Kripalu begins serving meat

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

There is much talk these days of how the popularity of hatha yoga in the west is “bastardizing” yoga by having schools, teachers and students take what they like and leave what they do not like as far as teachings go.

I see this happening and on an emotional level I do not like it.

On a rational level, I see this as a positive gain. People who want just hatha yoga will get it, will benefit from it and other people in their lives will benefit from it. Even if the benefits are greatly reduced. With increased exposure more people who may not have heard or sought out the spiritual teachings may hear about such things and seek them out.

My feelings about this next issue are a bit different.

I recently read an article summarizing several recent studies on what psychologists call “confirmation bias”.

In other words, people tend to filter out information that does fit harmoniously with their current beliefs, even if irrefutable facts are offered. In fact, people may hold onto their beliefs more vigorously if they are given facts. Sounds like the internet, no? :). Oddly enough, psychologists found that subjects given brief self esteem building exercises first were more likely to consider new information. In other words, telling someone something that doesn’t fit with something they know is threatening and they will defend themselves. If not seeking a web site to fit their views ( and there is a web site for every view ) then they marginalize the other person concluding that person doesn’t need to be listened to. Enter rationalizations.

The way I see it, in the year 2010, if I want to get flexible and relax I can go to almost any big gym to catch a pilates class.

Kripalu, a yoga retreat, has always been about offering something more. Dare I use the word “spiritual”?

Kripalu used to be a vegetarian yoga retreat and they are now serving meat. No doubt to keep up with the competition that the popularity of yoga is creating.

I would like to put aside the question of whether or not it is ethical to eat animal products.

By my understanding, traditional yogic philosophy sees eating meat as unethical and as a practical obstacle towards the spiritual goals of yoga.

If that is true, then the teachers of Kripalu are selling out their own values. I don’t like putting it that harshly, but that is what it comes down to

Thoughts?

#2

By my understanding, traditional yogic philosophy sees eating meat as unethical and as a practical obstacle towards the spiritual goals of yoga.

If that is true, then the teachers of Kripalu are selling out their own values. I don’t like putting it that harshly, but that is what it comes down to

The problem that I see with your statement is that there is no single yoga tradition, there are different traditions. “Selling out” really is too harsh of a judgement. Maybe they’ve re-evaluated their own point of view, or maybe there is just so much demand that they have to serve meat to keep their customers coming back. That’s just smart business. Trying to impose your own values on someone else is [I]not[/I] smart business.

#3

[QUOTE=Asuri;36647]The problem that I see with your statement is that there is no single yoga tradition, there are different traditions. “Selling out” really is too harsh of a judgement. Maybe they’ve re-evaluated their own point of view, or maybe there is just so much demand that they have to serve meat to keep their customers coming back. That’s just smart business. Trying to impose your own values on someone else is [I]not[/I] smart business.[/QUOTE]

Those are very good points to consider, but I don’t think they apply to Kripalu. Kripalu has been around for a long time, advertising themselves as a “spiritual” yoga retreat…not as a yoga centered health spa. While they may have pretended to be a “spiritual” center they have never pretended to be just a business.

I guess the point is moot as neither of us have quarrel with each other.

FWIW, I read they are eating “locally sourced pigs”.

Please don’t take my word for it, but pigs have been studied and they are supposed to be more intelligent than dogs. There are people who know this and who, without judgment ,react to the news of eating pigs, “locally sourced” or not the way most Americans react to the occasional news story of Asians eating dogs.

Please open your heart to the animals.

#4

Beforewisdom, this is not aimed at you necessarily, it’s aimed at the topic in general.

If you’re concerned about the lives of animals and:

  1. Drive a car
  2. Fly on airplanes
  3. Utilize a “normal” amount of electricity
  4. Eat vegetables from monoculture farms
  5. Many other activities that cause you not to live a sustainable lifestyle

And you’re deriding others for how they conduct their lives, then you’re a hypocrite. You may not be eating animals but you’re doing your fair share to kill them in a much less natural way. As such, who are you to judge others? How can someone be spiritual but dishonest with themselves and violent?

Until people walk the talk and live sustainably, they need to do nothing more than look in the mirror and first be the change they want to see in the world.

takes a sip from his Starbucks coffee

#5

Well said. The native americans are a great example of a people whose tradition teaches how one can use what nature gives them; animal, vegetable, or mineral; and thank nature by not abusing the gifts. In their culture, if an animal is killed for food or clothing thanks is given to the animal for it’s gift (some big blue guys in a recent blockbuster movie did that too!). They accept that we, as human animals with incisor teeth, are made to be omnivores. I guess the world would be a much better place if we only used what we needed, but human history and culture has somehow come up with a different solution, and the path is clear.

#6

[QUOTE=David;36950]Beforewisdom, this is not aimed at you necessarily, it’s aimed at the topic in general.

If you’re concerned about the lives of animals and:

  1. Drive a car
  2. Fly on airplanes
  3. Utilize a “normal” amount of electricity
  4. Eat vegetables from monoculture farms
  5. Many other activities that cause you not to live a sustainable lifestyle

And you’re deriding others for how they conduct their lives, then you’re a hypocrite. You may not be eating animals but you’re doing your fair share to kill them in a much less natural way. As such, who are you to judge others? How can someone be spiritual but dishonest with themselves and violent?
takes a sip from his Starbucks coffee[/QUOTE]

David, if your quote above is not aimed at me personally, may I suggest using the phrase “a person” in place of “you”? I think that would work better for your intent.

I don’t agree with your argument. You are correct that those 5 factors contribute towards animal deaths and animal suffering. Those 5 things tend to be nearly unavoidable in modern society.

Yet, by doing what a person can do, by eating a vegan diet the amount of animals that suffer in factory farms and that are killed can be reduced by billions per year.

That is a meaningful difference.

#7

[QUOTE=FlexPenguin;36954]Well said. The native americans are a great example of a people whose tradition teaches how one can use what nature gives them; animal, vegetable, or mineral; and thank nature by not abusing the gifts. In their culture, if an animal is killed for food or clothing thanks is given to the animal for it’s gift (some big blue guys in a recent blockbuster movie did that too!). [/QUOTE]

How do you know that some animals give their lives as gifts?

Did they animals tell someone this? How did the animals talk to those people? What language did the animals speak in?

Do the dogs and cats that Asians eat and use for fur also agree to give their lives as gifts?

If animals give their lives as gifts, why do they run away from hunters and try to evade death in slaughter houses?

#8

Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it.

They are absolutely avoidable but we aren’t willing to make the lifestyle changes necessary to be sustainable. As such, any person that engages is such activities has the blood of not just animals, but entire ecosystems on their hands whether they want to admit it or not.

If those vegetables aren’t locally sourced and organic, they have enough embodied energy in them to kill plenty of pelicans and that vegan should not be on a high horse about how their way of life is superior or less violent, because, in the end, it is still violent.

“Don’t eat fish, it’s murder”

turns around and buys some carrots and watches the farmer of those carrots dump oil into the water

It’s the same thing, just the means of violence is slightly different.

#9

[QUOTE=beforewisdom;36966]How do you know that some animals give their lives as gifts?

Did they animals tell someone this? How did the animals talk to those people? What language did the animals speak in?

Do the dogs and cats that Asians eat and use for fur also agree to give their lives as gifts?

If animals give their lives as gifts, why do they run away from hunters and try to evade death in slaughter houses?[/QUOTE]

I did not say that the natives believe the animals willingly gave their lives as gifts. Of course any animal would prevent being caught, killed and eaten. Wouldn’t be a very bright animal, or one that lasted on the evolutionary scale if it did.

What I think the natives believe is that the universe has given them a gift of capturing and eating the animal in order to sustain their own lives. They, in turn, will thank the universe and the animal for that.

#10

For the record, humans are Omnivores.

If one chooses to eat a vegan diet it is their choice and I have no problem with it nor would I deride them for being vegan or vegetarian. Any more than I would deride a deer for eating only vegetation

On the other side of that

If one chooses to be an Omnivore it is their choice and I have no problem with it nor would I deride them for being and Omnivore. Any more than I would deride a bear for being an omnivore