Nonviolence, Hypocrisy and Veganism
I have only been in one fight. It was in the third grade. I don’t recall what the impetus was but it ended up in a war of words between me and another boy on the basketball court. I remember deciding to hit him but when I went to strike my arm went slack. It was as if my body overrode my minds directive and I was incapable of trying to harm him.
The other boy did not have the same issue and I was quickly pinned and squirming to be free. The only black girl in our class, La Tisha, came to my aid and pushed him off of me before he got any punches in. We were friends and no one messed with La Tisha.
I can trace my inclination for yoga back to that day. I learned something important about myself. I am not naturally inclined towards violence. Even as a boy, I recognized that this was not true of everyone. As an adult, it makes sense that I embrace a life philosophy that puts a premium on nonviolence.
The first yama of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra’s is ahimsa, often translated as “non-harming.” Aligning myself with Yoga turned something that I had always seen as a weakness into a strength.
Yet, somewhere along the way, an unconscious loophole developed. While I was incapable of intentionally doing others wrong, I seemed to have no problem doing considerable inadvertent harm to myself. In fairness, I was under the impression that I was working towards enlightenment and did not grasp the full extent to which I was mistreating myself.
I remember a particular occasion when I was teaching one of my trademark power vinyasa classes. I was barking out my well prepared sequence and, instead of my usual attention to everyone’s alignment, I happened to be noticing the facial expressions of the people in my class.
They looked miserable. They were filled with struggle and strain, just doing their best to get through and not enjoying themselves much in the process. There was a distinct lack of joy.
Afterwards, several students came up to thank me and tell me how great the class was. It made me feel uncomfortable. Walking home, I kept thinking: “What am I doing?”
Fact is, I was proficient in the practice I was teaching but it was not really helping me feel well. I had a lot of chronic pain that I rarely admitted to, even to myself. I was convinced it meant “opening.” Shortly thereafter, I blew my knee out doing Baddhakonasana with a belt and an assist. For all my diligent studies and abilities, super yogi couldn’t walk.
Around that same time, a friend of mine attended a large yoga event in NYC with a venerable teacher, considered to be a living “master.” She was one of a very small percentage of the 600 participants to have the guru assist her in one of her poses, only to have her hamstring connector popped at his forceful hand. I remember seeing her several days later, she was still in considerable pain.
Experiences like this have often left me feeling horribly disenchanted with the yoga community. The issue of overly forceful assists aside, how can yoga teachers who espouse ahimsa not be held accountable for harm done under their auspices? Adding insult to injury, common in hip yoga circles today is to cite ahimsa as a case for veganism. Basically, Patanjali says that if you want to be a real yogi then you can’t eat animal products.
I have been vegetarian for twenty years. I was vegan for three of them but it left me somewhat anemic. Introducing eggs and cheese into my diet made me feel better. I continue to maintain a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet because that’s what feels right for me, not because I think eating meat is wrong. I do try to eat organic but I don’t know exactly where all the eggs and cheese I eat is coming from, nor do I know the treatment of the animals who provide me this food.
While it would be nice if this were different and modern food production was not so dictated by corporate profits, I still think it strains common sense to suggest that my eating habits constitute violence. Especially, when the assertion comes from teachers who do not take personal responsibility for injuries that readily happen in their classes.
Another way ahimsa can be translated is “loving kindness and compassion.” There is a big difference between simply being nonviolent and actually being kind. I figure, if you can learn to show yourself and others genuine kindness, which most certainly includes not over working and harming your body in practice, and you enjoy eating meat, you’re still gonna be OK with the yoga powers that be.
It’s been my misfortune to discover that yoga teachers and practitioners who preach the loudest about veganism are often the most brutal on their own bodies, or their students bodies. Ahimsa seems to me to be last thing on their minds
Mostly this comes across as a justification for an eating disorder, body image issues and a manifestation of a rigid mindset, although there are exceptions.
While being a vegan is all the rage, I often wonder why Patanjali’s Sutras are taken as the ultimate rationale for the western beliefs and practices of Hatha Yoga? Asana practice is Hatha yoga and Patanjali actually has very little to say about Hatha Yoga.
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a manual of hatha yoga practice and yet it is largely ignored, because studying it would take a little effort, and scholarship. It’s so easy to quote sutras that are aphorisms – you can make them mean anything you want them to.
Niki,
I’m afraid it’s true. Patanjali did say that Yogis must be vegetarian.
A Yogi must be vegetarian, because the Hindu science of Yoga proscribes violence towards the defenceless, via the Principle of Ahimsa, which is enshrined within the Hindu science of Yoga. Ahimsa must not be confused with cowardice, for participation in a Dharma-Yudh (a noble, selfless war, fought against the forces of evil, in order to uphold righteousness) is not only encouraged, it is demanded of all right-thinking men and women.
Every discipline makes certain demands of its disciples. This holds true for any of the Oriental martial arts such as Kung-fu, Karate, Tae-kwon-do, etc.
And just so does the Hindu science of Yoga demand vegetarianism from its disciples.
One cannot have one’s Mat AND one’s Meat. So, we must choose wisely !
If you don’t know the difference between the terms ‘vegan’ and ‘vegetarian’, there’s very little that can be said
Vegetarian is a good starting point for a Yogi, with Vegan being the desired goal.
Veganism is *not* the desired goal. Reading the older texts, they clearly indicate ghee is considered a sattvic (and thereby desireable) food, as are some other animal products. You are importing a Jainist notion of ahimsa (or more likely, a Western, leftist view of animal rights or environmentalism) into the Yogic nutritional recommendations based on ayurveda.
Hey Chris-
Respectfully, Yoga predates Hinduism. The “Hindu Science of Yoga”, as you refer to it, represents only one strain of classical yoga, which is based on a dualistic framework and is a departure from the “Pre-Classical” or “Archaic” origins of Yoga. As Georg Feuerstein, a prominent Yoga scholar, writes:
“Archaic Yoga is nothing like Patanjali’s well-known eightfold path or the better known approach of Hatha-Yoga with its elaborate arsenal of postures (asana). From what we can gather from the Vedic hymns, Archaic Yoga was less individualistic and, like shamanism, more intrinsically linked to the weal of the community rather than the salvation of the individual. Its principle concern was to discover cosmic order through inspired inner vision, and to help preserve that order in the realm of human interaction through appropriate attitudes and actions.”
Having offered that, Sanskrit texts are open to wide interpretation. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras can be interpreted in non-dual, dual and religious ways. I only mean to represent my viewpoint. You are certainly entitled to yours.
I might add that while there are parallels between Yoga and martial arts, there are some fundamental differences (“martial” being the key word.) I also take some issue with the notion that Yoga demands anything of us. Yoga is a fact. Breath coming in and out, heart beating, sun, moon and stars circumambulating, Life is occurring. Yoga.
Yoga does not demand anything of us. Perhaps it asks something of us but it need not demand. Male doctrine holders who have co-opted Yoga as a vehicle for power and influence make demands. Yoga is a nurturing force that expresses itself as Life.
JB,
Quote : “From what we can gather from the Vedic hymns, Archaic Yoga was less individualistic and, like shamanism, more intrinsically linked to the weal of the community rather than the salvation of the individual.” End-quote.
Vedic Hymns = Hinduism.
So, Yoga is a Hindu science, a Hindu practice. Hinduism is the source, the mother of Yoga.
So, Yoga could not possibly predate Hinduism.
Yoga does too demand vegetarianism. However, you are right, Yoga asks gently, nicely, not rudely
.
“Vedic Hymns = Hinduism”
I respectfully disagree. Hinduism may have evolved out of the early hymns but, as far as I know, there is no mention of Hindu deities in the Rig-Veda.
At least we can agree that Yoga is not rude.
Cheers.
It is woven through Buddhism, Hinduism & Jainism…
What no mention of that kid who took your Squirmels and pushed you into the wall so that you needed stitches? Fights with your brother don’t count?
Brothers horsing around and ruining their parents night out definitely does not count. Haven’t thought of Squirmels in years.
Not wanting to fight does not equal being truly non-violent or being kind. some folks(and families) are brutal with words and other actions that don’t leave bruises. Childhood aggression, anger, frustration and status seeking is expressed through name-calling, shunning, ignoring, “teasing,” laughing at, and not helping as well as through pushing tripping, pinching, shoving & punching and we al have to learn to own not just reject those feelings as we learn to control them. La Tisha’s push could have been delivered in anger at the mean kid or in the almost automatic fear for everyone’s safety a caretaker child learns very young—I kept on breaking up fights all my life to protect my little bro, then the taunted special kid to drunken grownups as a grownup–it comes in part from having seen people hurt but it’s not necessarily from a place of calm unless you’re the teacher and you’re sure none of the kids have knives.
And the kids who act it out are not necessarily any more angry or mean or violent than the ones who hide—often it’s just what’s normal & expected in their family/neighborhood.
I don’t think ahimsa is just a a style you or I choose because it suits our nature. I think it’s a challenge for anyone. Wasn’t it your superior or at least equally aggressive combat in the “war of words” that escalated the playground dispute ? He couldn’t get you to stop whatever upsetting things you were saying so he pinned you. And did you stop the verbal aggression then?
It’s fine to rank & rate what is “worse” harm and/or acceptable harm, helpful to your students(as a new reader of your blog, I’d gratefully count myself as one) to explain your philosophy, but the implication that particular vegan teachers have specifically called you out for eating eggs and cheese while repeatedly injuring students seems like a very serious and scary situation apart from how you made your decision.
Was the guru even a vegan, and how did that influence his behavior? I’ve been had unwanted, unexpected forced painful positioning from two senior teacher and while I would not generalize based on their school/training/masters to others of their training, neither were vegans. As a matter of fact, both followed strong aryuvedic tradition–very anti-vegan re diet. The one who injured me to the point of yes not being able to walk, surgery recommended physical therapy & yoga hiatus was an aryuvedic practioner, very anti-vegan. The style of guru who feels comfortable pushing you deeper without knowing anything more about your joints or muscles except that you are not squatting low enough can be attributed to many influences more traditional and widespread in the last 150 years of yoga than veganism!