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Compassion, Diet,
Strength & Happiness
 Compassion
is an essential ingredient in the practice of ahimsa
(non-harming), the first of the five yamas (ethical
restraints) in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Through
compassion, you begin to see yourself in other
beings. This helps you refrain from causing harm to
them. But developing compassion does something else
that is of special interest to the yogi: It trains
the mind to see past outer differences of form. The
yogi begins to catch glimpses of the inner essence
of other beings, which is happiness, and begins to
see that every single creature desires happiness.
To develop compassion, examine the
motives for your actions. Are they selfish or
unselfish' Proclaiming that it is acceptable to eat
meat because it makes you healthier, for example, is
a himsic, or "harmful," attitude because the action
of eating meat stems from a selfish motive -your
concern for your own personal health or enjoyment.
When you realize that cows and chickens want
happiness just as you do, you see them as kindred
souls: the distinction between you and other beings
wears thin as awareness begins to dawn.
In truth, we all share
consciousness, and harm inflicted upon one being, be
it animal or human, is felt by all sooner or later.
Some meat eaters like to argue that vegetables have
feelings too, so what difference does it make if we
eat chickens or carrots? The answer is simple:
Patanjali gives ahimsa as a practice, meaning that
you do your best to cause the least amount of harm.
And it is clear that a vegetarian diet causes the
least amount of harm to the planet and to all
creatures.
Generally speaking, the "disease of
disconnection" plagues the human condition. As a
species, we are not at ease with ourselves - with
our bodies, with our minds or with our feelings. We
are not at ease with others - with other human
beings as well as other animals. We can be nervous,
competitive, fearful and worried; we crave respect
and approval while simultaneously seeking dominance
and power. We certainly aren't at ease with our
environment, and are constantly altering it to suit
our needs or wants with little regard for how our
actions impact others or the earth. This dis-ease
causes all sorts of problems. We are destroying
ourselves, as well as other animal species and the
planet, in a misguided quest to find happiness, or
ease of being.
By enslaving and abusing other
animals in order to feed and clothe ourselves, we
deprive them of freedom and happiness. How can we
hope to be free or happy when our own lives are
rooted in depriving others of the very thing we say
we value most in life -the freedom to pursue
happiness? If you want to bring more peace and
happiness into your own life, stop subjecting others
to violence and unhappiness.
We tell our children that "might
does not make right," and yet we throw this
high-minded idea out the window when it comes to the
everyday reality of using might to humiliate,
torture and kill the animals we raise for food.
Maitri-adishu balani PYS III.24:
Through compassion,
strength comes.
This sutra expresses a radical
concept because it challenges the message of our
enculturation, which is that strength comes from
weakening another. The fork can be a powerful weapon
of mass destruction or a tool to lead a movement of
peaceful co-existence. Eating a compassionate,
vegetarian diet will stop war and create peace in
one's body, peace with animal nations and peace on
earth.
Besides, it is very
radical to be a vegetarian during these times! As
Ingrid Newkirk, founder of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA), reminds us: "Never be
afraid of seeming radical. All the best people in
history have always been radical." The word radical,
like the word radish, derives from rad, meaning
"root." A radical is someone who attempts to dig to
the root of a situation. Yogis have always been
radical. Yogis search for root causes because they
understand that effective change can occur only if
you change a course of action from the causal point.
Failure to understand this is why so many
"liberating" revolutions of the past never elicited
long-lasting, positive change. They dealt only with
surface symptoms, not the root causes of social and
cultural problems.
Yoga means "liberation.' Slavery is
contrary to liberation. We can never become free by
taking away the freedom of others. Through the
practice of yoga, we begin to recognize ourselves as
not separate from the whole, and we realize that
what we do to others, we ultimately do to ourselves.
Yoga is said to be the perfection of
action by the removal of selfish motivation. The
yogi uses the world we live in, and the way we
interact with the world, as a vehicle for
transformation. A vegan diet offers an informed,
intelligent, conscious and yogic way to act
perfectly each time we make a choice about how we
consume the world, rather than focusing on how to
consume the world.
As we become more Self-confident, we
become less fearful. We become less self-absorbed,
and our ability to feel life all around allows us to
hear what life is trying to communicate to us
through nature. Through the animals and trees, water
and air, the message is simple yet profound: All of
life is interconnected. What we do to others affects
us all. When we begin to feel this, we can free
ourselves from the false idea that the earth belongs
to us, and instead use our lives to benefit others.
In turn, we will become happy as we discover that
the best way to uplift our own lives is to do all we
can to uplift the lives of others.
-Adapted from Yoga and Vegetarianism, by Sharon
Gannon, November 2008
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