a clear dsistinction that is made in the scriptures between the followers Of John the Baptist who only ate roots and who were fasting all the time and between Yeshoua and his followers who were drinking wine and eating.
And the fact that Yeshoua went to India is not a fact at all, it is an hypothesis, I have nothing against this hypothesis but you can't use it as an evidence of Christ's vegetarianism.
And I will finish with another strong element : as far as I know, Haile Selassie, the second coming of Christ, in the Lion form, was not a vegetarian at all and just like every other ethiopian orthodox He even ate meat. Tell me if this is a wrong information. Thanks
Let's remember those words of Yeshoua, we must not divide ourselves around alimentary and cultural questions, nothing coming inside our mouth is unpure, only what comes out of it. We're all One, whether we eat fish or not. I do join Leggo when saying the sin does not come from eating or not eating, it comes from loving or not, from giving grace to G-d for the food or not. Faith is the only truth and the only thing that saves us from sin, not alimentary attitudes and preferences.
One Love