Oklahoma Buddhist monastery hosts festival of veggies, food demonstration

Local Buddhists recently promoted the benefits of vegetarianism by taking a festive approach.

The Veggie Festival on Saturday at Buddha Mind Monastery, 5800 S Anderson Road, offered up a variety of vegetables to show the community-at-large that meatless dishes could be both pleasing to the palate and nutritious.

The festival included cooking demonstrations, food samples, recipes to take home, a panel discussion on vegetarianism and a lecture on Buddhism. The highlight of the event was a free vegetarian lunch that included dishes like stir-fried mushrooms, sesame balls, fried rice noodles, coconut jelly, barbecue veggie pork buns, Mapo tofu, egg rolls, fried rice, vegan barbecue, bean curd sheet vegan chicken and vegan duck and spring rolls.

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Abbess Jian Shan said Buddhists wanted to emphasize the importance of "mindful eating" and the benefits of a plant-based diet for health, environmental sustainability and animal welfare. She said raising people's consciousness about mindful eating also meant talking about the negative impact of meat farming on the environment and all sentient beings. The monastery leader said festival goers were also taught that practicing vegetarianism or veganism may reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

Vegetarianism also promotes compassion toward animals, she said.

"This is based on this idea that we respect all animals, all sentient beings of Buddha nature," she said.

She said it was the first time the popular festival had been held since the COVID-19 pandemic. The monastery, home to four Buddhist nuns from Taiwan, is one of eight Chung Tai meditation centers in the U.S. The monastery is part of a global Buddhist community called the Chung Tai World, which is headquartered at the Chung Tai Chan Monastery of Taiwan.

The abbess said online meditation classes were offered while the monastery was closed during the pandemic so she was heartened to see the Buddhist center filled once again with an enthusiastic crowd. People mingled together in an open-air courtyard, classrooms and other areas to learn more about vegetarianism.

In addition to the merits of vegetarianism, the festival gave Buddha Mind nuns and volunteers opportunities to share information about the monastery's many offerings, including meditation classes, Zen Buddhism classes, vegetarian cooking classes for children and adults, dharma lectures, sutra study, ceremonies and other activities.

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'Cultural exchange'

Volunteer Justin Seal, 43, of Oklahoma City, said he is a Buddhist who attends monastery activities on a regular basis, and the recent festival was one of his favorites events. He said he liked the "cultural exchange," with community members offering samples of Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine, as well as fare from other cultures.

"We're really here to make sure that people have a good place to learn about simple vegetarian dishes and to have a good place to kind of think about mindful eating and what kind of food that they really want to be eating and putting into their body," he said.

Vin Chua said she was a longtime volunteer with the monastery, and she continues to maintain ties there even through she currently lives in Dallas. She said there are Buddhist communities in her area of Texas, but nothing like Buddha Mind.

Chua said the nuns and volunteers decided to offer more food demonstrations and samples because they wanted to help the local community members overcome one of the more common barriers to vegetarianism ― not knowing how to prepare or cook vegetables.

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"That's why we have a group that introduced ingredients, veggies, fruits and the sauces and dressings," Chua said. "All these together are delicious vegetarian."

The varied demonstrations, samples and lunch attracted local residents like Anastatia Covington, of Oklahoma City. She said she wasn't a vegetarian, but she attended the festival to get some healthy food ideas.

"I've always tried to eat healthy, and I know they eat healthy, in general, in their culture and their religion, and I just want to get some ideas on how to cook (vegetables) differently," she said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Buddhist monastery hosts festival of veggies, food demonstration