Buddhist Master Jun Hong Lu has ever said, “Blessings come from a generous heart. Those who give are the most blessed.”(Excerpt from Words of Wisdom volume 1) On July 15, 2018, volunteers from Guan Yin Citta Philadelphia Chapter organized an amazing free vegetarian tasting event and applied the master’s teachings to the actions of promoting vegetarianism and Buddhism. The event was held at the Guan Yin Citta Chapter in downtown Philly, which attracted over 250 Buddhist friends, neighbors, and families of different races.

Before joining this event, some attendees had held on to a kind of thinking, eating vegetarian is boring. But after tasting the delicious food prepared by the volunteers, they changed their mind and were convinced that eating without meat can also be as exciting. Over 50 vegetarian recipes were loaded with flavorful, colorful ingredients packed with nutrition. Some meat lovers even expressed their interests to mix vegetarian recipes in their daily diet. In this sense, the event is quite successful, because consuming more vegetarian meals means consuming less meals with meat. This is a good approach to cultivate compassion, reduce killing, and enhance the body performances.

In addition to the wonderfully hearty food, video clips from Master Jun Hong Lu’s Totem Inquiry also astonished many attendees. They were amazed at Master Jun Hong Lu’s great spiritual power to reveal one’s past, present and future. In the meanwhile, they were touched by the miserable stories and experiences from those people in suffering. Master Jun Hong Lu said, “When life gets difficult, keep in mind that we are experiencing the amount of suffering we were destined to go through, therefore transforming our karma for a better future”. These Dharma words from Master Jun Hong deeply revealed the Law of Cause and Effect, and showed the importance of paying off karmic debts through Buddhist practice. Most of the attendees expressed much interest in the dramatic positive effect of reading Buddhist scriptures on solving daily issues related to health, relationship, and career etc. And they initiatively asked volunteers how to start the practice and requested books to read.

After viewing videos, 13 Buddhist youngsters aged from 3 to 14 performed the reading of Buddhist Scriptures in front of all the attendees, including the reading of Dharani to Purify Karma from Speech (Jing Kou Ye Zhen Yan), Heart Sutra, Septa Atitabuddha Karasaniya Dharani (Xiao Zai Ji Xiang Shen Zhou), and Cundi Dharani (Zhun Ti Shen Zhou).

Since Master Jun Hong Lu’s Dharma Talk in New York is coming soon, the host thoroughly introduced the necessity of attending this Dharma Talk, and specific arrangements from Guan Yin Citta Philadelphia Chapter for the big event, including when and how to collect free admission tickets and reserve bus seats for the round trip between New York and Philadelphia. After the host announced the information, many attendees were rushed to the registration center to collect the tickets for the Buddhist Master Jun Hong Lu’s Dharma Public Talk in October at Madison Square Garden. And over 90 bus seats were reserved for the free round trip. At the same time, some volunteers took advantage of the timing, giving one-to-one tutorial to the first-time visitors on how to start the daily homework of reading Buddhist Scriptures as a beginner.

At the end, every attendee received a gift of a beautiful cosmetic bag and a picture book with tons of vegetarian recipes. They were looking forward to the next free vegetarian food tasting event on August 19, 2018.