AS DHARMA PRACTITIONERS, we aspire to imbue all our daily actions with a positive motivation — one of kindness that understands our interdependent nature. Even more important than the specific action we do is the reason why we do it. The motivation we bring to each action impacts its results, and eating is no exception. By cultivating our motivation for eating and by remembering our long- and short-term purposes, we can transform otherwise ordinary actions such as eating.
We can approach eating with various motivations. Very often we eat to enjoy the taste of the food. Here attachment to sense pleasure and greed for what gives us this pleasure easily arise. Attachment is considered an afflictive mental state because it is based on exaggerating the good qualities of something or someone and then clinging to it. Attachment makes our mind very narrow and self-centered; a mind filled with craving has no room for generosity. Thus actions motivated by clinging attachment become nonvirtuous and, in the long term, lead to suffering.
It is important to understand that there is nothing wrong with experiencing pleasure. The path to awakening does not involve tortuous self-denial and asceticism; the Buddha opposed such activity. Pleasure is not a problem. We run into trouble when we become attached to the pleasure and to people and things that bring it. It’s the attachment, not the pleasure itself, that leads us to lie to get what we want, to steal others’ property, or to kill to protect our possessions or honor. So the trick is to experience the pleasure without clinging to it, being depressed when it’s gone, or trying to recreate it later. As my teacher Lama Thubten Yeshe used to tell us, “Comes, comes. Goes, goes. Don’t cling.”
We could also eat to nourish our body and sustain our life. If we do this in a balanced way without greedily seeking more and better, our motivation is karmically neutral, bringing neither pleasant nor painful results.
On the basis of such a neutral motivation, we can cultivate a virtuous motivation by expanding our perspective. For example, we think that we eat to keep our body healthy and to renew our physical strength so that we can practice the Dharma — that is, so that we can abandon harmful actions, words, and thoughts and transform our mind into excellent qualities such as love, compassion, and wisdom. By doing so we will create the causes to attain a fortunate rebirth, such as a precious human life with all the necessary conditions to progress on the path. This is a virtuous motivation; it is more expansive than seeking only our immediate pleasure, yet it is still narrow because we’re concerned with only our own future rebirths. If we expand our intention further, we can develop the motivation to practice the Dharma in order to attain liberation from the constantly recurring problems of cyclic existence. This will bring a better result. And if we enhance our motivation even further, we can generate bodhicitta — that is, we will seek to become a fully awakened Buddha in order to benefit others and lead them on the path to awakening. This is the most noble motivation, and any action — even cooking, eating, or doing the dishes — done with this intention will contribute to our attaining Buddhahood one day.
At the Abbey, lunch is our main meal, so we spend more time than at other meals contemplating our motivation for eating. We do this by reciting the five contemplations, which are from the Chinese Buddhist tradition. The five contemplations are as follows:
I contemplate all the causes and conditions and the kindness of others by which I have received this food.
I contemplate my own practice, constantly trying to improve it.
I contemplate my mind, cautiously guarding it from wrongdoing, greed, and other defilements.
I contemplate this food, treating it as wondrous medicine to nourish my body.
I contemplate the aim of Buddhahood, accepting and consuming this food in order to accomplish it.
We pause after reciting each of the five contemplations so that we can reflect on its meaning.
1. I contemplate all the causes and conditions and the kindness of others by which I have received this food.
The first contemplation encourages us to reflect on all the causes and conditions that have come together for us to receive the food. The original version in Chinese doesn’t include the phrase “the kindness of others.” I added that phrase, because when we reflect on the causes and conditions of our meal, it becomes obvious that it came about due to the kindness and efforts of others. That phrase explicitly reminds us that having received kindness, we want to repay it by paying it forward.
Our meal has many causes and conditions. Some are physical: the seeds that grew into the grains, fruits, and vegetables. Some are karmic: our practice of generosity either earlier in this life or in previous lives when we offered funds to purchase food or gave food directly to others. Recalling this motivates us to continue being generous by giving food to others now. Helping others is a way of helping ourselves just as harming others is a way of harming ourselves.
While this sounds easy to do, it involves confronting our miserliness. When we are hungry, do we serve others first and distribute portions equally? When we have limited funds, do we share the little food we have with the homeless people we pass on the streets? Do we share the food we like with friends — or do we share the food we don’t like, in the hopes that they might like it? When we offer fruit or baked goods to the Three Jewels, do we put the best on the altar, or do we offer the bruised fruit and day-old baked goods and keep the best for ourselves? It is important to recognize our miserliness and ask ourselves if it creates the causes and conditions to receive food in the future or if it impedes it. While miserliness may give us some immediate benefit, it isn’t conducive to our becoming the kind of person we want to be and it inhibits our spiritual growth.
Awareness of karma and its effects also inspires us to reflect on whether we are creating the causes to have food in future lives. We need to think deeply about that, because our present actions cause our future experiences.
In developed countries we tend to take the presence of food in our kitchens and on our tables for granted. However, having food depends on many causes and conditions that ripen in this lifetime: the climate needs to be good so that crops grow properly, farmers need to be healthy so that they can plant and tend to the crops, the infrastructure in the country must be adequate to transport the food, and the country must be peaceful so that the food can reach the residents. We see so vividly in war-torn countries that crops cannot grow and emergency food supplies are often unable to reach people because of the fighting.
The kindness and efforts of others also enable us to be well nourished. Other people grow our food. Unlike in ancient times when every family had a garden, nowadays very few people grow all the food they consume. Other people plant, water, fertilize, harvest, sort, process, package, transport, stock, and sell the food we eat. In many countries, animals till the ground and carry the harvests on their backs. Having all the ingredients to prepare just one meal is dependent on countless other living beings.
At the Abbey we do not eat meat. For those of you who do eat meat, please think of the kindness of other beings who have involuntarily given their bodies and lives for your breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Use that awareness to develop a strong sense of gratitude toward those beings. In future times when you are a high bodhisattva, you will be happy to offer your body for someone else’s lunch, but right now you are probably not ready to do that. So at least recite the mantra OM AHBIRAKAY TSARA HUM seven times over the meat to help the sentient beings whose flesh you eat to be reborn in a fortunate realm. You could also resolve to benefit those sentient beings when you attain Dharma realizations in order to repay their kindness in sacrificing their bodies and lives for your meal.
We now have the opportunity to create merit by offering food to the Three Jewels. Just having the chance to do this comes from the kindness of others who have worked so hard in the long chain of activities that brought the food to our table. Our lives, including our ability to practice the Dharma and create merit, are intricately dependent on so many sentient beings. Reflecting in this way is part of the method side of the path, which helps us to generate bodhicitta — the wish to become a fully awakened Buddha, in order to most effectively benefit all sentient beings.
On the wisdom side of the path, we investigate how things are produced by causes and conditions and therefore do not exist inherently. They do not have their own essence, and they exist only because their causes existed. The mere fact that the existence of things depends on other things — their causes, conditions, and their parts, for example — shows that they cannot be independent. They can’t possibly have their own inherent or independent essence. In just the first contemplation of the causes and conditions and the kindness of others by which we have received this food, we practice both the method and wisdom sides of the path to awakening.
2. I contemplate my own practice, constantly trying to improve it.
The original Chinese version of this line is roughly translated as “I contemplate my own practice, to ensure I am worthy of this food.” This calls us to reflect on whether we are keeping our precepts and practicing properly, such that we are worthy of the generosity of others who give food with faith in the Sangha. I changed the wording because talking about “being worthy of having food” can make some people uncomfortable. They may begin to feel guilty and disparage themselves, which is not at all useful and is certainly not the intended outcome of this contemplation. Rather, we want to remember that people have offered us food out of the goodness of their hearts. They worked hard to earn the money to purchase it, and we would lack integrity if we took their kindness for granted. Especially when people with faith offer food to the Sangha, we have the responsibility to improve our practice and keep our precepts well to uphold our part of the relationship.
The Buddha described four types of practitioners who receive the offerings of requisites — food, clothing, shelter, and medicine — from those with faith. The first group, those who don’t keep precepts well yet consume offerings, are like thieves, taking what is not rightfully theirs. The second group consists of those who don’t have any realizations but guard their precepts and diligently work to improve. They are like debtors taking out a loan of food that can nourish them so that they can continue to practice and gain realizations of the path. The third group is practitioners who are stream-enterers, once-returners, and non-returners. They have realized the nature of reality but must continue to meditate on it in order to purify their minds of all afflictions. They resemble people who partake of their inheritance. It is not theirs yet, but because these practitioners are aryas — those who have realized emptiness directly—their final goal of liberation or Buddhahood is in sight. Thus they are accepting what will soon be theirs. The fourth group consists of arhats — liberated beings — bodhisattvas on the eighth ground and above, and Buddhas. They are the rightful owners. Because they have eliminated the afflictive obscurations, they are completely worthy to receive and enjoy the offerings of food and other requisites.
This contemplation helps us to understand that we have an obligation related to our choice to become monastics. We should not be proud, thinking, “I hold precepts so others should give me food.” As my teacher Lama Thubten Yeshe used to say, “Your mantra should be ‘I am the servant of others.’ You must always remind yourselves of this.” We are like debtors taking a loan of food so that we can practice well now, gain realizations, and repay others’ kindness by teaching them the Dharma and leading them on the path to awakening.
3. I contemplate my mind, cautiously guarding it from wrongdoing, greed, and other defilements.
Each of the monastics at Sravasti Abbey has an alms bowl that she or he uses to eat. We go through the buffet line in ordination order, taking enough to nourish our bodies but not excess. From the moment we begin to fill our bowls, we want to have an attitude that guards against any wrongdoing, such as greed and complaining.
Wrongdoing may take many forms. If twenty people are present for lunch and twenty spring rolls are set out for the meal, taking two of them for ourselves would be greedy and inconsiderate. If we’re in the front of the line, taking huge portions of our favorite dishes so that there is not enough for the people later in the line is also negligent. If food remains after everyone has taken some, we can go back for seconds.
The greedy mind is insatiable. No matter how much we have or receive, the craving mind wants more. This greedy mind is also sneaky. We may take a moderate portion but then check out others’ bowls to see if they took more than we did. Or we may eat quickly so we can go back for seconds before others do. This is one reason we have a precept not to look in other people’s bowls; how much food our neighbor takes is not our business. How much we take is our business, and we must make sure not to pile so much in our bowl that other people don’t have a chance to receive their share.
In any situation where the Sangha is given offerings, we should not take the offered item twice, even if somebody thinks we didn’t receive it and offers it to us again. If that happens, we should indicate that we have already received the offering to ensure that everybody receives it equally. If someone offers socks to everyone in the community, any extras are put in the storage area. When someone needs another pair of socks, he or she asks the store manager.
When monastics attend teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India, a small monetary offering is often distributed to all the Sangha members who are present. Sometimes two monks come by at different times to distribute the rupee note, and we could easily take the offering a second time without anyone noticing. However, accepting a second offering would constitute stealing. Since we are working hard to purify our minds, adding more pollution to it for the sake of money makes no sense.
Another defilement to guard against is a restless, complaining attitude. We may think, “I wish they put more salt in this food” or “They shouldn’t put so much salt in the food.” The mind complains, “I don’t like this food. I wish they would make something I like” or “I need more protein,” “I need more carbs,” “I need more sugar. What’s wrong with sugar anyway?” Our mantra becomes “I need, I need, I need.” Do we really need this? Or do we crave it? Are we seeking happiness in external objects, even though we have what is necessary to keep our body healthy? When this complaining, insatiable mind of greed arises, we must remember that we are monastics and that our job is to accept with gratitude whatever is offered to us. Personally speaking, some days there’s not much that accords with my taste or the way my digestive system works. But part of my practice is to accept what is offered and be content with that.
One of the criteria for practitioners who want to cultivate serenity and concentration is contentment. If we lack this quality, we may meditate for a long time in a secluded place, but our concentration will not deepen because our mind will constantly daydream about everything we crave.
Of course, if you’re not able to eat certain foods and feel sick after eating a particular food, you can politely mention it to the kitchen manager. At the Abbey, people who require a gluten-free or dairy-free diet can say so. People who cannot eat beans or tomatoes can mention that, too. Then the cook can consider changing the menu or preparing an alternative dish. But some days the cook may put out a cake offered by a supporter, with no gluten-free alternative. That is the time to practice fortitude. Realize that contrary to what the dissatisfied, greedy mind says, you will survive without dessert. In fact, tomorrow you won’t even remember that you didn’t have dessert today. It is difficult indeed to satisfy a mind with craving, and we’ll be much happier if we cultivate contentment and gratitude. These qualities make us free; craving and dissatisfaction imprison us.
4. I contemplate this food, treating it as wondrous medicine to nourish my body.
It’s important to remember that we don’t eat just for pleasure. The main reason we eat is to nourish our bodies, not to look attractive or strong or to develop an impressive physical appearance. We eat to sustain our lives and maintain our physical health; food is a wondrous medicine that does this.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama often says that while everyone wants to live long, praying for a long life makes sense only if we use our lives to create virtue, purify our minds, and progress along the path to full awakening. Praying to have a long life in order to create nonvirtue doesn’t help us at all.
If we are sincere about maintaining our lives and health, we should take the “medicine” properly by eating a healthy, balanced diet. This may mean changing our eating habits. We may like eating a lot of salt, sugar, and oil, but they are not wondrous medicines that nourish our bodies. Rather, they destroy our health by contributing to high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and other illnesses.
Food conglomerates have done numerous tests to discover what flavors people crave, and the ingredients that create them. Oil, salt, and sugar win the prize. In order to make more profit, these companies put large amounts of these three ingredients in processed food and fast food. Although we may like the taste of products made with these three ingredients, when we eat too much of them they become destructive poison, the opposite of wondrous medicine.
As Dharma practitioners, we are aware that a precious human life with all the conditions for Dharma practice is hard to come by. Having attained this life, we have a rare opportunity to make significant progress on the path to awakening. To do that, we want to have a long, healthy life so that we have more time to practice. Since the food we eat plays a powerful role in this, we want to eat properly and maintain a normal weight as best as we can. That means not being too thin and not being overweight, because both of these increase the risk of health problems. Also, we feel better and have more energy when our weight is normal, which is definitely an aid to practice. As monastics, keeping our bodies healthy so that we can practice and serve society makes good use of the offerings we receive.
Personally speaking, I feel much better physically and emotionally when my weight is in the normal range. This also brings a sense of contentment here and now. When we don’t listen to our bodies but let craving dictate what we eat and how much we eat, we don’t feel good about ourselves. Stuffing ourselves full of cookies, ice cream, sweetened sodas, or potato chips doesn’t make us feel content. Physically it makes us feel heavy and sluggish, especially after the sugar high wears off. Mentally, we feel unhappy with ourselves for being unable to withstand craving and allowing it to run our lives.
Actually, food is not the strongest object of craving; craving for reputation, praise, and approval runs much deeper. The great masters say that overcoming attachment to food is easy compared to subduing attachment to reputation, love, approval, appreciation, and praise. We need to reduce our craving and attachment slowly by seeing their faults and by realizing that the things we crave don’t have happiness inside them. The fulfillment and joy gained from spiritual practice and from abandoning craving is much greater.
5. I contemplate the aim of Buddhahood, accepting and consuming this food in order to accomplish it.
In the previous contemplation, we made the determination to care for our body by seeing food as wondrous medicine. This verse prompts us to contemplate what we will do after nourishing our body. We will hold the Dharma close to our heart and will practice the path and attain full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. We seek not only our own liberation from cyclic existence but also the liberation of all sentient beings. To accomplish that, we want to purify our mind completely and develop all our excellent qualities limitlessly. In short, we want to become Buddhas so we’ll have the wisdom, compassion, and power necessary to benefit all others most effectively. This is the altruistic intention of bodhicitta. Working toward the noble goal of Buddhahood makes our life highly meaningful.
Each day when we recite these lines, we remind ourselves of our long-term aims and make a commitment to remain faithful to them. It’s essential for monastics to remember that people have offered food to us because they believe in what we’re doing as Dharma practitioners. We want to repay their kindness, and the best way to do that is to progress on the path to full awakening for their benefit and to do what we can to benefit society now. We will eat healthy food with mindfulness to have a long life in order to do this.
Lay practitioners remember that so many sentient beings worked very hard to grow, transport, and prepare the food they eat. They want to repay the kindness of those people by practicing the path to full awakening.
By reciting these five contemplations, we remember the short- and long-term purposes for eating our meal. Although it’s fine to enjoy tasty food, our long-term purpose is a spiritual one. We don’t eat simply for pleasure or to socialize or to become physically attractive. As aspiring bodhisattvas, we again and again dedicate our lives to benefiting sentient beings and to preserving and disseminating the Dharma. While our present aspirations may be fabricated with effort, by continually cultivating them, they will gradually become a part of us and will eventually arise spontaneously.