by Cardinal Stephen Chow, S.J.
As a member of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, I was invited to attend the 8th Colloquium of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, held late last month in Cambodia, a predominantly Buddhist country. We very much appreciate the friendly relationship between our Church and the Buddhists there.
All the guests were provided with hotel accommodations throughout the event. Only the ‘Welcome Dinner’ was served at the hotel on the first day. When the food was served, the first six or seven dishes were meat or contained meat. I was assured that vegetarian dishes would be served. Just to be safe, I reminded one of the Catholic organisers about the vegan diet of the Buddhist religious guests. Eventually, three to four vegetable dishes arrived, which were all fine, although I could taste garlic or onion in them.
Then the rest of the meals were served at the venue of the Colloquium, which was the Pastoral Centre of the diocese. At the first lunch, meat eaters were served three courses of meat along with mixed dishes, soup and rice. For our vegetarian table, there was a big plate of salad with a large bowl of rice. And those were the only two food options available to us. We thought it was all right, as we should live simply. But the problem surfaced as we started digging into the salad. There was tuna fish mixed in it! Oh, what could we do?! A bottle of soy sauce was available with the rice on the table…. That could be our solution. But we thought that since we had informed them of our special diet the night before, we could safely assume that everything should be straightened out. A naïve assumption on our part, unfortunately!
We later found out that in Cambodia, Buddhism was influenced by the Southern tradition of Buddhism (南傳佛教), which allowed meat consumption even for the monks. No wonder the Catholic organisers were not aware of the special dietary needs of the Han tradition (漢傳佛教), which mandated a vegan diet with no garlic, onions, or other pungent vegetables, etc. They assumed that the Buddhist religious participants were the same as their Cambodian monks. The host apologised and compensated us with a couple of plates of stir-fried string beans.
What came with the rest of the meals was a combination of either the stir-fried vegetables or the soup, having some green onions or onions, and maybe even garlic in them. But no meat! What impressed me was that the Buddhist religious from the Han tradition were reasonably ‘flexible,’ which meant they could tolerate a small amount of onion or garlic, provided that there were no other options available. I noticed, however, that they were a little disappointed but not irritated. They ate, but less.
Having said that, we appreciated the efforts of the cooks. They were possibly volunteers, which meant the cooks were not the same for all the meals.
Thank God, the Farewell Dinner was fully up to standard, and everyone, including us vegetarians, enjoyed it fully. One of the Buddhist religious said with an appreciative smile on her face that the dinner was the first meal that she could feel full. I want to stress that she expressed that with an appreciative tone, not complaining.
I later learned that a few years ago, an academic institution invited some Tibetan monks to Hong Kong. As usual, they were served Buddhist vegan meals. But one of them politely asked if they could have some meat after a few vegan meals. Alas, the host assumed wrongly that their Buddhist guests were also following the Buddhist vegan diet. Again, assumptions should be verified, even though they were supposed to follow our ‘logical’ assumptions.
While checking on assumptions made is a prerequisite for avoiding misunderstandings and disruptions in any developing relationship, what is also needed is our goodwill for each other. While we tried to explain ourselves, we also allowed each other the needed time and space to learn and make changes. Goodwill, patience, and loving hope are the required ingredients for everyone to understand, appreciate and come closer to each other. Lesson learned!
+ Stephen Chow, S.J.
