In my previous blogpost (Part 1: Veganism & Jainism A Cross-Cultural Recognition: Jain Abhakṣya Food Prohibitions) I suggested that there was a “mutual recognition” of spiritual-ethics that are recognizable between vegan and Jain communities. I suggest that the common reasons for veganism that are given—ethical veganism, environmental veganism, and health-based veganism—do not sufficiently describe what many vegans themselves express, namely, a spiritual reasoning behind veganism that overlaps with, but is not reducible to, ethical veganism.  

Ethics can be grounded in theology or spirituality, but a great number of modern ethicists are secular. Moreover, if I were to attempt to describe the difference between the otherwise overlapping categories of “ethics” and “spirituality,” I would say that a common theme in spiritual traditions is the expansion of consciousness to greater degrees of awareness. This is a key feature of Jain spiritual development, where, as one abstains from violence, the conscious force of the soul is increasingly unobstructed by the occluding effects of karma leading to an increased perceptual range and a greater epistemic value of one’s perceptions. There is clearly a cultural, ethical overlap between many vegans and many Jains, and beyond ethics, I believe part of that overlap is spirituality expressed in the cultivation and development of our scope of awareness. 

For Jains, the attention to living beings and our potential to harm them with even the smallest actions is both a cause and an effect of that expansion of consciousness, and it seems to be akin to a similar awareness with vegans. I often marvel at the attentiveness of vegans when it comes to examining every little ingredient in any consumer product for the presence of animal derived substances, no matter how minuscule the amount. I have often been impressed at the lengths that vegans will go to in order to avoid unnecessary harm to living beings with their abstemious consumer choices, and the awareness that they have towards the potential of causing suffering in daily actions. I’ve known vegans to relinquish their kitchen sinks for days at a time if the sink has become populated by ants; I’ve seen vegans who I know walk on the pavement after the rains and tediously rescue scores of worms who are trapped in the road; I’ve known vegans who refuse to wear shoes because one is less likely to cause harm if one walks barefooted; I’ve known vegans who would only eat fruit because any other vegetable causes excessive harm in killing plants, I’ve known vegans who refuse to contribute to the economy and only wear, use, and eat foods that have been otherwise discarded or are secondhand; I’ve known vegans who refuse to drive cars because of the violence of the fossil fuel industry and the act of driving itself in terms of insects who are unavoidably killed, and animals who are unintentionally hit; and I’ve known vegans who refuse to use body-care products such as toothpaste, shampoo, etc. because these poison the waters thereby killing living entities, and create excessive waste with single-use plastic, etc.

 

Of course, the vast majority of vegans do not adhere to most or even any of these practices, just the same way that majority of Jains do not adhere to stringent mendicant proscriptions or even the more stringent prescriptions for the Jain laity. Similar to how even many vegans do not practice the intensity of some of the practices that I’ve observed vegans engaging in (listed above), so we find a sort of gradation of intensity with Jain household practitioners where some observe these types of vows “partially” (pākṣika), “firmly” (naiṣṭhika), or completely (sādhaka). [1]  But, I think many vegans respect these types of compassion-inspired austerities, are inspired by the spirit of such seemingly “extreme” practices, and do their best to limit the harm that they contribute to in every day actions, in a way that can only be described as a spiritual awareness. We might expect to find a similar inspiration towards the medicant community exhibited by the Jain laity.

 

Nevertheless, we can see a sort of kinship in spirit with many of the ideals and practices of both Jain pious householders and mendicants. Even householders who follow the “minor vows” (aṇuvrata) related to non-violence (ahiṃsā) aspire to avoid the four types of violence of: (1) violence during mundane undertakings (ārambha hiṃsā), (2) violence in one’s employment (udyogī hiṃsā), (3) violence committed in acts of self-defense (virodhī hiṃsā), and (4) forms of intentional violence (saṅkalpī hiṃsā). [2]

 

These “minor vows” (aṇuvratas) can be accompanied by a set of “supplementary vows” (uttara-vratas), that are discussed by Ācārya Suśīl Kumār.  These include the “virtuous vows” (guṇa-vratas) that such as prescriptions that would inspire and evoke a sense of kinship with many spiritually minded vegans. These guṇa-vratas include: (1) Restriction of travel (dig-vrata), which in the era of destructive fossil fuels is obviously violent, but harm can also be caused even by biking, or walking (etc.) since small beings may be crushed (etc.). There is even a separate supplementary vow (uttara-vrata) that is a “learning vow” (śikṣā-vrata) that emphasizes the “delimitation of one’s location” (deśāvakāśika-vrata) for many of the same reasons. (2) The vow to limit one’s consumption particularly single-use items (upabhogas), although we should also restrict our consumption of multiple-use items (paribhogas) since all consumption involves supply-chain violence and we are further cautioned against “supporting violence” (hiṃsā-pradāna). (3) One is encouraged to “abandon the tendency to castigate others for their faults” (anartha-daṇḍa-tyāga-vrata) since criticizing or even contradicting others can be hurtful. [3]

While not all Jains follow these vows to the furthest possible extent, or perhaps even at all, these vows doubtlessly have been a source of inspiration as a sort of moral/spiritual beacon for Jains for centuries. I think that vegans too imagine the furthest that one could extend their “vow” of veganism, of non-harming, and dream of a world and a lifestyle that has drastically minimized the degree to which human caused suffering predominates the planet, and the degree to which we ourselves can finally be free from being perpetrators of violence, no matter how subtle. There are overlapping visions between these vegan and Jain teleologies, an intersection that causes reflection about how the specifics of spiritual veganism, like many other spiritual traditions, can incorporate teleologies and invoke similar metaphysical and other philosophical discussions that other teleological thinking inspires, particularly in theology and religious thought. [4]

 

 

 

If you are interested in learning more on this topic, join the monthly Ahiṃsā Living Circle - a virtual community for those curious about veganism, Jainism, the Dharma traditions, and living compassionately. Co-hosted by Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhD, Assistant Professor in Sanskrit and Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute, and Hope Bohanec, Executive Director of Compassionate Living and the host of the Hope for the Animals Podcast, our goal is to build a supportive network of leaders, teachers, scholars, and advocates who believe that extending compassion to animals and the Earth is central to any spiritual journey. RSVP HERE

 

Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhD holds the position of Assistant Professor in Sanskrit and Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute where he teaches various courses on Jain philosophy and its applications.  He received his doctorate in Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion from the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California where his research emphasized comparative dharmic traditions and the philosophy of religion. He teaches several foundational self-paced, online courses based in Jain philosophy, yoga, ecology, languages, and interfaith peace-building, including: