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Buddhism teaches that eating should be done with awareness and gratitude. Awareness that in consuming a meal we are beneficiaries of the planet: it's soil, it's water, the sun which nourishes growth, women and men who plant, cultivate, harvest, and make food readily available. Every meal is a gift given by the planet and by hard working individuals.
This awareness should result in gratitude along with a vow to be worthy of the gift and work to be of benefit to the planet and all on it. We should receive food with joy, with gratitude and with reverence. That's some of the energy contained within the following Buddhist ways of "giving thanks" for a meal:
From The Southeast Asian tradition:
Wisely reflecting I use this food not for mere pleasure, not for fattening, not for beautification, but for the maintenance and nourishment of this body, for keeping it healthy, for helping with the Spiritual Life; Thinking thus, I will allay hunger without overeating, so that I may continue to live blamelessly and at ease.
From The Zen Tradition:
First, let us reflect on our own work and the effort of those who brought us this food.
Second, let us be aware of the quality of our deeds as we receive this meal.
Third, what is most essential is the practice of mindfulness, which helps us to transcend greed, anger and delusion.
Fourth, we appreciate this food which sustains the good health of our body and mind.
Fifth, in order to continue our practice for all beings we accept this offering.
This awareness should result in gratitude along with a vow to be worthy of the gift and work to be of benefit to the planet and all on it. We should receive food with joy, with gratitude and with reverence. That's some of the energy contained within the following Buddhist ways of "giving thanks" for a meal:
From The Southeast Asian tradition:
Wisely reflecting I use this food not for mere pleasure, not for fattening, not for beautification, but for the maintenance and nourishment of this body, for keeping it healthy, for helping with the Spiritual Life; Thinking thus, I will allay hunger without overeating, so that I may continue to live blamelessly and at ease.
From The Zen Tradition:
First, let us reflect on our own work and the effort of those who brought us this food.
Second, let us be aware of the quality of our deeds as we receive this meal.
Third, what is most essential is the practice of mindfulness, which helps us to transcend greed, anger and delusion.
Fourth, we appreciate this food which sustains the good health of our body and mind.
Fifth, in order to continue our practice for all beings we accept this offering.
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The object of meditation is not to bring something down, as it were, for the satisfaction of our old personality. It is to take something up, to reach in our thought or feeling something that we have not touched before. We must take ourselves up. - Ernest Wood
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Be regular in your meditation. Regularity is the key to success. Regularity is of paramount importance. May you all be established in Samadhi (superconscious state of bliss) through regular meditation! - Swami Sivananda
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Judgements — acts of attachment, acts of aversion, — therefore, are also seeds for further attachment and aversion. This means, basically, that ‘judging mind’ is suffering, and ‘judging mind’ is a cause for further suffering. Corrado Pensa
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So, the loss of a loved one is ‘like this’. It doesn’t mean that when you are enlightened you don’t feel anything; it’s just that you know what you are feeling for what it is. If you think you shouldn’t be attached, that is the suffering. If you have got some idea: ‘I am too attached to this person and I shouldn’t be,’ then it becomes a problem. But attachment is like ‘this’; it is part of one’s karma to recognize and not to make a problem about it. - Ajahn Sumeho
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Buddhism clearly disapproves of drug use and alcohol consumption. Many past studies - often funded by the liquor industry - has stated that moderate amounts of drinking is beneficial. That's not true according to a new study.
People who follow government guidelines to have a drink or so a day could be drinking themselves into an early grave, researchers said this week. Any more than five drinks a week on average can take years off a person’s life, the new study of more than half a million people around the world shows. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, four ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits.
An international team of researchers looked at data from 600,000 people in 19 countries, who were asked about drinking habits dating back as long ago as 1964. They were followed for years afterward. People who reported drinking more had higher rates of stroke, heart disease, deadly high blood pressure and fatal aortic aneurysms, the team reported in the Lancet Medical Journal.
“The paper estimates a 40-year-old drinking four units a day above the guidelines has roughly two years lower life expectancy,” said David Spiegelhalter, a risk expert at Britain’s University of Cambridge who was not involved in the study.
People who follow government guidelines to have a drink or so a day could be drinking themselves into an early grave, researchers said this week. Any more than five drinks a week on average can take years off a person’s life, the new study of more than half a million people around the world shows. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, four ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits.
An international team of researchers looked at data from 600,000 people in 19 countries, who were asked about drinking habits dating back as long ago as 1964. They were followed for years afterward. People who reported drinking more had higher rates of stroke, heart disease, deadly high blood pressure and fatal aortic aneurysms, the team reported in the Lancet Medical Journal.
“The paper estimates a 40-year-old drinking four units a day above the guidelines has roughly two years lower life expectancy,” said David Spiegelhalter, a risk expert at Britain’s University of Cambridge who was not involved in the study.
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Things should never possess you; you should possess things. - Florence Scovel Shinn
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If you have contentment, cheerfulness, patience, unruffled state of mind, sweet voice, one-pointedness of mind, light body, fearlessness, desirelessness, disgust for worldly things, know that you are advancing in the spiritual path and that you are nearing God. - Swami Sivananda
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I often travel to Dallas, Tx., to sit in meditation with my spiritual friend, Tashi Nyima, a Tibetan Buddhist monk. One of his central Buddhist teachings centers around the rights of animals to be free of suffering, a desire they have in common with humans. Here is a recent writing from Tashi on this important issue:
Buddha Shakyamuni instructs us:“What is right action? Abstaining from taking life, abstaining from stealing, abstaining from sexual misconduct. This is called right action.”
The exploitation of non-human animals violates these precepts of Right Conduct, whether through depriving them of freedom and life, appropriating their secretions and products, or artificially breeding them for our benefit.
Animal exploitation impedes spiritual cultivation. Shabkar Tsodruk Rangdol states categorically:
“Eating meat, at the cost of great suffering for animals, is unacceptable. If, bereft of compassion and wisdom, you eat meat, you have turned your back on liberation. The Buddha said, ‘The eating of meat annihilates the seed of compassion’.”
Buddha Shakyamuni instructs us:“What is right action? Abstaining from taking life, abstaining from stealing, abstaining from sexual misconduct. This is called right action.”
The exploitation of non-human animals violates these precepts of Right Conduct, whether through depriving them of freedom and life, appropriating their secretions and products, or artificially breeding them for our benefit.
Animal exploitation impedes spiritual cultivation. Shabkar Tsodruk Rangdol states categorically:
“Eating meat, at the cost of great suffering for animals, is unacceptable. If, bereft of compassion and wisdom, you eat meat, you have turned your back on liberation. The Buddha said, ‘The eating of meat annihilates the seed of compassion’.”
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“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” - Mark Twain *1830-1910)