A Yogi that Eats Meat?

On the menu for dinner tonight? Roasted organic free range chicken, sauteed mushrooms and asparagus and baby potatoes. Yummers, if I do say so myself! I have had many conversations over the years, with others and myself, about this very complicated subject. Meat, or no meat?

I believe that for most, deciding how you will nourish your body and how you will concurrently practice ahimsa (non-harming in Sanskrit) is where the trickiness lies.  How do you practice nonviolence to other animals, if you are not a vegetarian? I personally feel that you have to come up with your own path. I have explored living as a vegetarian, vegan and regular meat eater, and for me the balance is in the middle (minus all red meats to which I am allergic). I eat and prepare many vegetarian meals and enjoy them. When we are consuming meat (in this I include all poultry and seafood), I try to make my choices mindfully. For example, if poultry is on the menu, I try to choose free-range organic and local whenever possible. I also try to prepare the full bird so that I can use the bones for homemade stock and honour the life given by using it to the fullest. I say my own version of grace/gratitude before eating; not only thanking the animal for giving its life to nourish my body, but also the famers that tend the fields and all the hands that brought this food to my table. Currently, this is my dinnertime practice of ahimsa; my yoga at the dinner table.

So to answer my own question, yes. I believe you can be a yogi and not a vegetarian. The yoga practice lies in the mindful choices and intention behind those choices.

Photo Props: ImCait via Flickr