“How can being vegan be so important when so many spiritual leaders eat meat and dairy?”
On some level, we’ve all had to confront this thorny question. We naturally respect and often emulate those whom we perceive as more spiritually aware than we are, and so for Christians, for example, the fact that Jesus is portrayed as eating at least fish seems to be a direct refutation of vegan teachings. For Jews, there’s the passage in Genesis after the flood where Jehovah allows the flesh of certain animals for food, and for Buddhists, the Buddha may be portrayed as eating meat, or at least allowing his followers to do so, and I’ve heard the phrase, “The Dalai Lama eats meat” (though inaccurate) repeated as if it’s a mantra, to justify non-vegan behavior. For Hindus, many revered gurus eat dairy products and Krishna himself is portrayed as a cowherd.
