The Inner Art of Vegetarianism The Inner Art of Vegetarianism is an inspiring book that explores the intersections of vegetarianism and spiritual practice. It shows how those who cultivate a spiritual practice--whether it is meditation, yoga, working with dreams, keeping a journal, breath awareness, and even cooking--can extend the spiritual awareness they have nurtured to acknowledging how eating meat affects their health, the health of the planet, and the welfare of other animals. It reveals how vegetarians can extend the meaning of their vegetarianism into other areas of conscious awareness, and how doing so can deepen and strengthen their commitment to their diet, worldview, and concern for changing the status quo. The Inner Art of Vegetarianism offers the possibility for change for all those seeking to live with more integrity and holism on this Earth, while giving us tools for relaxation, inner work, self-knowledge, and spiritual growth. The Inner Art of Vegetarianism provides practical exercises and draws upon my own life as a yoga practitioner, activist for women's and animal rights, anti-violence campaigner, and parent, partner, and cook. I discuss the insights and wisdom that are reveaeled by paying attention to what we have consigned to insignificance: whether it is what we put in our bodies or in the day-to-day routines of our lives. I call upon us to cherish all bodies--whether our own or those of other animals--and to honor our best impulses to live consciously on this planet. I also ask us to care for our souls--to cultivate joy and compassion, care for our selves and our own spiritual journeys, and to honor the process by which we can be transformed. This process is both evolutionary and revolutionary. When I became a vegetarian, I began to experience the world in a more positive way. I learned how to make a commitment through vegetarianism, and then I learned how to keep a commitment. Anyone who wants to change the world or themselves can learn this too. Vegetarianism offers this to everyone. Written to those in process from someone in process, The Inner Art of Vegetarianism is the first book that addresses the heart of what has been an unfortunate divide between vegetarians and spiritual practitioners. The former may be reluctant to cultivate a spiritual practice because they see religious and spiritual traditions condoning the eating of meat. The latter may see vegetarians as too rigid, doctrinaire, or concerned about the everyday (rather than the transcendental) world. Aware that everyone is at a different place on their spiritual journey, I show how the path of transformation and the healing of the division between spiritual practitioners and vegetarians takes place one step at a time. You can only be a vegetarian one meal at a time. Let’s immerse ourselves in our vegetarianism and/or spiritual practice by metaphorically dipping our toe into the waters--a daily deed that I call touching the process. Touching is how you practice your spiritual path. If it is yoga, you practice; if it is vegetarianism, you choose your food accordingly; if it is keeping a journal, you write. Touching the process is the practicing of the practice; you touch the process to let the process touch you. These are body-related practices; they involve us. We cannot be spectators to our own spiritual growth. The Inner Art of Vegetarianism celebrates my discovery that vegetarianism had deepened my spirituality. I wanted to express this joy and invite others into the process. The nature of an inner art, I suggested, is that it simultaneously has the feeling of being both necessity and spontaneity. When we develop what I call "the habit of vegetarianism" we discover this nature–a vegetarianism in which what has been willed becomes so necessary to who we are that it has the fresh feeling of both necessity and spontaneity. An inner art is a living, glowing aspect of ourselves, constantly transforming us as we extend its presence in our lives. Table of Contents: The Inner Art of Vegetarianism The Inner Art • Spirituality and Vegetarianism • Vegetarians and Other Spiritual Practices • Spiritual Practitioners and Vegetarianism • What Shall I Do With My Life? • Exploring the Mindfield • The Next Step Coming to Ground • Water • Fire • Air • Earth Touch the Process • Becoming a Vegetarian is Touching the Process • Qualities of Touching the Process • Attention • Intention • Detachment • The Benefits of a Spiritual Practice • Widening and Deepening • Becoming the Nonanxious Person • Learning to Become Fluid • Healing Fearfulness • Learning to Think Symbolically • Embracing Impermanence • Achieving Integration Opening Our Doors to the Source of Our Being • Meditation • Keeping a Journal 1. Basic Rules for Journaling 2. How to Keep a Journal • Yoga • Vegetarianism and Yoga • Yoga and Breathing • Yoga and Rest • Working with Your Dreams • How to Work with Your Dreams Breath Awareness • Breathing and Nonduality • Yoga and Breathing Revisited • Breathing and Fear • The Tree of Life • Keeping a Journal: How Deep Our My Roots? • Trophic Levels: When Secondary Consumers Triumph • The Evolutionary Pyramid: Putting Humans at the Top • The Evolutionary Tree • Nonduality is a Breath Away • Monkey Mind? • The Animal Connection • Yoga: Moving Like an Animal • We Animals Dream • Nowness and Cowness • Breathing Time On Not Dragging a Stone • The Art of Stone-Dragging • Releasing the Stone • Acknowledging Regret • Dreamwork: Working with a Serial Dream • Look for Clarity • Levity • The Least Points to the Most • Reversing Direction • Abundance Compassion and Nonviolence • Beginning with Oneself • How I've Been Violent Toward Myself • Step One: Attention • Cultivating Non-Violence and Compassion Through Your Journal • Step Two: Love Yourself • Step Three: Don't Force • Violent Dreams • Yoga: The Art and Soul of Nonviolence • Rest • Spaciousness and Spirituality • Lightness of Body • Generosity and Vegetarianism • The Nonviolent Way to Become a Vegetarian • Step One: Attention to Animals' Suffering • Step Two: Love • Step Three: Don't Force • A Living Ahimsa • Nonviolent Standards for Assessing Actions The Habit of Practice • The Seesaw Principle of Time and Practice • Use Your Calendar • Cultivate Awareness of Your Own Weaknesses • Developing a Habit is Participating in the Act of Creation • Bringing Something New into Our Lives 1. Make a Promise to Yourself: Keep It. • Make a Promise: Identify the Next Step • Keep the Promise: Take the Next Step • "There is No Promise Too Small." • Recognize Frozenness: If You Are Frozen or Blocked, That Is Where You Are 2. Begin Again Instead of Guilt, Begin Again 3. What is Hard? The Art of Focusing 4. Honor Desperation The Time is Now: Spontaneity and Practice The Three Stages of Spiritual Growth Vegetarian Cooking as Meditation/A Vegetarian Cooking Meditation • Mixing It Up • Guidelines for Cooking in the Present Moment • Coming to Our Senses • Peace in the Kitchen • A Meditation on Sourdough • Cooking without Attachment Who is The Inner Art of Vegetarianism for? People who have a spiritual practice and are aware that vegetarianism calls them, or that the possibility of vegetarianism is suggested by their practice. People who are vegans and vegetarians and either see this as an expression of their spirituality and would like to awaken a more spiritually-intense relationship with their vegetarian practice. Praise for The Inner Art of Vegetarianism:
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