Do you know of or have you participated in a vegan community outside of the internet? Please tell about them! Where are they located?
I spent six days in a Zen monastery in New York over the winter break, and I was surprised and very happy to find when I got there that it was vegan! One of the Sisters told me they went vegan in 2007. It's the monastery of Thich Nhat Hanh, a very famous Zen teacher who founded his own school beginning in France, which has branches in New York, California, and Vietnam. All of his monasteries are vegan.
The only exception was that I occasionally saw things like milk chocolate, Panera coffee with cream, Panera cream cheese - all donated by laypeople. I can't really see them telling people, "Don't donate non-vegan food!!!" but I didn't see any of the monastics consuming these donated items, just the laypeople. The problem was that I thought I could get away with not looking at ingredients while I was there, but then I accidentally ate something non-vegan on my last day there. I absolutely loved being in a vegan community - the food was delicious - especially after coming directly from the bus station in NYC where there was not a single vegan sandwich out of 20 shops. I only met one vegan layperson there besides myself, but even that was a pleasant surprise because there really weren't that many laypeople there and I could meet a vegan there whereas at a university of 8000 people I know not one other vegan.
Oh, it made me feel so good. I felt so at home at that monastery, and the vegan status contributed greatly to that. I felt no alienation at all, but not being vegan would've been a source of alienation. It gives me confidence now being back at the university where no one else is vegan (except that the food is of poorer quality here).
Bookmarks