Dominion (2018)

Nice quote! For the record that comes from the Gospel of Thomas which was recovered from the Nag Hammadi collection. The Gospel of Thomas is not Sethian, Valentinian or even "Gnostic" since it is just a collection of sayings -- it doesn't talk about a creation narrative like other Gnostic works or a narrative of Jesus's life like the canonical Christian gospels. It is an outsider work through and through. To me, the Gospel of Thomas sayings are closer to the Islamic sayings of Jesus -- just things widely circulated and bound to be attributed to a spiritual leader. Very spiritual, very electric.

That particular quote is tough and obviously has nothing to do with vegetarianism but it's cool to think about from the vantage point of consuming an enemy spirit from the inside out. A few months back I was researching the influence of the Tao te Ching on the Art of War and stumbled on a quote by Herman Hesse. I have not found the source but just this snippet cited by Hesse. Bear in mind the following was written well before the rise of China:

"Years ago a Chinese devotee of his country’s old and venerable ideas spoke of these developments in terms that have no bearing on politics but are close to the spirit of the Tao Tê Ching. He spoke roughly as follows: Let the Japanese or other nations conquer us, take possession of our country, and run our government. Let them! It will be seen that we are the weaker, that we can be conquered and gobbled up. Let that happen, if that is China’s destiny! But when the others have gobbled us up, it remains to be seen whether they will be able to digest us. It may well turn out that our government and army, administration and finances will be Japanese, American, and English but that the conquerors will be powerless to change China, that on the contrary they will be conquered and changed by the spirit of China. For China is weak in the art of war and in political organization but rich in life, rich in spirit, rich in ancient culture."

That may or may not be true of China as a country but I think it is true of the Tao te Ching thought which even today still influences many spiritual leaders (Eckhart Tolle being perhaps one of the more recent ones).