~ A text by Irma ten Brink ~

The Asharum has now been cooking vegan for more than two years.
Time to look back!

We became vegan quite suddenly and it was an inspirational boost.
We dived into it, looking for recipes and how to transform our meals into vegan meals since especially our breakfast and supper where leaning on cheese and yoghurt.

Replacing these products with fake cheese and fake yoghurt was not an option because we wanted to offer tasty and healthy meals so we needed other menus.

Hearing back from our clients we think we succeeded. A few of our B&B comments:
“Nice stay! We are not vegan but enjoyed the oatmeal and fresh bread/hummus for breakfast”.
“Delicious and exciting vegan cooking”.

Last week someone said:”I did not know vegan could be so tasty”, and we hear that a lot!

Healthy cooking:

Staying healthy on a vegan diet is also a challenge. Many guests are inspired to become vegan after they have visited us. Wonderful to see how our cooking is an inspiration to others! And yes we do feel it is a much more healthy way of living!

However we always tell them not just to stop eating animal products but to do some study first to avoid vitamin deficiencies later. Also everybody has a different body which needs different care, so find out what is good for you!

For example vitamin B12 and D3 are easily missed out when you stop the animal products. On the internet a lot can be found, not all can be trusted! Some say vitamin B12 can be found in green vegetables and seaweeds, others say these are analogies which prevent the body from taking in the real B12, the one your body needs. Some take supplements to solve this. Some do blood tests but it seems that B12 is needed in the blood for the right acid-base balance so the body will take it first from the other organs before it runs out in the blood. When your blood test shows you have a shortage of B12 then you have already been short of it for a long time and you are much too late. If it says you don’t have short that can be misleading too. Naturopathics have other, more refined ways to test your vitamin and mineral levels. Find out what is best for you!

A very informative book we use a lot and which is also based on scientific research is ‘Becoming Vegan’ by Brenda Davis, RD, and Vesanto Melina, MS, RD’.

There are plans to come with a workshop this year about healthy vegan cooking. More about that later!

Ethics of Resonance

The first reason for us to become vegan is the resonance. Everything we do, feel, believe, think has a resonance and with this resonance we create our world. This is a very subtle and indirect science but also very clear and simple. And the golden rule to this is: ”never do any harm or hurt to anyone or anything”.

When respecting this rule it makes no sense at all to contribute to the bio industry in which animals are brutally hurt (calves are directly after birth separated from their mother because the milk should go to us, a heartbreaking fact it is not?) and living their life for one purpose only; to be killed and eaten.

Yoginâm wrote a lot about this topic since ethics is at the base of spirituality. Without ethics there is no spirituality. For those who like to read more about this we recommend his books.

Yoginâm about Attunement

Upcoming period during the visit of Yoginâm Frédéric in Asharum Amonines he will be talking about ‘Living in Attunement as the Principle, the Purpose and the Practice of the Yoga of Nâm’.

For those who live in Attunement ethics of resonance is a natural thing. Ethics in this way is not something you must do because it is a law, it is something you want to do, it is a natural movement.