Interview with Ven. Yan Duan: Plant-based Diet as an Experiment for the Body & Mind

With a decade of experience as a chef, Ven. Yan Duan (演端法師) adopted plant-based diets in his 20s for the sake of environmental protection. After becoming a Buddhist monk, he further realized that adopting a vegetarian diet not only helped him identify his real needs, but also see the needs of others through a growing empathy.


Original Chinese text / Qiu Huimin (邱惠敏)
 
Before becoming a monastic, Ven. Yan Duan had spent 10 years overseas working as a western cuisine chef. Enjoying nice food and tasting wine is both a job and a hobby for him.
 
In the spirit of sustainability and animal protection, plant-based diets have been popular overseas for more than a decade. Ven. Yan Duan, then a lay person living in Australia, had always wanted to do something for the environment. However, he felt helpless to act compared to Bill Gates, who had set up a foundation that brought a great impact on the world. One day, he watched a TED talk video titled "Why I'm a weekday vegetarian?" by Graham Hill, the founder of TreeHugger.com and LifeEdited. After watching it, he thought to himself, "I've always known that vegetarian diets have many benefits. But I couldn't muster up the courage to go for it because I didn't have the confidence to let go of my attachment to meat." However, that TED talk gave him a spark of an idea - maybe he could start by cutting down meat consumption from his diet!
 
Therefore, the venerable started with trying to consume less meat, by reducing from every day to once or twice a week, and then once or twice a month in the following year. As he consumed less and less meat, he gradually found that both his body and mind became less burdened through this lifestyle, which not only made grocery shopping and cooking easier, but also helped him maintain a solid sense of well-being, as indicated in his annual health check-up result, which showed no sign of malnutrition.
 
 
Consciously adopting plant-based diets vs. unconsciously falling into the vegetarian trap
 
After returning to Taiwan at the age of 30, the venerable, previously being a pescatarian, decided to become a complete vegetarian, thanks to his exposure to Buddhism. However, this dietary transition did not automatically lead to a happy and joyful life ever after. Ven. Yan Duan confessed with a smile that there was a time when he found himself unhappy as a vegetarian. He didn't miss drinking alcohol and eating meat, but the dietary barrier between vegetarians and meat eaters once made him suffer. After he became a vegetarian, his friends no longer invited him to join their meal gatherings. His family loved seafood, but, since he was the one in charge of doing the cooking, sometimes he would feel guilty and weep alone in the kitchen.
 
Fortunately, having slowly found a balance, he stopped accusing himself and labeling those who eat meat. After all, since it also took him a while to gradually abandon all attachment to meat, why should he force it on others? "Whether being a vegetarian or not, at least we can practice enjoying every bite with respect for life as well as the preciousness and effort of each meal made from scratch."
 
Also, during the process, the venerable was more and more certain that he no longer liked the bustle of merrymaking and feasts, but, instead, longed for inner peace and calm. Over time, through participating in activities and events organized by Dharma Drum Mountain, he began to experience changes in his life as he found like-minded spiritual friends.
 
As Ven. Yan Duan observes, young people nowadays opt for plant-based or vegan diets for the sake of environmental protection, and he found their voluntary actions commendable. In contrast to such conscious choices of plant-based diet, many people adopting vegetarian diets for religious reasons are prone to the traps of their own value systems. For example, they may strictly avoid mixing the pots and pans for cooking vegetarian food with the ones for non-vegetarian food, or even refuse to eat with non-vegetarians and take vegetarianism as the moral high ground. They forget that the original idea for a religion-based vegetarian diet is to dissolve our own discriminating thoughts through an eating pattern that helps us reduce desires and protect animals.
 
"I remember reading a news report about a vegetarian celebrity. When asked by her friend to recommend local food in Tainan, Taiwan, she suggested famous snacks containing meat instead of insisting that her friend only try vegetarian food. This was indeed a friendly gesture." Ven. Yan Duan believes that this should be the mentality for every vegetarian – being able to see other people's needs, giving them the due care and attention they deserve, and making an effort to form good relationships with others, rather than imposing labels on people and feeling good about ourselves. "People wouldn't become interested in the Buddhist faith just because vegetarian diets taste nice. They have to first identify with vegetarian people's conduct before considering coming into contact with Buddhism."
 
Reconnecting to the land
 
Long immersed in culinary arts and culture, Ven. Yan Duan has been pondering "what is the ideal mode of diet for mankind?" He found that in this era that advocates efficiency and good value for one's money, even the world of both plant-based and vegetarian diets is pursuing efficiency. "Vegetarian diets have become another kind of 'fast food', making us overlook what we are eating and their impact on our health." Ven. Yan Duan points out that modern society's excessive focus on efficiency has prompted us to forget the original idea of food, as well as the bond between human beings and the land.
 
Ven. Yan Duan once used levain to make traditional fermented sourdough, and his friend suffering gastroesophageal reflux disease was fine after eating his bread. This is because the dough made with adequate fermentation time doesn't cause a burden on our digestive system. "In fact, many popular food products, such as yogurt, miso, and kimchi, are fermented foods that are also beneficial to health."
 
Through understanding and mastering the characteristics of ingredients and microorganisms, Ven. Yan Duan has further grasped the relationship between food and nature. "During the fermentation process, microorganisms break down carbohydrates, proteins, and fats into smaller molecules. Meanwhile, they produce various beneficial metabolites such as lactic acid, acetic acid, alcohol, and enzymes. These metabolites not only help to improve the mouth feel and taste of food, but also enhance digestion, nutrient absorption, regulation of gut microbiota, immunity, disease prevention, etc."
 
The intimate symbiotic relationship among humans, microorganisms, food, and the land is embodied in the simple process of fermentation, which is one of the crystallizations of human wisdom accumulated over the past thousands of years through culinary arts. In addition, naturally fermented foods can even reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution by facilitating resource circulation. This in turn creates a healthier and more sustainable ecosystem. "This is the process that I refer to as 'reconnecting with the land.' The power to change may seem small, but it can have a big impact on the planet."


Being considerate for the eaters
 
Another key that makes vegetarian cuisine delicious, however, is the cooking mindset. "A chef once shared with me a common mistake most chefs tend to make: they take just one single taste of the food to decide whether it is good enough to be served, without considering its possible overall taste through the meal. A chef must actually sit down and try the dish out, like a guest does, to be able to relate to what their guests may experience. Only when the chefs themselves feel satisfied can they add the dish to the menu. That's the attitude of taking responsibility." Ven. Yan Duan firmly believes that a meal prepared with devotion can surely touch the heart of the eater.

So it is with preparing vegetarian lunch boxes. The venerable remembered the vegetarian lunch boxes provided by the organizers for the many events he had participated. He shared that, for several times, when he opened the box, colorful food indeed greeted his eyes. The food might seem rich in color and form, but most items were made of glutinous rice, which is actually a burden to our digestive system. As Ven. Yan Duan pointed out, how to design what to pack in a vegetarian lunch box should not be overlooked – balancing taste and nutrition, and taking care of the consumers for their physical and mental well-being and safety– as it all reflects the organizer's effort and ingenuity on this matter.

Ven. Yan Duan believes that the reason to promote vegetarian diets is to help Buddhist practitioners to re-examine the relationship between their body, mind, and environment through making conscious choices about what they consume. "As Ven. Chang Kuan (常寬法師), the Vice Dean of Sangha University, once indicated, to engage in Buddhist practice is to experiment with the body and mind, thereby realizing what is helpful to self and others. I think adopting a vegetarian diet can be the beginning of such an experiment," said Ven. Yan Duan. He encourages everyone, regardless of their age, to consciously join this body-mind experiment.



Related articles:

Growth of Vegetarianism among the Young

Common Questions about Vegetarianism

Interview with Huang Yan-mei, the Volunteer Chef of DDM Yunlai Monastery

Interview with Veggie Deer, Taiwanese YouTuber: Changing Diets, Transforming the World

Interview with Ven. Yan Duan: Plant-based Diet as an Experiment for the Body & Mind



Resource: Issue 478 of Humanity Magazine (June 2023), Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation
Translation: Li Siang-ling
Editing: Keith Brown, Chang Chia-cheng (張家誠)