Comments on: Rumspringa

By: Andreas

Andreas — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:25:40 +0000

Kiana,
Ahimsa was definitely something I thought about, and in the end I decided that I needed to walk a middle path for a while. I don’t think that eating dairy is inherently harmful to animals, and maybe the challenge here is to try and be really conscious about where you are getting your food from.
As for your other question, my teacher training is heavily philosophy oriented also. If you read above, you will see that some of my reasoning for wanting to unattach to the identity comes directly from the yoga sutras.

By: kiana

kiana — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:43:41 +0000

what about ahimsa? this seems directly contradictory to yoga. all of my teachers are hardcore vegans. what about the harm you are causing animals and the suffering you are inflicting on others. is your tt mainly exercise based yoga or is there dharma element to it?

By: lily

lily — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:07:09 +0000

pls to come partake in cheese w/ me when you are ready. maybe after yoga class sometime. you know, b/c after doing something so good for one’s body, i figured we could ruin it by putting something else that’s not so good into it. heh.

By: Andreas

Andreas — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 07:53:23 +0000

Thanks for the thoughts Ms. George. Sorry to hear about your father. That’s not easy. And Amy, good for you too! I will say that there is so much about veganism that I connect with and that has brought me a lot in terms of my own relationship to food, the environment, my own values. It’s been fantastic and it’s not something I would have done for so long if I didn’t think it had a lot to offer. The one piece of unsolicited advice I will give is to do your nutritional research and especially for the first bit, track what you are eating to make sure you are getting enough nutrients. I would even suggest after 6 months or so getting a blood test and visiting a nutritionist who specializes in such things. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve known who have tried going vegan without real thought and knowledge behind it and just ended up malnourished and unhealthy. When you do it right though, it can be great. So good luck to you too. If you ever need any insight, let me know. I have a fair amount of stored knowledge built up over the years.

By: amy.leblanc

amy.leblanc — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 04:22:03 +0000

good for you! i, however, am going the other directions. after about 10 years of vegetarianism, i’m now putting more energy into going more vegan. it’s been getting harder for me to reconcile NOT being a vegan while being such a staunch vegetarian. i’m not sure how much of this is related to identity – it’s true that for many of the vegans i know, that is one of the primary things people know about them – maybe part of it is that i want to identify as a vegan (vegetarian is fairly non-issue around here, but vegan still is), but it just feels like a natural move forward for me. good luck – i’m interested in seeing how it goes.

By: Ms. George

Ms. George — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:39:27 +0000

You could consider the idea of ‘doing no harm’ with regard to eating:
by going/returning to vegetarianism through sustainable, organic foodstuffs that do no harm to creatures: dairy from cows/goats/sheep that have been ethically grown and cared for, eggs that are free range (although I believe Ariel once wrote about you hating them so forget eggs), local products-a locavore-only sourced within one hundred miles of your location. Luckily for me in the Hudson Valley, as I’m sure it is for you in Seattle and surroundings, I can get local milk, cheese, even flours, grown and milled right here, lowering my carbon footprint as it were, while supporting local farms and being more conscious about what foods I’m offering my family.
Best of luck to you in your personal and career decisions. I’ve been lurking for awhile but haven’t commented. My belated condolences on the loss of your step-mom Sally. My father died in Sept after a long battle with Alzheimers. There aren’t words, really, that can express the emotions of losing parents. If I knew good ones, they’d be yours.

By: Releasing identity - Electrolicious

Releasing identity - Electrolicious — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:19:34 +0000

[...] wrote an interesting post recently about releasing a chunk of his identity. In discussing it last night with he and a friend, we got onto the topic of [...]