Living Vegetarian at Hsi Lai Temple

The temple's afternoon sky is filled with the constant chatter of birds.

Life there is sacred to the monks and nuns who refer to each other as monastics and address each other with the title of "venerable."

These monastics live on a 15-acre property with a building complex that sprawls over 102,000 square feet. While the buildings were completed in 1988, the architecture of the ancient Ming and Qing dynasties prevail over the buildings' design.

The temple is an otherwise serene environment unless many visitors are touring the temple complex for the day.

Religious relics stand in nearly every free corner on the temple grounds. Ornately decorated wooden and porcelain sculptures are placed everywhere in the complex, inside and outside the sacred halls and museum areas.

In scenes that depict the struggle against evil and the journey towards self-realization, life-sized ceramic figures tower over the fountains that dribble out a steady stream of clear water.

Hsi Lai's monastic order practices the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism which began in China. The order, known as Fo Guang Shan, is based in Taiwan, but the society is registered in the United States as the International Buddhist Progress Society.

The Fo Guang Shan's headquarters claims to be the largest Buddhist organization in Taiwan.

While the Hsi Lai temple is a working monastery and home to a number of monastics who follow a rigid discipline, the monks and nuns understand the relationship between their temple and the surrounding community who seek from the monastics spiritual guidance and religious instruction.

The order stresses the idea that all life (including animal life) is sacred.

"Killing or eating meat breaks several rules at one time," wrote Michael Ohlsson in his essay, "The Buddhist Diet." "One who does harms other sentient beings and restricts their path/chance to gain enlightenment/nirvana."

The Hsi Lai monastics practice a somewhat rigid version of vegetarianism that promotes a mostly vegan diet with some milk products allowed.  They even go so far as to restrict  specific spices, particularly garlic and onions.

According to Venerable You Wang Shih, a monastic who is in charge of the Hsi Lai kitchen, the use of these spices increases blood circulation and would stimulate sensual desire, which would distract the disciple from an aesthetic lifestyle. 

Vegetarianism is practiced across a number of faith traditions but not uniformly in every Buddhist school of thought.

"Vegetarianism is a unique characteristic of Chinese Buddhist practice," said Venerable Miao Hsi, one of the directors responsible for the temple's outreach program. Venerable Miao Hsi emphasized the need to practice compassion toward all living beings but also acknowledged that not every branch of Buddhism can adhere to their rigid diet.

Venerable You Wang insisted that the primary reason behind the vegetarian emphasis is the need to protect the lives of animals.  

"We want people to have more compassion," Venerable You Wang said. "We don't have the rights to kill any beings."

"Most Buddhists recognize that we need to not be taking a life. . .for food if we have a choice.  And basically the principle behind practicing vegetarianism is the cultivation of compassion."

However, Venerable You Wang explained that their practice of compassion will be dictated by the natural environment.   Tibetan monks, for instance, are forced to eat meat because they are not able to grow much food in the harsh mountain environment, she said.  But they do pray over the animal to acknowledge their life. 

Venerable You Wang and her team of cooks serve a daily vegetarian buffet to the public at the dining hall towards the back of the temple complex.

Visitors are invited at lunchtime to leave the tranquility of the gardens and file into a line at the dining hall.

The hall looks a lot like many Chinese buffet restaurants in America. The monks and nuns ask for a $7 donation for an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Creative with a variety of tofu and other fake meats on the market, Venerable You Wang daily tweaks the menu and emulates dishes on a Chinese take-out menu that would ordinarily have meat.

In one of the steam trays, a colorful dish of green peppers and dark brown tofu glistened under the heat lamps, looking deceptively like real meat. "This is typical American food," Venerable You Wang said, pointing to the vegetarian version of beef and bell peppers.

For the monastics, they know the menu has to be appetizing for the regular stream of visitors who may not be used to a meatless diet, but there is also practical reason why some Buddhists are changing their eating habits.

Nancy Cowardin, a volunteer at the Hsi Lai Temple isn't a strict vegetarian, but has noticed lately that she and her husband weren't going out of their way to eat meat . . .and it was only to occasionally order seafood in restaurants. Cowardin completely avoids red meat altogether.

"I think it's way healthier.  I feel better.  I feel lighter," Cowardin said.

"For us it's very natural," said Venerable Miao Hsi. She has been a vegetarian since she became a Buddhist about seven or eight years ago. She didn't recall a terrible struggle to give up anything.   She lost her taste for meat some time ago. "You just cannot eat it anymore," she said.

Mario Cee, another volunteer at the Hsi Lai Temple has been a vegetarian for about 22 years. "It wasn't that difficult to do," Cee said. Of course, he acknowledged, one of his basic vegetarian food groups includes cake and ice cream.

All stressed the importance about keeping animals safe from the dinner table. Cee and Cowardin both worry that cows especially are slaughtered inhumanely.

"I believe. . .that when you eat meat, I think animals smell it on you and fear you," Cowardin added.  "I think they can tell."

While the monastics are happy to share their love for vegetarian food, the diet is part of a discipline that they do not impose on their visitors.

They understand that they are part of a Southern California community. They know their customs and menu would change if they were in China.

The monastic order named the temple "Hsi Lai" which means "coming West" to signify the advent of Buddhism to America . . .and the American mindset.

One of their faith's core beliefs is to "make things convenient to others," which underscores the monastic's style of non-pressure.  Venerable Miao Hsi said that they also emphasize the idea of self-governance to their disciples.  Disciples make their own decisions about their own lifestyle choices.

The desire to keep their faith flexible to the circumstances allows the monks to continue to relate to the changing society around them. . .from the Tibetan mountain tops to the suburbs of Hacienda Heights.

Venerable You Wang said she goes out of her way to keep the buffet's menu "convenient," even for the school children who arrive to the temple for a day field trip.  Venerable You Wang knows they will have western tastes for a McDonald's Happy Meal.

The monastic said she makes sure french fries are at the top of the menu on those days.