Yoga and Animal Ethics, a new book in the Palgrave Animal Ethics book series, is now available, both in print and, through open access, in free digital format.
In recent years, animal ethics has received growing attention in the public sphere and extensive treatment in books, articles, and learned conferences, recognising the urgent need for humans to change their behaviour toward the environment and all life-forms.
Similarly, ancient yoga has captured widespread attention worldwide, as a constellation of methods and worldviews conducive to deep-level well-being.
Yoga and Animal Ethics aims to bring these two themes together as a promising field of inquiry and real-world application. Written by a decades-long practitioner of yoga and scholar of animal ethics, this book offers a rich and nuanced contribution to both fields.
Yoga and Animal Ethics is an important book for anyone seeking to understand how yoga thought and practice is particularly suited to foster a viable vision of animal well-being emerging from deeply grounded human well-being. It will appeal particularly to students of animal studies (in the humanities), yoga teachers and practitioners, and anyone concerned about humanity’s proper place amidst the natural world.
Yoga and Animal Ethics has nine chapters divided into three parts:
After a broad introduction, two chapters frame yoga historically, especially as a pursuit of deeper self-understanding and the rejection of ritual animal sacrifice.
The next three chapters show how the eight limbs of classical Yoga practice each invite conscientious concern and action for non-human animals.
Finally, the remaining three chapters offer devotional (bhakti-yoga) perspectives leading to practical application of yoga principles toward reverence for all life.
This work takes inspiration from the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, which aims to pioneer ethical perspectives on animals through academic research, teaching and publication. The hope is that Yoga and Animal Ethics will be a contribution to the expansion of resources for addressing the challenging issues surrounding human engagement with non-human animals.
Gavin Flood, academic director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Piramal Dean of Hindu Studies, UK, noted: “This excellent book offers an account of animal ethics in terms of yoga, arguing that we neglect animal welfare at our peril and that the ethics of yoga provides a way forward. This is an important book and a must read for all interested in ethical concern for animals.”
Andrew Lizey, director of the Oxford School for Animal Ethics said: “This book is the first to combine two important disciples; animal ethics and yoga, and how they relate to each other, and how the practice of yoga can also help with our understanding of the importance of treating all sentient beings with equal compassion and carte.”