Two score and seven years ago, young people brought forth to this nation a new consciousness, conceived in love, and dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created with one purpose… to evolve.
It was the first time in history that a whole generation dared to defy the established order, by refusing to take part in its violence, injustice, bigotry and lies. Instead, they bravely set forth in search of a saner way.
In the over-zealousness of their rebellion, “Do the right thing” was sometimes superseded by “Do your own thing”. However, there were certain basic truths they were discovering that they vowed to live by; axioms that were to become the foundation of the new age they were forging.
Vegetarianism was number one, in keeping with their philosophy of non-violence.
The next was a new level of honesty. They threw away their razor blades and shed their make-up, bras, hairdos and dyes, because they realized that in order to find their true selves, they must look behind the disguises of the world.
Communal living was another major key to their new age. With a new freedom, they chose their own families; supportive families of friends. They moved from the cities to the country. Living in the beauty of nature revealed to them the beauty in their own natures.
Over the course of the years that followed, our heroes and heroines began to compromise their ideals. Many grew tired of the search or lost hope in the finding. The heavy responsibilities of adulthood and parenthood made it more and more difficult for them to maintain their newfound freedoms, so that little by little, vegetarianism, honesty, country and communal living became less important to them, and the comforts and approval of the old age, more tempting.
Those who persevered eventually formed what is now called The New Age Movement. But by then, they had forgotten that truths are not transitory beliefs that can be altered with one’s changing perceptions, but are pure and absolutely true for all time.
Now, in the present New Age, it is difficult to recognize the ideals that were its foundation.
The true meaning of the word ‘love’, which was their sole weapon against the violence they deplored; the word that poets and philosophers throughout the ages have described as the most potent catalyst known for the evolution of humankind; the word that Emerson has defined as ‘the enchantment of human life’ and ‘a synonym for God’ seems to have been lost in translation.
The sad and serious state of our world cries out for a Newer Age, in which that holy word is lived upon the heights where it belongs; a truly loving age, in which violence and cruelty have been abolished, and compassion, which is the heart of love, is exalted as a spiritual standard and a living ethic.
People of this Newer Age will go beyond being vegetarian. With their enhanced sensitivity and evolved sense of justice, they will see clearly the simple truth that there is cruelty and injustice inherent in all animal products and businesses, and so, will stop using any of them.
This vegan evolution will inspire a heightened spiritual awareness, purify the body, and make possible personal and planetary healing unprecedented in human history.
As long as human beings have inhabited this earth, they have lived in fear of the violence of other human beings. In the coming Newer Age of reverence for life, that fear will, at long last, be replaced by trust… the essential pre-requisite for the peaceful world we all long for.
The flame of hope that burned in the minds and hearts of the revolutionaries of the sixties shone a light on a new age of greater freedom. That flame still burns, brighter than ever, illuminating our path to a Newer Age of freedom that is truly for all.
