“Why?” about anything is a hard question for me. “Why am I a vegan?” is no different. I don’t have an answer to the “why,” but I don’t know if it needs an answer. In any case, I think the best answer is “why not?”

I’m a practitioner of Zen. Hopefully, in the next six months or so, I’ll become a student. The difference might only matter to me, but there’s a line there, a line that I need to cross. Or maybe I’ve already crossed it and haven’t realized it yet. When it’s time, I’ll sit my vigil, ask for the teachings, and I’ll get my robe and bowl, but the real switch will have already happened.

I mention this because a) Zen has in a lot of ways brought me to where I am, and b) there was some sort of a change between pre-vegan Jeffrey and vegan Jeffrey. I don’t exactly know when or exactly how the change happened, but it’s important.

The first two precepts of my school of Zen are “Don’t Create Evil” and “Practice Good.” In true Zen tradition, that’s both incredibly simple and infinitely profound, crammed into a few words. It could fit into a Yogi Tea message, but it could also guide someone for a lifetime.

And it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to understand how being a vegan folds into to “not creating evil” and “practicing good.” What we do, say, and think influences the world. What we eat and wear, what we don’t eat and wear. How we treat all beings, animals and humans alike. How we treat the world.

There’s a Bodhisattva vow which says “sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them.” Another tea bag message; a little paradox, but to me it describes what being vegan – and ultimately living – is about. We can’t save every animal, or every person, or even ourselves. But we practice good. We don’t create evil. We live well, and in living, we answer the question of why with everything we do.