"Spiritual people" and human and animal relations.

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Q: In the last couple of decades, how much of a change have you seen in the perspective of spiritual people about the human relationship to nonhuman animals?

 

Will Tuttle:

Excellent question – overall, I’ve seen a gradually increasing tempo of change among “spiritual people” about our routine mistreatment of animals in the 3 decades I’ve been a vegan and activist, and I’d say that while the percentages are still small, they are making an increasing impact on the masses. For example, I’ve been actively involved in Buddhist groups, and for the past 20 years have been traveling full-time presenting lectures and workshops to people in progressive churches virtually every Sunday, and while it’s constantly frustrating on one level, I have to say that today the general consciousness—and level of conscience—is vastly different from what it was, say, 20 years ago.  Veganism is on the map and recognized, and, I’d have to say, respected and seen as a noble (if somewhat unattainable) ideal by many people.   

 

Curiosity and confusion are rampant, as is fear of change, clinging to past habits, and a reactive pushing back against what I believe is an ongoing awakening of human consciousness. This is to be expected, and is natural, but the awakening is happening I feel, and it will bring us ever onward, at an accelerating pace, toward vegan living (or our extinction or utter enslavement if we continue the trajectory of conventional Western eating/living/thinking). I’m actually able to give lectures blatantly promoting veganism and critiquing our current animal enslavement system in Unity churches and in Unitarian Universalist churches.  The entire UU denomination, in fact, has taken “Ethical Eating” as its study-action issue for the period 2008-2012, and so there is active gnashing of teeth and squirming about going on occasionally in these congregations, as they peek behind the curtain, which is I believe, a wonderful and necessary thing. There is the Halleluja Acres movement which is booming, and bringing a 100% plant-based diet to the awareness of hundreds of thousands of people who are conservative Christians.  

 

The fact that veganism is being espoused by Ellen DeGeneres and other celebrities is also making a huge difference among people who consider themselves progressive and spiritual. We also now have Thich Nhat Hanh, who has enormous influence, requiring all his monks and nuns to eat a vegan (not just vegetarian) diet, and requiring lay students to not eat meat. Even the Karmapa, head of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, has required all monks to be vegetarian, which was unthinkable 20 years ago, and the Dalai Lama continues to maintain Dharamsala as a meat-free zone. We also have Supreme Master Ching Hai and her community making tremendous strides in bringing the vegan message to the world through their worldwide vegan chain of restaurants, now over 200 strong! This was unthinkable just 5 or 10 years ago!  And also through their Supreme Master TV internet television program, which is 24/7 broadcasting vegan-advocating programming with cooking classes, interviews, and other constructive programs in over 20 languages. PCRM is offering vegan cooking classes in communities throughout North America, and this is percolating into local churches, as well as the ideas in The China Study, which is growing every year.    

 

So from the perspectives of health, environment, and compassion for animals, as well as spirituality, I see people awakening very quickly, especially in the last year or 2, and it’s happening more quickly than the mainstream media is letting on. A lot of the change is subterranean, and I think it’s the result of grassroots vegan activism and that it’s absolutely essential that all of us continue to urgently advocate veganism in our communities throughout the world in whatever ways we can – there is literally nothing more benevolent or vital that we can do, in my opinion. Thanks for the question!