In the recent book, “ Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life”, Dr Lilian Chung and Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh apply the ‘science’ of Buddhist mindfulness practice to bring about healthy eating.
We are living in an era where more and more people are over eating and getting overweight. Obesity has become a trend and a health issue. According to Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, obesity is created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption. He introduces the teaching of Mindful Eating as a response to the suffering of obesity. He is skillfully phrased it as follow:
Aware of the suffering
caused by unmindful
consumption. I vow to
ingest only items that
preserve peace, well-being
and joy in my
body, in my consciousness, and
in the
collective body and consciousness of my
family and society.
When one is aware of suffering caused by unmindful consumption, one begins to recognize exactly what to consume and what not to consume in order to keep our bodies, our minds, and the earth healthy and not to cause suffering for ourselves and for others.
Mindfulness means to be “aware”. We need to be aware that being overweight will increase the risk of many health problems such as heart attack, hypertension, etc, causing suffering to individuals, family, society as well as our world at large. We need to be aware of the root cause of the problem (craving) – and the elements (consumerism and advertising) that contribute to it. We need to question ourselves, in terms of food and eating, “Who is doing the saying ?”, “What is being said ?” and “Through what channel?”
Traditionally, religion made great influence over society and religious scriptures provide guidelines to conduct our lives – what we eat, how to eat, when to eat, how much to eat. Today, the role of religion has weakened tremendously, and capitalist value has invaded almost all societies.
Our present economic system institutionalizes greed, which nourishes the seeds of desire and indulgence. In this capitalist era, we are constantly bombarded with a myriad of persuasive advertisements. A quick survey on food advertisements, “indulgence” is constantly used as a slogan and catch word. These advertisements persuade us to crave and indulge in unhealthy food and drinks such as sweetened beverages and deserts loaded with saturated fats and sugar.
While advertisers promote “indulgence”, we have to take heed from the religious (Buddhist) perspective, “indulgence” is non-virtuous and will bring sufferings to self and others. In essence, mindfulness enables us to be aware of what the advertisers said and to check if what they promote will lead us to genuine happiness. This is to prevent us from buying into the consumerist culture by ending up over eating or eating unhealthy foods.
In addition, we need to be aware of how we eat. The pace of life in modern living is so fast that we need to be multi-taskers. We are eating with “i-phone and i-pad” instead of eating with mindfulness. We need to slow down and stay at the present moment in order to be engaged in the food we eat. This “simple awareness” is commonly known as “bare awareness” in classical Buddhist scriptures. It is a bare and exact registering of object (in this case the food and taste) without concepts and judgement.
By slowing down and staying in the present moment, such moment to moment awareness enables to us to de-automize our impulse to food. It enables us to relearn how to eat and change our bad eating habits.
We begin to eat with awareness; truly tasting and enjoying the food. This is the type of joy that brings happiness in eating. It is nourishing and helps us to remain clear and lucid. This is the kind of joy that we need as compared to the deluded happiness (indulgence) promoted by the advertisers.
Mindfulness enables one to realize
indulging in eating that
brings toxins
into mind and body and may
ultimately
bring us lots of suffering.
Mindfulness has the element of “protective awareness” where it acts as a “gatekeeper” that exercises sense constraint over the stimuli of the six sense bases. With mindful eating, we begin to look deeply at what we eat and why we eat, for which we have taken for granted. We begin to see our desire and to guard against it. It then de-automize our impulse to the stimuli (food), thereby empowering us to free ourselves from being “enslaved” to the craving of certain food.
Mindfulness has also the element of “introspective awareness”. In this case, mindfulness acts as a kind of introspective vigilance whereby the mind directs its attention to wholesome/skilful states. With mindfulness one begins to develop the power to choose healthy food and to eat moderately.
The Thervada monastic will recite and reflect on the following verse before eating.
Wisely reflecting, I will
take this food. Not for
fun, not for pleasure, not
for fattening, not for
intoxication, but for the
maintenance and
nourishment of this body.
Thinking thus, I will
allay hunger and not give
rise to new feelings
of greed through
overeating. Reflecting wisely,
may I live comfortably and
lead the holy life
blameless life.
1.
Consider the amount of effort and work that goes into
preparation of the food.
2.
Reflect on one’s cultivation, consider whether one is
befitting if this offering.
3.
Guard against the arising of defilements such as greed,
anger or delusion while consuming food.
4.
Consider food and drinks as a medicine to cure the disease
of hunger and thirst
5.
For the sake of cultivation, we take this food.
Monastics use the alms bowl to eat, and reflect on the meaning of the bowl. The term for this bowl is “the vessel of appropriate measure”. In addition, in -“Fo Yi Jiao Jing” (Parinibbana Sutra Chinese Version, Cebta, T12n0389_001), the Buddha advised his disciples to treat food/drinks as medicine: not to increase or decrease its quantity based on the taste, rather to consume the “right quantity”. Just as medicine cure sickness, food/drinks is meant to quench our thirst and allay our hunger. Such reflections enable us to stay focus on our “practice” – eat healthy and moderately.
Eating with recollection and reflection, we begin to eat with the right understanding. Food is for the nourishment of the body, not for sensual pleasure, and we eat with moderation. In addition, we eat with gratitude and compassion. We appreciate that food is a gift from mother earth and we are aware of the tremendous hard work and loving kindness that has gone into its preparation. Eating this way, not only do we get nourished physically, but also mentally and spiritually.
There is much to draw from Buddha’s teaching on mindfulness to gain insight on the contemporary health issues. Modern scientists now begin to see food as the best medicine as compared to pills and drugs and nutritionists have begun to view mindfulness as an important aspect to bring about healthy eating.
Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness eating is a practical and able to do “practice” in timely response to the contemporary obesity epidemic. It enables us to step back and look inward at our inner most desires and craving which are the root cause of the problem.
Mindfulness is central to our “practice”. In maintaining our well-being, mindfulness is essential to help us to fully aware of what we eat, how to eat and how much to eat to cultivate a healthy and positive relationship with food.
In mindful eating, we engage with what we are eating, we stay with the food and truly enjoy what we eat, yet not indulge, but eat in moderation.
“True mindfulness is deeply and inextricably embedded in the notion of wholesomeness.”
Eat mindfully when you are hungry
Someone asked Venerable Hui Hai, an eminent monk of the Tang dynasty. “Chán master, how do you put efforts in your spiritual practice?”
Venerable Hui Hai replied,“When I feel hungry, I eat. When I feel drowsy I sleep.”
That person said, “But everyone does that! Does it mean that everybody is putting effort in spiritual practice just like you?”
Venerable Hui Hai replied,“Of course, not!”
“What is the difference then?”
Venerable Hui Hai explained, “When people take their meals, they usually think of other things at the same time, without paying full attention to their eating. When they go to sleep, they still have a myriad of thoughts running through their minds, so they do not sleep peacefully. When I eat, I just eat without thinking of anything else. When I sleep I do not think of anything else, so I always sleep in peace without getting disturbed by dreams. This is the difference.”
Most of us are over concerned with personal gains and losses, so we lack equanimity and often lose ourselves in regrets about the past as well as dreams about the future. It is difficult for us to be mindful of the present moment. We are often not clear-minded about what we are doing, what we are saying or our present conditions.
Spiritual practice is to be actualized in daily living. How we live is our spiritual practice. Spiritual practice entails cultivation of the mind - to develop equanimity, cultivate mindfulness of one’s deeds, live mindfully in the present moment and experience every moment of life with mindfulness. Only then can one realize truth in living.
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