When considering the advantages of a vegetarian diet, we often associate them with the well-being of our physical bodies. Medical professionals and researchers have highlighted these benefits, recommending vegetarianism as a means to reduce ailments and enhance our overall health and wellness. However, throughout history, numerous individuals have embraced plant-based diets for reasons extending beyond mere physical health. The universe of vegetarians is populated with spiritually enlightened people. Philosophers, thinkers, writers, civic leaders, and humanitarians throughout history have also adopted the vegetarian diet. Many athletes became vegetarian and gained recognition for their outstanding performance. Veganism and vegetarianism have frequently been associated with spirituality. Veganism and vegetarianism are either inherent in certain essential spiritual beliefs or deeply embedded in some religious traditions. Vegan spirituality is emerging to meet the needs of ethical and spiritual vegans.
The Spiritual and Ethical Dimensions of Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is consistent with leading a life of nonviolence. Many faith traditions teach a common principle-thou shalt not kill. The Golden Rule implores us to do unto others as we would have others do unto us. We need only to look at animals-such as a turkey, cow, or chicken being slaughtered for food or a fish caught on a fishing hook writhing in pain-to realize the suffering they undergo in these violent acts. There are those who may think animals, birds, and fish are not conscious. However, think of those who own a pet such as a dog or cat. They treat the animal as if it were a human member of the family. The lower forms of life may not have the faculty to know themselves as humans do, but they certainly qualify scientifically under the rubric of living forms-they grow, breathe, eat, and reproduce. They also feel pain. Love for all extends to all life forms, including insects, reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals. To love all includes loving all creation.
Nonviolence recognizes that all animals and all people are children of God. Another spiritual reason for being a vegetarian is to avoid lowering our spiritual consciousness with the vibrations of the animals we ingest. When we eat an animal, we are making that animal a part of us. Think of the fear that an animal would be feeling at the end of its life, caged and mistreated, and then on the way to the slaughterhouse. Think of the tremendous fear and panic the animal experiences as it is being killed. We know that when we experience fear, the hormones of cortisol and adrenaline are released in our body. They affect us by putting the body in stress and breaking down bodily functions.
To this end, there’s a wonderful anecdote from the life of St. Francis of Assisi. One day, he saw a man carrying two lambs on his shoulders. St. Francis asked him what he was doing with the lambs. When the man replied that he was taking them to the market for sale to the slaughterhouse, St. Francis’s heart was filled with compassion for the animals. Similarly, we need to be loving and caring to all God’s creatures. The word ecology involves the root word oikos, meaning “home.” Ecologists regard the whole planet as our home. In terms of maintaining the earth’s resources through a vegetarian diet, scientists have explained that the grain needed to feed one cow to be slaughtered for food could be used to feed many times that amount of people. In looking at the earth and a growing population, the vegetarian diet offers a more efficient use of our resources.
Vegetarianism and Meditation: Enhancing Spiritual Progress
One of the spiritual reasons to be vegetarian is to boost one’s meditation. A vegetarian diet aids our growth in meditation if we seek to perceive ourselves as souls. In meditation, if we wish to experience ourselves as soul, a vegetarian diet speeds our progress. To enter realms of light and love, we need to develop ethical virtues. We need to have the purity of heart by which we can experience the Creator. Vegetarianism is the most compassionate diet since it consists of consuming foods that cause the least amount of life damage. A vegetarian diet is essential for those who desire to achieve rapid growth in meditation, as well as spiritual growth. One of the spiritual motivations for being a vegetarian is to improve one’s meditation skills. If we want to experience ourselves as souls in meditation, a vegetarian diet will help us get there faster. To access the worlds of light and love, we must cultivate ethical values.
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For those who are seeking to improve in meditation, including for spiritual growth, vegetarianism offers another benefit. Meditation requires stillness. Our attention is usually focused on the outer sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations of this world, which keeps us from tuning ourselves to the spiritual gifts within. To concentrate in meditation, we need to be calm and collected. What benefit do we gain from avoiding foods from dead animals? One benefit is that avoiding such foods can raise our consciousness. We know the effect that our own hormones have on our body. Just imagine how many stress hormones we are adding which were circulating in the animals, birds, or fish when they were being killed or slaughtered to be used as meat! That is all forming a part of us when we partake of it. For those who wish to achieve spiritual growth and lead a life of nonviolence and love for all creation, then a vegetarian diet can help.
Spirituality: Love, Compassion, and Connection
Spirituality is not only concerned with our own inner development but is a way of living wherein we have love and concern for all life in creation. Spirituality involves bringing us closer to our true nature, our true Self, which is one with God. Just as God is love, the way back to God is also through love. When we are loving to all people and all forms of life, we are on the way back to God. Those who have been successful on the spiritual path know that vegetarianism aids meditation and spiritual progress. Spirituality is concerned not only with uncovering our own inner side but also with having love and compassion for all life in creation. Spirituality is about becoming closer to our genuine essence, our inner self, which is one with God.
As God created this universe, the earth, and its creatures, it is natural for us to respect all life rather than destroy what God has created. Those who are truly connected with God feel a love for all creatures, great and small. This Light exists as much in the humble ant as in the powerful lion. It shines in the snake as well as the cow. It shimmers in the fish, as well as the birds. When we look at life through the eyes of the soul, we witness God in even the humblest and most grotesque of creatures. When we look at life through the consciousness of the soul, we begin to live in a gentler manner and start respecting all forms of life. This is one of the reasons that many people who are in touch with their soul turn to a vegetarian diet.
Veganism, Yoga, and Spiritual Practice
In this article, author and activist Carol Adams explores the balance between the inner life of spiritual growth and the outer life of practical compassion. She shows reasons why becoming a complete vegetarian (i.e., no eggs or dairy), or vegan is deeply wedded to one’s spiritual life and to Yoga practice. There has been an unfortunate divide between vegetarians and spiritual practitioners. Vegetarians may be reluctant to cultivate a spiritual practice because they see many religious and spiritual traditions that seem to condone the eating of meat. I believe that we human beings often fail to recognize that we, too, are animals, that we are part of nature-and that we are all interconnected and interrelated. For me, living a spiritual life means honoring these interrelationships.
Most of us in the United States eat factory-farmed animals. Even if people eat organic meat, they know that the animal was still killed. We can look at the anxiety and guilt and say to them, “You are here to teach me and I want to know what you have to teach me.” Or we can say, “I banish you, anxiety and guilt, because you get in the way of my pleasure. One way I banish you is to begin to spiritualize meat eating. I thank the animal for ‘its’ sacrifice so I can have my lunch and not give up my dead chicken salad.” But here’s the problem: Were the animals asked? They don’t go peacefully to their death. Why do we assume they are willingly participating in this sacrifice to us? Why should they, and not we, make a sacrifice? The spiritualization of meat eating is often the most egregiously self-interested.
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Some people think they’re going to harm themselves in some way if they give up meat. Defensiveness keeps them from connecting the dots between their health and the health of our environment. Our culture has educated everyone to think we need meat, and most of us like the taste of dead animals before we even know what-actually who-we are eating. Most parents lie to their kids, telling them the animals wanted to give up their lives for us and that they didn’t suffer. Other people think that by becoming vegetarians, or vegans, they are going to experience scarcity. Really, to be a vegetarian, to be a vegan, is to celebrate the bounty of good food that grows out of the earth. The fundamental question meat eaters have is really a deeply spiritual question, they just don’t know how to ask it. Our culture hasn’t equipped us to talk at that level, so they ask about all the historical, theoretical and nutritional issues-but they are just a cover for the spiritual issue: Are you at peace with being a vegan? Meat eaters want to be reassured they will be happy and not miss their hamburger by becoming vegan. Rather than evangelizing nonstop, I think vegans should show that we are at peace.
Vegetarianism arises from a desire for wholeness; it acknowledges the interconnectedness of all beings and expresses compassion toward them; it is about living ahimsa, the absence of violence. To be vegan is to do the least harm possible and, for me, this is a very spiritual path, a path with integrity. It may seem as though vegetarianism and spirituality are speaking different languages. Within most western spiritual traditions it may appear that we don’t have many concepts that help us with this-but what can take us beyond the impasse is spiritual vegetarianism. Spiritual vegetarianism is a practice that links us to the natural world in which we live and our inner nature. It is a tangible spiritual practice with compassion at its center. Because we eat, our day helps to shape it; if we have made the commitment to it, our day pulls us forward into it. Spiritual vegetarianism is meditation in action; it involves focusing our attention so we are actively engaged with being here now. Spiritual vegetarianism is being grounded within oneself. A vegetarian lifestyle extends and enables spiritual connections. Veganism can deepen our spiritual practice in so many ways. It awakens us to our attachments and asks that we confront our beliefs about why that attachment is appropriate and acceptable, in this case why meat eating is appropriate and acceptable. It exposes us to uncomfortable feelings around guilt, suffering, relationships, human and non-human hierarchies and it asks us to create some movement within ourselves. It enables us to become more compassionate.
Spiritual vegetarianism provides the practice of meditative eating so that we can express connection to the universe as we assemble, serve, eat, and clean up after our meals. It gives us an opportunity to overcome the fragmentation of spirit and self that the world perpetuates. The world wants us to be disconnected. The world wants us to see ourselves as in competition with other animals and to believe that it’s either their lives or our freedom to eat. If you are a Yoga practitioner who eats meat-because you are confused or too frightened or too attached to meat eating to give it up-start your spiritual work by understanding your confusion, fear or attachment. I was told, in Yoga class, when we are in a pose and we want to get out of it, we should continue to hold it so the feeling can pass and we can find the fullness in the pose. The same could be said for the question: When I find myself, a budding vegetarian, with hackneyed claims and unsophisticated excuses for being non-vegetarian, why not hold the pose and find out what I am really feeling here? As Yoga practitioners, what is the basis of our Yoga practice? If I practice Yoga and then I walk out of the room, am I leaving my Yoga practice there? If I am, there’s a larger problem than just eating dead animals. On the door of my Yoga room I have the saying: “Yoga is the remedy.” I love that. What’s the problem? It doesn’t matter. Yoga is the remedy.
You may have the thought, “I don’t want to give up meat.” Hold the thought. Many people are afraid to acknowledge how threatening veganism is. Why? Because it asks us to become conscious about eating. We like to live our lives a bit unconscious, particularly when it comes to eating. Food carries rewards. If we were good, we got a milkshake. Food rewards are greater when encountered without a lot of conscious commitment and acknowledgement of how it’s functioning. What is the whole point of Yoga practice? It calms us down. It quiets the front brain, the part that is always working and anxious: Should I get out of trikonasana now because I really do have to make that phone call? Veganism works the same way. It calms us down. Yoga takes us from the known to the unknown, and we do it step by step. A spiritual practice is something we develop by taking a first step, like going to Yoga class for the first time. We can’t take the second step until we take the first. Veganism gives us a way to learn how to take steps. It allows us to experience the kind of integration we know through Yoga. My body, mind and spirit are integrated with a common goal. I don’t have to fragment myself off from the guilt, the desire or whatever. Instead, I can question it and I can find out I am living peacefully by being integrated. In becoming a vegetarian, I learned first from what I could not change about myself. And then, from not changing, I learned how to change-how to align consciousness and action. By deciding to change to become a vegetarian and then by changing, I began to experience the world in a more positive way. I learned how to make a commitment and then I learned how to keep a commitment. Anyone who wants to change the world or themselves can learn this too. Because of vegetarianism, I became a meditator. I had something within to nurture. When we integrate something desired, like veganism, Yoga practice, meditation or ritual into our lives, we communicate with that part of the self that desires wholeness. In integrating, we create an internal shift. The qualities inherent to the kinds of spirituality we see arising in maintaining a practice also apply to veganism. I’m uncomfortable sitting, but I keep sitting. I’m afraid, so I try the pose a different way. Yoga has a learning curve. We want to get to the place where we are limber, but wherever we are is where we are supposed to be. If our hamstrings are tight, there’s something to learn there. We can find that edge. We spend so much time fighting it, that we don’t allow ourselves to be taught by it.
To an outsider, being vegan may be viewed as rigid, controlling or whatever label is put on it to keep it on the outside. But, to a Yoga practitioner, veganism is something we bring within and interact with. We ask ourselves, “What’s attracting me about that meal? What’s going on with my ability to discount the cow? What is desire? What is comfort? I think it’s important to say that, as Yoga practitioners, we have chosen a physical as well as spiritual practice. We’ve acknowledged that how we exist on the physical plane is a spiritual issue. Yoga works with the body. If my body matters as a Yoga practitioner, don’t other bodies matter? Where do we stop then? Look at all the poses named after animals-crow, cobra, peacock, dog, eagle, crane, cow, fish. Yogis see the universe in the body. We talk about chakras. I feel that meat eaters are stuck at a chakra-I think of the blood redness of the first chakra. I even wonder if meat eating is a question presenting itself to spiritual practitioners to allow them to move energy forward. We can either stay fixed at that level or move through the chakras. Why do we let the ego continue its attachment to meat? No matter what form of Yoga we do, it’s a gentle practice. Our goal isn’t to twist an ankle or pull a hamstring. Our goal may be to go to an edge but not beyond it. It’s gentle change. If there’s a spirit of gentleness that we’re following, does it end? Doesn’t gentleness ripple out into the world? The Bhagavad Gita says that the yogi sees herself “in the heart of all beings, and all beings in her heart.” I think that is a good definition of spiritual vegetarianism.
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Carol J. Adams has been a vegetarian since 1974 and has raised two vegetarian children, who continue as happy vegetarians in their adulthood. She is the author of The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, Living among Meat-Eaters, The Inner Art of Vegetarianism, Prayers for Animals and How to Eat Like a Vegetarian Even If You Never Want to Be One. She has also edited several anthologies on the connection between feminism and animal issues and is a nationally known lecturer.
Veganism and Spiritual Awakening
I think most of us can agree that 2020 has been a challenging year on many fronts. Many of us are awakening to new thoughts and ideas, to new ways of being. And some are undergoing a Spiritual Awakening of sorts. While many people choose to go vegan after they experience a Spiritual Awakening, for me it was the opposite. I experienced a Spiritual Awakening after going vegan. My whole outlook on life changed when I made the decision to be vegan. I became much more aware and conscientious as a person. While I was always a nature and animal lover, I was not living in alignment with my truest values. By making the decision to stop eating meat and all animal products, I began making connections to everything in my life and to my place in the universe. This is why many people who have gone through a Spiritual Awakening choose to no longer eat animals. Spiritual awakenings can happen at any moment or time in our lives. Sending love and blessings to all those who are currently awakening, have already awakened, or who are about to awaken. Stay strong and have faith…. “The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation.
Additional Benefits of Veganism
Veganism has several health benefits, including improved heart health and a lower risk of cancer and diabetes. Vegans tend to be slimmer, have lower cholesterol, and have lower blood pressure, and there is some evidence that there are other health advantages that can contribute to a higher life expectancy. Veganism may help you feel better in every way, including your mind. A vegan diet has been shown to help with depression and mood. It’s becoming apparent that foods that are good for our physical health are also good for our mental health.
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