At age 52, I am a blended Hindu-Buddhist-Taoist/Jedi vegan mystic-yogini-shakaharini…..
Born into the Catholic religion, I loved going to church and singing the hymns. I loved the colorful stained glass windows and the heady incense….
And then one day, at age 23, I popped out of that ideology, and it was like being in outer space looking down at Catholicism, and no longer feeling like it was my religion. Then I spent 10 years studying Judaism, but didn’t convert… During that decade I also studied Tibetan Buddhism, Native American, and other spiritual traditions.
At age 33, I was drawn to an American teacher, David La Chapelle, who had studied and practiced in India with Swami Muktananda. Immediately, I felt so in love with Indian spirituality: its ancient prayers, rituals, mantras, and yogic practices…. I began meditating daily, which quickly inspired me to stop eating meat…. And I began studying the epic tale, Ramayana, which eventually led to writing my own vegan version of that beloved story.
Now, vegan for almost thirteen years, I’m reflecting that leaving behind the meat-fish-dairy-egg-way-of-living feels quite similar to when I popped out of the Catholic ideology. It’s like being in outer space looking down at carnism*, and knowing that there is no going back. Once you see the suffering of the animals, you see the suffering of the animals. And then dietary change is inevitable.
In the photo with this post, a much younger me is smiling with the late David La Chapelle (he left the earthly body in 2009), during his 2006 Hawaii retreat, and by my chubby cheeks, you can see that I had not yet gone vegan. After I shifted to the vegan diet, that facial fat dissolved away.
*Carnism is the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions people to eat certain animals. Learn more: Beyond Carnism.
