I'm no Buddhist Vegan Yogi Pacifist Idealist Left-wing Hipster, and I politely decline to be categorized

Yes, another rant about not conforming to labels.

But I am honestly finding a need to draw a dotted line in my life between what people are saying I am and what I actually am. So herewith my little manifesto...

What I actually am is so simple and clear, whilst not really being easy to define in words. 

I am spirit

I am raw experience

leading edge stuff

I am the listener

I am the being who seeks 

I am so large that I am actually part of you and you and you

and I am a facet of that wholeness looking at itself

I am 

just me.


Don't you feel that too when you sit quietly with yourself?

I feel very uncomfortable and anxious when defined categorically as any of the above or etc. and I think that this is because I have glimpsed my true self and I know it to be so much more than a string of labels.

So when I go to a restaurant and my companion announces proudly to the server that I am a vegan, my heart kind of reaches out its fist and strangles me before my mouth can go into any explanation of the particularities of my food choices and how they relate to what meal I might be ordering that night. 

I am NOT a vegan. If I tell you that I am a vegan, it is merely for convenience sake, lest I launch into the truths I've come to know that have led me to make this choice or that one and you, zoning out in boredom, come to conclude anyway that I am a vegan, albeit with some weird fundamentalist beliefs that nevertheless make me feel I have to defend myself in the face of that accusation.

I do eat eggs, for your information, but only when I either know the chickens, or the chickens are friends of a friend. 

I am opposed to consuming another's suffering.

I will also turn a blind eye sometimes when chocolate is involved if I think that the chocolate will nourish me more than fundamentalism will in that given moment. (sometimes fundamentalism does win, but it's really on a case to case basis.)

And I enjoy honey! I have a couple of sweaters made of wool and 2 pairs of leather shoes, purchased before I read about some of the practices involved with producing these materials (don't worry, I say a little prayer of gratitude each time I wear them...no joke). I also wear silk. It gets to the point where we are splitting hairs and I lose all interest.

The essence of what I am saying, using the example of my diet, is that in any decision I make these days, whether about food or politics or spirituality, I hold that choice up to my heart's eye, like a little pearl, and turn it around, feeling its weight, its unique texture, its particular shade. I allow my mind to weigh in with some opinions it might have and then when the knowing is there in my heart I move forward. 

I think this is another way of describing intuition.

I will, therefore, not be bound by the label 'vegan' to eat in a certain way, or to make 'difficult choices' like whether or not to eat honey, or wear wool, or all of the numerous fundamentalisms I can get shoved into if I subscribe to that category.

I will not be found making statements like, "hey guys, I'm a vegan so can we eat somewhere that serves vegan food?" I rather stick to, "let's go anywhere you enjoy because I can always find something on the menu I like!" (p.s. I LOVE food!)

I will never never never call myself a Buddhist or Christian or Yogi, because all those labels mean to me are that I couldn't be bothered figuring out the truth within so I will subscribe to someone else's truth. However, I will save a rant about religion for another day (or maybe I will give it a miss...)

I am not saying that great and profound wisdom doesn't come from Buddha or Patanjali or John Robbins (author of my favourite pro-vegan book The Food Revolution). These teachings are tools that allow us to see and know. 

We can pick up each little pearl of wisdom we find amongst the sand and hold it to the light of our soul to see if our own image is reflected back to us in the radiant opalescence there.

We can wander blithely along the beach uncovering pearls, gathering them, admiring them, leaving one behind here or there, all the while keeping our vision turned up toward the horizon. 

Love,
R