USD Event Links Chan Meditation, Mindful Eating, and Plant-Based Lunch

A room at the University of San Diego brought Chan meditation, mindful eating and a complimentary plant-based lunch into the same conversation, with Chan Master Xianshu, also known as Venerable Xi, leading the session for a campus crowd that could walk in free with an RSVP. The program ran from noon to 1:30 p.m. on the USD campus, and it was presented with English translation so the teacher could speak in Chinese without narrowing the audience.

The setup mattered as much as the lesson. Xianshu came from Deer Lake Monastery in Guangdong, China, and the event framed Chan, also known as Zen, as something lived through attention to food as much as through seated practice. That is the right move for a campus audience, because mindful eating can sound abstract until it is paired with a meal. Here, the lunch was not an afterthought. It was the proof of the point.

That fit neatly with the tradition behind the talk. Vegetarian practice has been deeply woven into Chinese Buddhist life over centuries, where compassion and nonviolence are central ideas, not side notes. Xianshu’s own teaching history gives that approach weight: since 2018, he has guided more than 4,000 people in Zhi Guan meditation, a number that helps explain why the event drew interest beyond the usual meditation circle.

The event also sat inside a larger USD push to connect wellness, food and ethics. The Center for Food Systems Transformation, launched in fall 2024, supports scholarship on food systems change tied to climate change and food justice, and it also backs efforts to reshape institutional food practices around community values. In spring 2025, the center partnered on a survey of roughly 300 students about food choices on campus, a sign that the university is treating food culture as part of student life rather than as a cafeteria detail.

USD’s Student Wellness materials make the same connection from another angle, defining well-being as physical, emotional, environmental, intellectual, occupational, social and spiritual. Its nutrition guidance says healthy eating can support energy, mood and academic performance. Put together, the Chan event, the plant-based lunch and the co-sponsorship from the USD Center for Food Systems Transformation, the USD Good Food Club and the Art of Mindfulness Foundation turned mindfulness into something immediate: sit, listen, eat, and see how practice reaches the plate.