Vegetarian Food at Wat Suan Mokkh

Travel Day 1098 – Dhamma Hermitage, Wat Suan Mokkh, THAILAND

While the Vegetarian Food at Kopan Monastery had been amazing already, the food at Wat Suan Mokkh was pretty amazing as well…

Pumpkin Curry and Desert, Suan Mokkh

Well, actually the vegetarian rice soup for breakfast was everything but amazing and only barely scratched the label of plain disgusting. The worst thing about that was that the exact same soup was served every single morning of our Vipassana retreat and sometimes even the smell of it made me feel sick to my stomach. Really only because we were served two meals per day, I saw no other choice and ate the soup while being as little mindful as possible and concentrating or thinking about everything else but the sensation of the somewhat foul taste…

During the first few days this wasn’t too much of a problem as the soup was accompanied by little cereal bars with coconut and fruits, which kept me alive But after a few days the cereal bars changed into plain potatoes and finally the potatoes disappeared, leaving nothing but the soup. It was really strange and by the look on people’s faces I could tell that I wasn’t alone with my opinion, but admittedly the soup had at least one positive side effect: We were not supposed to feel any attachment to worldly pleasures and the soup definitely helped that effort quite a bit…

Vegetarian Curry at Wat Suan Mokkh

The lunch in comparison was impossible not to love, embrace and feel attached to. On the one hand it was our only substantial meal of the entire day and on the other hand it always came with brown rice and at least one vegetarian Thai curry as well as fresh greens plus a delicious desert. It was mad, but after eating as little as possible in the morning and while knowing that there would be no other meal in evening, I simply found myself stuffing my face with all the delicious curries until I felt almost sick…

Despite the initial worries about the food supply and despite the lack of one full meal in the evening, the body started to adjust already after the second day of the new eating schedule. The same thing I had actually experienced at the Sivananda Ashram in India where we too were only served two meals per day. It actually wasn’t a problem after the second day as well and all it took was to change the mind and the attitude towards the food…

Thai Curry and Desert at Suan Mokkh

What the attitude meant in this case was that because it was clear that there would be no food served after lunch and there was nothing available in our surrounding, actually the sensation of being hungry disappeared as well. The same was true for the morning. We woke up at 4am but it wasn’t until four hours and some yoga with Tai-Chi later that we received our vegetarian ice soup for breakfast. Because it was clear and because there was no other option, it was actually no problem at all…

This made me contemplate a lot about how much we usually overeat in our daily lives, only because food seemed always available and only because we like to eat for pure pleasure. So experiencing how the mind and body can in fact adjust to a much simpler life style quite easily was actually a really good lesson and I swore to myself to be more aware or more mindful of my eating habits in the future. But despite all lessons learned and despite all good intentions, I still had to admit that it was next to impossible not to take great pleasure in eating the amazing vegetarian curries we were served for lunch at Wat Suan Mokkh…

Find all Wat Suan Mokkh Photos here.