Mindful Eating

Not to do any evil,
To cultivate good,
To purify one's mind,
This is the teaching of the Buddhas.

As part of my recent efforts to follow the Big Sit mediation practice, I have been studying a number of the precepts by which Zen Buddhists live. One of these "rules" centers around the concept of causing no pain to other sentient beings. Of course one of the questions which came to my mind (and was not often asked in my Catholic childhood home) is whether the eating of animal products, such as meat, "counts" as causing pain to a sentient being.

A complicated discussion, to be sure.

As I perused the response to a number of different perspectives on the precept, I recalled a book I had read in college by Thich Nhat Hanh entitled Present Moment, Wonderful Moment: Mindfulness Verses for Daily Living. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk who has also done some popular writing around the similarities between Buddha and Jesus.

In his book Present Moment..., Hanh offers some suggestions for increasing mindfulness in eating, including the following short gatha, or "mindfulness verse" to be recited prior to eating a meal:

In this food,
I see clearly the presence
of the entire universe
supporting my existence.

Recently, while eating lunch (which fro me generally consists of tuna, crackers, pears, and pineapple) I had been wondering to myself how to reconcile the conflict inherent choosing to engage in this Buddhist "experiment" and eating tuna and other "meats.". One possible "solution" suggested by others was to celebrate the inherent communal nature of ingesting the food in a way that recognizes the contributions of the being to be eaten, as well as, the individual eating. Now, this may seem a bit esoteric but (stay with me), when one chooses to eat something for which another thing has given of itself, is it not appropriate to celebrate that beings contribution?

I seem to remember in my Catholic upbringing giving thanks prior to eating not just to my Higher Power but also to those creatures that "gave" to the meal I was about to eat. Years ago when I first revisited Hanh's book, I copied some of these gathas and placed them strategically around the house so that I would not forget to remember these things in my thought. It was during a rough time in my life and it helped to ground me in the important little moments that we often
take for granted... especially when I was feeling sorry for myself.

Perhaps it is once again time to return to the use of these gathas during the course of my day the day... all in the interest of experiencing the moment.