Announcements Issue

Volume 13, Number 2 / April 2013

Serenity Ridge Now Offers Only Vegetarian Meals

Practitioners Encouraged to Consider Becoming Vegetarian

Serenity Ridge Retreat Center now offers meat-free, vegetarian fare, serving a variety of healthy, plant-based food to retreat participants and others who attend events at the center.

Beginning with the April 10–14 Spring Retreat, those who register for retreats at Serenity Ridge will be able to select a meal preference that includes vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free vegetarian and gluten-free vegan. The goal of the kitchen is to prepare tasty and nutritious meals that everyone will enjoy.

During an open webcast at this past Winter Retreat in December, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche also encouraged practitioners to consider becoming vegetarian themselves. “From the teaching point of view it is highly recommended to be vegetarian, as eating meat involves the taking of life,” Rinpoche says. Also, we know more and more that being a vegetarian also is recommended from the point of view of the environment and health.

Rinpoche himself adopted a vegetarian diet about five years ago. He suggests that if people really feel a need to eat meat, then perhaps they can at least minimize its consumption. “For those who feel from time to time, either energetically or physically, that they need to eat meat, they should have more awareness of what they are doing and say prayers for the life taken,” he says.

Rinpoche recommends that everyone view the documentary “Forks Over Knives.” The film explores the discovery that many of the diseases prevalent in our affluent society—such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer—could be controlled or prevented by changing our menu of animal-based and processed foods to a plant-based diet.

So look forward to some tasty vegetarian and vegan dining experiences during your next visit to Serenity Ridge!

View Rinpoche’s teachings on becoming vegetarian (starting with minute 38).