02.13.20 Non-Harming Practices and Diet Culture

My dear friend sent me a link to the Yoga is Dead Podcast - Vegan’s Killed Yoga Episode and it was like a breath of fresh air. First of all, if you are a yogi, especially if you are a white yoga teacher, please subscribe to this podcast immediately. The two Indian-American hosts offer some thoughts on the practice of yoga in the west from the perspective of two South-Asian yoga teachers in the US. This podcast is a gift.

The primary focus of this episode was ahimsa or the practice of non-harming, though there are many definitions. Ahimsa is one of the 5 Yamas named in the 8 limbs of yoga. In Yoga is dead, Tejal Patel and Jesal Parikh share a long-awaited discussion about the broader implications of ahimsa beyond veganism.

It feels important to say that I have a huge amount of heartbreak around the meat and dairy industry. I actually don’t believe that eating meat, or bugs or root vegetables is necessarily a karmic problem in all instances. More than that, I believe that the constant ongoing cruel and willful pain that is caused to animals and people in the meat and dairy industry for the sake of profit is a painful symptom of an injured society. Furthermore, I believe that consumerism and consumption of all things from steak to genetically modified tomatoes and petro-plastics are symptoms of the same problem, which does have massive karmic implications for all of us.

I am an omnivore and a devout yogi. My inability to adopt veganism has been a quiet and hidden source of shame. That said, as a fat woman, it is very easy for me to apply shame to myself if the topic of food is anywhere near me. As a woman, and specifically a fat woman, I have been deeply manipulated by diet culture, which is extremely harmful. As a yogi, I am constantly seeking to unite the pieces of myself that have been fractured by deep wounds from living in an irrational society. It is the work of the yogi to evaluate what is inherent and natural about the human experience and what is just confusion brought on by our relationship to Maya. To that end, I try a lot of things with food while I try to reclaim my full human intuition with food. This means I no longer make policies for myself around food (other than eating when hungry and stopping when full) and that sometimes means I eat meat and dairy.

Tejal and Jesal left me with a few important things to think about:

Yoga is always about liberation and union. Ahimsa, as I interpreted it is about the greater practice of non-harming. I always have thought about this in a broad sense. Causing harm in any way separates us from our goodness, the divine, and our sense of self. Practicing ahimsa is important in the goal of union with the divine and liberation from the forces of confusion and oppression.

The way ahimsa was taught to me was very connected to the non-harming of animals and pointed to veganism. This is very easy to get. This has never bothered me. However, I also think of ahimsa as interrupting harm and cultivating peace both in the mind and in practice. For a person who has pretty disordered eating, I need to think hard about what this means for me.

Ahimsa and food are complicated for me. One of my favorite teachers once directed me to meditate on creating peace and nourishment before eating. This is a beautiful practice and like all practices, it is imperfect. When I eat meat or dairy (or anything), I try to make it a point to find gratitude for the nourishment. There is some karmic math about my food choices that may be relevant, but currently, it is too complex for me to intellectualize. For now, I focus on doing the next right thing for the body that I am in since that is the gift I was given. At this moment, that means healing the hurts of body shame and diet culture. I believe that when I can heal these roots and create peace for myself, my thought and actions will full of peace.

Let’s not forget that yogis must also decide to not harm other humans. I have met many yogis that do a good job of thinking well about animals but are less engaged by the systems of oppression that impact humans. I am talking about racism, classism, sexism, and discrimination of all kinds. I am also talking about human trafficking, prisons, poverty, environmental violence, and pollution. I am also referencing spiritual bypassing to avoid opposing broad social and political movements that are construction systems of harm that will last for many generations. None of us are here to judge; we all take on what we can. We listen for the dharma of our lifetime and we do our best to follow that. It’s ok if you missed a march or have not yet ended racism. You will not be kicked out of yoga! However, as a yogi, it might be useful to expand the aperture of your ahimsa scope beyond veganism.

Diet culture has permeated yoga and veganism. Mostly, this is because it rode in on the coattails of capitalism and whiteness (aka racism). At this point, we are pretty clear that diet culture is a servant to capitalism, racism, sexism, and classism. If you want more information about that statement, I’m happy to chat with you or just consult the internet, there is lots of information about it.

I have observed some vegans out there in the yoga community that are hiding their anxiety about gaining weight in veganism. I am saying this out of love. Our reasons for committing to anything matters - even if the thing you are committing to is well-meaning and inherently good. Also, I want to say, there is nothing wrong with being thin, or being vegan.

Here is why it is important, If we are practicing non-harming in an effort to comply with very harming oppression, then we are not practicing union or liberation. This cannot be yoga.

As a person in a fat body, this is what I ask of yogis: Take a look at diet culture and how it has impacted you personally, the people around you, your relationship with food, pleasure, and your environment. Take a moment and consider living in a fat body. What might that be like for you? Does it give you anxiety? What would the social cost be? Take a look at people around you who are non-compliant with diet culture. Does that look like a safe option for you? Do you have a peaceful relationship with food? Are you providing yourself nourishment? Are you able to experience pleasure? Do you feel guilty about eating anything?

There are so many reasons to practice veganism as part of ahimsa. When we cause harm to other beings (and eating them certainly qualifies), that harm becomes a part of us. I know that to be true. When we cause harm to ourselves and other humans the same is true. Sometimes we take a karmic hit in order to take a stand and maximize our opportunity to create a better, more connected experience for ourselves and other beings.

Maybe a commitment to veganism is actually the best most healing practice for you and it creates maximum peace for you and other beings. If that is the case, please continue on this path. All I am saying is that it is not the only way to practice ahimsa AND If veganism is based in a fear of fatness, it might be causing more harm than you realize.

I actually don’t think I said this any better than Tejal Patel and Jesal Parikh. I just felt I needed to reflect this back through my experience as a fat yogi. Listen to the podcast, it’s really great.