Miryai Mt Diet vs Jain Food Theory
Gnostic Teachings of Miryai Mt.
In the Living Gods, Let the hallowed Light of Transcendent Truth be praised. Let the Sweet Mystery of Miryai awaken in the heart of hearts.

On Miryai Mt we are very aware of the need to minimize harm while living on this planet and few traditions can claim greater sensitivity to this issue than the Jain which for thousands of years has maintained a tradition of harmlessness, which they call Ahimsa.  They not only respect higher life forms, but all forms of life, even bacteria and microbes. They go to great lengths to minimize their impact on these various life forms in order to not acquire negative karma. In order to do so purposely they have categorized various forms of life on different levels and maintain the tradition that it is always better to disturb or destroy life on a lower level verses a higher one. The quality of the life form is always paramount to the quantity. For instance, they think it better to take the life of hundreds of lesser life forms (plants) rather than take the life of one higher life form (mammal). Tibetans, for instance, think it better to eat beef than chickens since only one cow life must be sacrificed verses hundreds of chickens to provide the same amount of meat. A Jain would never think it appropriate to kill the one life of a whale instead of thousands of plants even though each might provide the same amount of food, since they deem the jiva life form of a plant to be so much less than the jiva life form of a whale. Jainism has classified all the living beings according to their five senses of  touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing.

    Living being with five senses - humans, animals, birds, heavenly and hellish beings
    Living being with four senses - flies, bees, etc.
    Living being with three senses- ants, lice, etc.
    Living being with two senses - worms, leaches, etc.
    Living being with one sense - above ground plants, below ground plants, water, air, earth, fire etc.
 
 

The long-standing reluctance of various religions on the Indian subcontinent to eating onions, garlic, leeks and other alliums (as well as most other roots by Jains) seems to be very ancient. It may go back to early Vedic times when foods were categorized into three groups, and those termed "tamasic", like onions, garlic, meat, alcohol, tobacco, fermented foods, vinegar, and stale left over food, contaminated or overripe substances were frowned upon. Or it may go back to the tradition from whence Jains derived their attitude toward roots. Egyptian Temple priests reportedly would not allow onions either. Whatever the original source, this attitude toward pungent allium roots is found in Buddhism, an offshoot of Jainism, as well as Hinduism. It even surfaced in Christianity for a time before going out of style. Many of these traditions also teach that onions and garlic increase desire, or even anger when eaten raw. Japanese and Korean Temple food still avoids the five pungent plants on this premise. Ancient Manichaean Gnostics absolutely ate them and they are eaten on Miryai Mt.
 
 

•     Night Meals are forbidden because of the many creatures that come out at night and which may be accidentally killed due to poor lighting or attraction to fire. Comment: This may have made sense thousands of years ago, but with modern lighting it does not seem necessary.
•     Freshness:   Food must be prepared fresh daily. Keeping cooked food overnight is forbidden. Ground spices have an expiry of 3 days during rain, 5 days in summer and 7 days in winter.Comment: A rule put in place before modern refridgeration and freezers. Food should be as fresh as possible, however.
•     Vegetarianism: Traditionally Jains have been lacto-vegetarians, but modern dairy farming methods, particularly what happens to the male calves (the veal market) has caused many to pursue a vegan diet eating no animal products.Comment: Vegan is the least harmful diet.
•     Water is filtered through three layers of cotton cloth before use for cooking or drinking. Water should boiled and cooled before drinking to avoid illness caused by micro-organisms. Illness is thought to engender intolerance. Comment: Clean tested well water filtered thru a whole house filter is adequate. Many municiple and rural water sources are now contaminated by heavy metals, fertilizer and drug residue, and bacteria.
•     Root Vegetables: (potatoes, carrots, turnips) are forbidden because uprooting a plant kills it (non-violence) and because many tiny creatures may inhabit roots.Comment: It is thought more harmful if a life of higher forms (more than one sense) is killed. Because of this Jainism allows one to eat only vegetables. All non-vegetarian food entails the killing of a living being with two or more senses and is prohibited. Jains further classify plants into two categories, the root plants like carrots, potatoes and onions, and above ground plants which are on a higher level. They feel above ground plants possess a single life each, but underground tubers contain uncountable lives. They refer to these underground clusters of life force as nigodas and forbid eating them because of this, yet this approach does not gel with their larger aim of sacrificing many lives on a lower level in order to preserve one life on a higher level. All Jain scholars agree that root vegetables are on a lower level than other plants. Muni Shri Nyayvijayji, a scholar and writer of Jainism, has pointed out the inconsistency of this stance against eating of roots. He argues that "Since we believe in minimizing ‘himsa’, someone may argue that killing a very large animal (one soul) to feed many humans for many days is better than killing numerous vegetable souls to hardly feed one human for one day. Thus amount of ‘Himsa’ is linked with the number of souls being killed. Muni Shri explains that this is incorrect argument. According to Jain thinking, the level of ‘himsa’ is dependent not on the quantity of souls but on the level of consciousness of the killed soul. Thus, killing one soul of higher consciousness is more harmful than killing many souls of lower consciousness. Based on this argument, killing of many vegetables over one animal for meat is preferred by Jains. Using same argument, consumption of root vegetable is actually better than other (’Pratyek’) vegetables !!!"
•     Beansprouts are prohibited because they are living and eating them kills the whole plant. Comment: If mungbean sprouts are eaten occassionally, then farmers will grow and seed more of them, increasing the overall life force expressing itself thru sprouts.
•     Cereal Grains are permitted. Comment: Yes, if not tainted with roundup and other chemicals and if grown in remineralized healthy soil.
•     Cactus is not eaten. Comment: The ancient reasoning behind this ancient prohibition is unclear.
•     Fruits: Most are permitted but fruits that bleed milky sap when cut, Jackfruit, for instance, are forbidden. Many Jains avoid fruits that have a red meat-like appearance (tomatoes, watermelon). Comment: Avoiding plant foods because they may look like what is eaten by omnivoirs does not sound reasonible.
•     Vegetable Greens are considered marginal because plucking them involves pain to the plant. Most Jains consider greens acceptable but cabbages and other greens where the whole top is cut and the plant thus killed are forbidden. Comment: Cabbages grow back after the head is harvested.
•     Mushrooms, Fungus and Yeasts are forbidden because they are parasites, grow in non-hygienic environments and may harbor other life forms. Comment: Shitake mushrooms grow on clean oak logs, do not harbor other life forms, and are healing in many ways. They do transform decaying wood into food however, yet the entire garden is transforming composting plant material into new life.
•     Honey is forbidden as the excrement of bees (actually they barf it up). Comment: Many modern vegans forbid honey on the grounds that some are killed. Some modern bee homes do not kill any bees at all
•     Eggs are forbidden as progeny of five-sensed beings.Comment: 
•     Cheese and Yogurt are permissible (for non vegan Jains) but must be freshly prepared on the day they are eaten and no animal rennet may be used to make them. Vegetable and Microbial rennet is acceptable but in strict practice only acid coagulated fresh cheese will fit the same day rule. The previous day's yogurt may not be use as a starter the next day.Comment: 
•     Vinegar is forbidden, it's a product of fermentation (yeast to alcohol then bacterial to vinegar).Comment: 
•     Alcohol is forbidden because it may destroy the power of discrimination, create delusions and result in ill health. Also alcoholic beverages are considered non-vegetarian because of FDA allowed additives, some of which are of animal origin.Comment: 
•     Onions, Garlic, Scallions, Chives and Leeks full under the category of "roots" the pulling of which kills the whole plant so they are forbidden.Comment: 
•     Silver Foils common in India as decoration on sweets are banned because the foils are pounded out between layers of bull intestine and are therefor not vegetarian.Comment: