Every spiritual and religious tradition seems to focus on food as part of the process of enlightenment and transcendence. In addition to not eating meat, Yogis eat no garlic or onion and consume no coffee, tea, or alcohol, since these foods are thought to be too stimulating and distracting from meditative and other spiritual disciplines. Buddhists are also vegetarians, although some will eat meat if it has already been killed and is being served to them, in order not to waste the sacrifice the animal has made. Greek Orthodox monks fast for about half the annual calender, although they do eat onions and garlic (quite copiously I might add). Christian monks and ascetics also drink alcohol and have been the originators of both beer and wines throughout history…after all Christ turned the water into wine. Most also eat fish and seafood, although not meat (unless of course they live in a hermitage, outside the walls of the monastery, and actually hunt!). They also are famous for their cheeses, which of course, vegans eschew.

All this to say that if specific foods are favored or contraindicated in the pursuit of spiritual development…..shouldn’t they at least be the same foods? Is the Orthodox monk somehow less holy or further from God than the Hindu Yogi because he eats garlic, onions, fish, and consumes wine and beer? And why is diet so prominently associated with spirituality? Is it the symbolism of food as potential corrupter and contaminant, entering the temple of the body? Or is it about what happens psychologically and spiritually when people abstain from things they actually like, whatever those may be?

All I can say is that I’ve spent lots of time with Yogis, Buddhists, and Christian spiritual seekers…and the Christians are definitely more fun…unless you happen to fall on a bread and water fast week!

The previous header for the KAFENEIO blog featured a cropped segment from an original picture that I took on Mount Athos in 2003. Today my wife asked to see this photo (I think she misses the old header!).

It was taken at a hermitage (a small house occupied by several monks, with its own chapel, gardens, kitchen, etc.). Many monks prefer to live in hermitages rather than in one of the twenty monasteries that are dispersed across the Athonite peninsula. The monk who cooks at this hermitage is a phenomenal craftsman, capable of producing the tastiest meals I’ve ever had. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he goes out and picks all his vegetable from his garden just minutes before cooking them. A simple space…yet, it produces food that rivals and often surpasses the best I’ve sampled in some of the most renown international restaurants.

There are two Athonite monasteries in Canada founded by Father Ephraim, among the nearly two dozen he has organized in the last 20 years in North America. One of these is on the outskirts of the town of Brownsburg about an hour North of Montreal. It’s an all-female monastery and includes a cheese-making factory, chicken operation, candleworks, and other traditional monastic commercial pursuits that enable self-sufficiency.

Mr Italo and I visited the monastery today on a photographic excursion, and were befriended by the senior nun who had assisted us in the monastery shop with our voluminous purchases of cheeses, biscuits, candles, books, etc. She volunteered to give us a personal tour of the large site that includes about a dozen buildings as well as an excavation site for a major expansion of the monastery currently underway. Just a few pictures with the Leica M8.2.

Reception building and gift shop

Entrance icon

Candles drying in the candleworks

Logs and chains

Mr. Italo added the following picture today, May 24th.

A reader asked to post a couple of my Mount Athos pictures on his Athos weblog. Pretty cool site, lots of good photos and other information about the Holy Mountain. Check it out here.

Looking for photos to use for my new blog header, I came across a series I had dismissed as “uninteresting” when I first looked at them a few years ago. The beauty of digital files (I shoot film generally, but digitize the images for selection and emailing purposes) is that you inevitably run across them again and again, giving you an opportunity to see them in a different light. In the old days with film alone, I tended to print the photos I liked and then the filmstrips disappeared into my archives never to be seen again.

This is a picture of one of our close friends whom we have visited dozens of times over the last 20 years. He is a hermit, i.e. he and his companions (a brother and a cousin) live on their own, outside the confines of a monastery. Their cooking consists of vegetables and beans that they pick from their garden just minutes before being cooked. The taste of truly fresh food is indescribable and so satisfying.

And here’s the full-frame shot of the picture I used for the blog header.

And the finished product….fried potatoes, fried eggplant, boiled greens (horta), tomato-cucumber salad, olives, beans in tomato sauce, and fresh bread…and of course, homemade wine! The biggest problem coming back from Athos into the secular world is that it takes a few days to get used to eating tasteless food again!

I’ve been asked on a number of occasions what the accommodations look like at the various monasteries on Mount Athos, and my answer invariably is….”they vary”. Some monasteries have completed vast restoration projects and have significantly upgraded the pligrims’ rooms. Others have not yet completed their restorations and the accommodations are Spartan at best (16 to a room full of bunks). Here are two views:

The Monastery of Iviron was built during the first half of the 11th Century, making it one of the oldest monastic “cities”. It is one of my most frequently visited monasteries on Mount Athos. An excellent and brief history plus color photos are available here.

Iviron – view form the water – 2000

No shave day today, so here’s a small substitute….at least for cat lovers out there (I’m a dog man myself….WOOF!).

Taken by my son, Nick, on our first trip to Mount-Athos together, when he was 14.

How would you like this little “shack” as your country home? Comes complete with 4 hermits well-versed in wine-making. Daily attendance at two 3-hour masses mandatory, and bread-and-water diet during the 40 days of Lent. Great views of Mount Athos from every room though!