Event Blog

A Special Event by DDYP & DDMBA 

On August 12, 2017, DDYP and DDMBA co-hosted a special event “Buddha Nature in Food”, an afternoon of compassionate sharing of food, environmental-friendly ideas, mindful practice, and loving kindness.

   In the very early morning, our kitchen volunteers prepared delicate and tasty vegan dishes: Sushi by Ivan Shih, Mochi by Henry Tseng, Vietnam spring roll by our volunteer Rosemary’s mom, Strawberry with purple yam by our volunteer Aier’s daughter. Also special thanks to the kitchen organizer Carol Fong.

We were very glad to welcome a lot of new friends, some of them coming to visit Chan Center for the first time, so we started the event with a beginner-friendly meditation session, our Dharma teacher venerable Chang Guan Fashi guided an exercise meditation followed by a sitting meditation with detailed instructions. Everyone is in a relatively relaxed and joyful state.

We have the honor to invite our special guest, Eddie Lin and Dr. Allen Hsu, to share their expertise and experience with veganism and eco-friendly lifestyle from the diverse professional background and different perspective. Eddie Lin has been a vegetarian since 2004 and is the organizer of Dharma Drink, a Buddhist social group to bring Buddhists and like minded group together. He recently attended Ivy League Vegan Conference in Harvard, and he shared what he learned from academia, entrepreneurs and investors about veganism, the topics include how to make conscious and responsible choices even if you are not a vegetarian; how our daily choice of diet impact climate and global geographical resource; the current state of regulation for animal cruelty; and how modern-day investor put financial pressure on non-environmental friendly companies. It was refreshing to hear the idea from such diverse background. Dr. Allen Hsu is a medical doctor and a vegetarian for 4 years. He approaches this topic in a more blunt manner; he showed videos of cows getting inhumane treatment, graphs of water shortage partially caused by beef industry and CT scans of how veganism impact our health. It was shocking to see these photos but also helps us understand the urgency of being kind in our daily life choices.

After the lecture, we arranged for food sharing time, Ven. Chang Zhai Fashi instructed about Chan in eating, how to have food with gratitude. Our snack is laid out with beautiful presentation, aroma, and taste. Each table shared the snack and shared what they learned and felt. We are moved from the stories each table shared: we have friends who made the compassionate vow to become vegan; we also have friends who never thought a vegetarian lifestyle is possible before this event expressed their desire to choose a more plant based diet.

To conclude this event, Ven Chang Guan Fashi encouraged everyone to realize that, the root of violence and hatred is in our mind, and once we decide to change our mind, to treat every sentient being with equality; every little choice we made is our blessing to the world, and the whole world will be a more peaceful and happier place because tiny compassionate things we do.

We want to thank our dharma teachers, all the volunteers, and all the friends to make this special event possible.