Ahimsa Living Circle

Ahimsa Living Circle with Hope and Cogen Bohanec Second Saturday of the Month First Circle Starts on Saturday, January 11, 2025 10:00 - 11:30 am PT / 1:00 - 2:30 pm ET The Ahiṃsā Living Circle is a virtual community for those curious about veganism, Jainism, the Dharma traditions, and living compassionately. Hosted by Professor Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhD and Hope Bohanec, Executive Director of Compassionate Living and the host of the Hope for the Animals Podcast, our goal is to build a supportive network of leaders, teachers, scholars, and advocates who believe that extending compassion to animals and the Earth is central to any spiritual journey. While rooted in Jain teachings, our circle emphasizes shared values found across spiritual traditions, especially those centered on ahiṃsā (non-violence) in Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The Ahiṃsā Living Circle will be held every second Saturday of the month. It is intended as a place of community building and suppport for those exploring veganism, non-violence, and ahiṃsā. These elements will be incorporated into each meeting, but most importantly, we encourage attendees to broaden the discussion, participate, ask questions, and offer reflections and support to others. Everyone is welcome. Together, let's discover how we can live a compassionate life aligned with our deepest ethic of non-violence. We are a community driven by the principles of non-violence (ahiṃsā), non-possession (aparigraha), and openness to dialogue with other religious traditions (anekāntavāda). We value honest and open dialogue, genuine sharing, inclusivity, and freedom of thought. We strive to create an accessible, equitable, and safer space for opening minds and hearts where all are welcome. ABOUT THE HOSTS Cogen Bohanec currently holds the position of Assistant Professor in Sanskrit and Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute where he teaches various courses on Jain philosophy and its applications. In addition, he is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Claremont School of Theology (CST) where he teaches Sanskrit and Gujarati, and he has taught numerous classes on South Asian Culture & Religions and Sanskrit language at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley. Dr. Bohanec specializes in the Jain and Hindu traditions, comparative dharma traditions, philosophy of religion, theo-ethics (virtue ethics, and environmental and animal ethics in particular), and Sanskrit language and literature. He also holds an MA in Buddhist Studies from the Institute of Buddhist Studies at GTU where his research primarily involved translations of Pāli Buddhist scriptures in conversation with the philology of the Hindu Upaniṣads. He is the author of “Bhakti Ethics, Emotions and Love in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Metaethics” (Lexington, 2024), an interdisciplinary study that frames traditional Hindu themes of ecotheology, ecofeminist theology, feminist care ethics, within a framework of virtue ethics in conversation with a bhakti-based psychology of emotions. Hope Bohanec has been active in animal protection and environmental activism for 35 years. She is the Executive Director of Compassionate Living and the host of the Hope for the Animals Podcast. Hope has published two books on the subject of humanewashing and greenwashing: The Ultimate Betrayal: Is There Happy Meat? and The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat, Humane Dairy, and Ethical Eggs. Over the last three decades, she has worked for the national non-profits United Poultry Concerns and In Defense of Animals as well as contributed chapters to two anthologies. Hope has studied Jain and Hindu Dharma for many years and founded the Ahimsa Living Project to bring to light the deep parallels between the Dharma religions and veganism.