Necessary To be Vegetarian as a Yoga Teacher?

Healthy Food Nutrition
#1

Is it necessary to be a vegetarian as a Yoga teacher? I know it is advocated but some are not. Besides Jesus, Buddha, etc were not vegetarians (Buddha not all his life anyway), yes I know they were not Yoga masters per se even though some people claim Jesus went to India in his missing years (not accounted for in the New Testament) & studied Yoga becoming a great master.

In terms of physically performing Yoga a vegetarian diet cannot make any difference whatsoever; anymore than it does for Olympic athletes some of whom are meat eaters whilst others are vegetarians.

From a spiritual point of view if we take Transmigration from Hinduism where everything reincarnates and can transmigrate e.g. someone can be reincarnated as an animal or plant etc (not just human reincarnation as many have the notion of in the West as transmigration was deemed a bit baffling for them when many Eastern sects started growing in the West); then not eating animals, what about plants and vegetables, etc? Or are humans then animals (even though everything transmigrates) considered much higher than other things on earth.

From a marketing or promotion point of view, if you are not vegetarian as a Yoga teacher people might be like mmmm and expect you to be one. Also you might get vegetarians coming to your class shocked that you aren’t or even not coming back to your class after finding out, whilst vice versa you won’t get any meat eaters coming and being shocked when you tell them you are a vegetarian.

#2

It’s good to have the freedom to choose.Tibetan buddhists sometimes eat a lot of meat because the crops don’t grow so well in their local environment, be it the soil quality and/or the high altitude. Interestingly if you go to place like Rishikesh(I’ve never been but it’s in the Indian Himalayas) i hear you can’t get meat there; it’s all vegetarian.

Meat can affect the subtle bodies in some people.Though i’ve hear one poster here comment that in those who are spiritually mature or advanced even those effects they have become somwhat immune to and it makes no difference. Anecdotally ,I once heard a tibetan lama prescribe meat to his students for “spiritual” & therapeutic reasons;that may be a common practice whithin their “systems” or traditions.

Is anything necessary? Is asana necessary? Is freedom of choice necessary- well necessary for what? What is your aim or intention?.If you want to purifiy the subtle bodies…then they say that in the preparatory stages of yoga it is just another dietary tool that can be useful and have it’s benefits.Some will say it is a must if you want to get serious about your sadhana.I would not argue with that. But obviously no-one can make you do anything.

When you stop fighting with such decisions then the choices you make should come naturally.Give up the efffort.

You might want to consider trying out some meditation, there are countless approaches and/or methods, or asana if vegetariansim is something you struggle or meet resistance with.You’re obviously free to do anything you like with an awareness of possible effects or consequence.

Some people might try to say, and i can see where they’re coming from , that by eating meat you are somehow being complicit in the killing of an animal.At the end of they day you need to surivive but it’s nice to be able to choose.

I’ve hear somewhere that there maybe something like 14 amino-acids( molecular building blocks for life) or proteins that the body needs.Alot of those can be found in meat perhaps minus one or two but all can be found in vegetarian sources such as beans, grains,pulses and nuts of course.

#3

Whatever elevates your spiritual experience. For many native American cultures, the eating of meat is part of the life experience. Inuit would starve without eating meat (try growing rhubarb in the icy tundra) and have their own spiritual enlightenment. I tend to assess my teachers on behavior rather than ‘what they wear’.

#4

no, it is not necessary

#5

I agree that it is not necessary. I myself am a pescetarian but I would in fact eat meat if I knew it was raised on a private farm and treated with respect till the animals last day. I have friends who have small farms and I know how they are run and that there is no abuse. I would consider eating meat from this source. Even in the fish I eat, I eat only wild caught when ever possible but sometimes you have to bend. If a student was to not return to a class because the teacher is not a vegetarian sounds to me like they are missing the point of honoring each other even though we may not all be the same. Honoring what is important to you is far more beneficial than bending to what is important to others.

#6

[QUOTE=mirriahjackson;56827]Honoring what is important to you is far more beneficial than bending to what is important to others.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for the new signature.

#7

:wink: happy to