Plant-based eating is deeply rooted in three of the prominent religions practiced in India – Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. All these religions believe in the concept of Ahimsa, which means kindness and non-violence towards all living things.
People of many faiths, including Hindus, Buddhists, Rastafarians, Seventh Day Adventists and Jains, observe vegetarian or vegan diets.
By definition, veganism is not a religion. You do not need to believe in a higher power, let alone worship one, to be a vegan. In fact, you need not entertain any fantastical or superstitious ideas in order to follow a vegan lifestyle.
Many Christians give up eating meat, eggs and dairy foods, which makes Lent the perfect time to celebrate life and go vegan. As Jesus People for Animals points out, the Bible is chock-full of reasons why we should all be vegan.
According to the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, a Mahayana sutra giving Gautama Buddha's final teachings, the Buddha insisted that his followers should not eat any kind of meat or fish. Even vegetarian food that has been touched by meat should be washed before being eaten.
Food is prepared as a spiritual exercise with attention to balance, harmony, and delicacy. Conscious eating is followed among all Buddhists. Buddha advised monks to avoid eating 10 kinds of meat for self-respect and protection: humans, elephants, horses, dogs, snakes, lions, tigers, boars and hyenas.
Among the early Judeo-Christian Gnostics the Ebionites held that John the Baptist, James the Just and Jesus were vegetarians. Some religious orders of various Christian Churches practice pescatarianism, including the Benedictines, Franciscans, Trappists, Carthusians and Cistercians.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. ' And it was so. In these verses, God institutes a plant-based diet for both humans and non-human animals alike.
"If the question is, is a Muslim doing something wrong and against their religion if they choose to only eat a plant-based diet? The answer is simply, not at all," he tells me. "The requirement in Islam is that what you eat must be halal and tayyub (Arabic for wholesome and pure). A vegan diet is both of those things."
Veganism preaches to reduce the suffering that we cause, and reminds us that animals are sentient creatures. In this regard, it is compatible with Islamic teachings of mercy towards animals. However, Islam allows the killing of animals for food, and seems to assume that animals are created for humans to benefit from.
One of the earliest known vegans was the Arab poet al-Maʿarri, famous for his poem "I No Longer Steal From Nature". (c. 973 – c. 1057).
Some Muslims think that it's un-Islamic to be vegetarian or vegan. The fear of taking something which is halal (allowed), and making it haram (forbidden), makes many Muslims hesitant to forego animal products.
Therefore, consuming animal products involves the participation in and incentivizing of unnecessary harm to sentient beings. This violates the teaching of the Catholic Church (CCC 2418) which states that "It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly."
'Rama, Krishna & Valmiki were non-vegetarians'
Among religions, Christians consume eggs and meat the most; men 71.5% and 76% and women 65% and 74%, respectively. This is followed by Muslim men (66.5% and 73%) and women (60% and 67%). Most Hindus avoid beef, which is considered a taboo.
The other famous vegans of the Bible are the first humans, Adam and Eve.
Many biblical scholars believe that Jesus was a vegetarian. Jesus' message is one of love and compassion, and there is nothing loving or compassionate about factory farms and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals live miserable lives and die violent, bloody deaths.
Tofu is not in the Bible.
There is no direct statement on the subject by Jesus in the New Testament. The story of Jesus feeding fish to people would support the view that Jesus may have been a pescatarian. Paul seems to have been more open to meat eating, but even Paul was open to vegetarianism.
Vegan Bible is an exhaustive work in which you will discover the richness and the diversity of vegan foods and how cooking can still be truly creative even without eggs, meat, fish or dairy products.
Although Christianity is also an Abrahamic religion and prohibits the consumption of pork, most of its adherents do not follow these aspects of Mosaic law and do consume its meat. However, Seventh-day Adventists consider pork taboo, along with other foods forbidden by Jewish law.
The only dietary restrictions specified for Christians in the New Testament are to "abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals" (Acts 15:29), teachings that the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, preached for believers to follow.
Following Buddhist philosophy, the dishes at Bodhi avoid the use of the five pungent vegetables - onions, garlic, green onions, chives and leeks.
With regard to eggs, they are in the fleshy smell category because they can become chicks, and they also contain animal scent. Therefore, one who has taken a strict vegetarian vow should not consume eggs. Although mass-produced eggs are now sterilized and do not contain life, they are obviously not of plant origin.