RetrEATing

How did your last two weeks go? Did you try any meditation? How did you go with the posture suggestions?

This week I came across the following article by Kerry Monaghan, a Certified Health Coach at the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York City and thought you might like it.

Eat Like a Buddhist in 10 Easy Steps 
By Kerry Monaghan
 
I recently spent a week at Dhanakosa, a Buddhist retreat center in the Scottish highlands, where we shared three meals a day with the community. As a nutrition coach, I took special note of the eating patterns that I found helpful to continue after the retreat:

1. Eat Vegetarian Foods

Following the Buddhist precept of non-violence to all creatures, our meals were all vegetarian. We didn’t have any meat, dairy or eggs. We did have lots of lentils, beans, soups, salads, and vegetable dishes. It’s chilly in Scotland in October, so our food was hearty and warming. 

2. Follow a Daily Schedule

We followed a set routine each day: breakfast at 8:45, lunch at 1pm and dinner at 6pm. 

Having a predictable daily schedule allowed us to plan our day and regulate the appetite. Dinner was early, and there was a long stretch of fasting from the evening meal until breakfast the next day, but my body quickly adjusted to the rhythm.

3. No Snacking

A cook was preparing our meals, and we didn’t have access to the kitchen between meals. There were bowls of fresh fruit set out for a snack, and there was also plenty of tea available at all times. Other than that--no snacking at all.

4. No Sneaking

Along the same lines, since all of our meals were shared together and there was no vending machine or secret stash of chocolate, everything we ate was visible to others. I see so many clients who sneak food (after the kids go to bed, for example), and I feel it’s healthy to eat in the presence of others.  

5. Save Dessert for a Special Occasion

During the entire week, we had rice pudding twice after dinner, and homemade oat bars after we did cleaning chores on the last day of the retreat. Sugar and sweets were very limited. 

Dessert was not a daily occurrence, it was a special occasion. I didn’t even miss dessert – my palette adjusted and I appreciated my meals more and found that the taste of fruits and vegetables became more vibrant.

6. Enjoy Home Cooked Meals

Every single meal was home cooked, including fresh-baked bread, soups and casseroles. As a result, there was not too much salt, no preservatives, and the flavors were fresh. 

I always encourage clients to slowly increase their number of home-cooked meals, because it’s so much easier to eat healthy if you have more control over how your food is prepared. Start with breakfast, and work your way up from there.

7. Eat after Meditation

In our schedule at the monastery, we meditated before breakfast, lunch and dinner. This meant that we were in a calm, relaxed state before meals--a good thing, because eating when you’re calm aids digestion. 

Most of us are not meditating three times a day outside of a retreat atmosphere, but it’s still good to take a few deep breaths, have a moment of gratitude for your meal, and eat in an unhurried and calm state.

8. Eat in Silence

We always ate without the distraction of radio, television, or newspapers. And we also took several of our meals in complete silence. 

I especially loved having silence during breakfast, because the morning is a more reflective time and it was nice to start the day quietly, without chatter. If you’ve never shared a meal in silence, you should try this, it’s a powerful practice. 

9. Have Porridge for Breakfast 

Every day we had the same breakfast, which was porridge with toppings (cinnamon, pumpkin seeds, raisins, muesli). Lunch and dinner varied. 

This caught my attention because I often encourage busy clients to systemize their meals. I tell them to find one thing they like for breakfast, and then stick with it. It makes your busy mornings flow more smoothly and allows your body to get into rhythm.

10. Help with the Meals

Even though there was a cook in charge of the meals, we each had daily chores and had to help with either preparing or cleaning up from the meals. 

This helped us all to be involved in the meal, and I know it helped me to feel more grateful for all of the effort that went into feeding the group.  

If these ideas resonate with you, I encourage you to take one or two to start with an incorporate them into your daily life. Please share which you find most helpful! 

Published October 10, 2012 at 3:21 PM

visit the author at www.kerrymonaghan.com

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This article resonated with me because I have had similar experiences on retreat at Cloud Mountain, Sravasti Abbey and various other retreat centres.  The food tends to be vegetarian and wholesome. Often parts of the meal are home grown. The schedule usually begins with an early morning meditation before breakfast of porridge and toppings. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and always includes a huge variety of foods including fresh leafy greens. Dinner is small, usually a simple soup and bread. Tea is always present, and a basket of fruit is accessible.Meals are usually eaten in silence (most of the retreats I have attended have been silent throughout the duration of the retreat but even those that have not been completely silent have had some duration of silence, during meals or in the evenings, or early mornings etc.). Everyone in the retreat community takes part. Everyone has a task to do to help make the community function. I have even been on retreats in which I didn't even serve myself. I simply held out my plate while others tipped a spoonful of rice and a spoonful of curry and some salad on my plate. At first my ego mind contested this arrangement but after a bit I found it incredibly freeing. I had no decisions to make in relation to food except to choose where to sit down to eat it. My mind was not filled with thoughts about what I should or shouldn't eat, if I should have seconds, have I taken too much of the tofu, or whatever. I simply got in line, picked up the plate on the top of the pile and held it out to be served. Amazing.

I am pretty sure that I would be very healthy if I ate like this all the time! It is harder in our modern day society than in retreat mode, as most of us can't afford a personal cook! Lunch hour is often a busy time, and there isn't always time to cook a big home made meal, but perhaps we can put some of these ideas into practice. I am going to at least try. I can easily bring a big salad to work for lunch, and cook a nice soup for dinner. I have found a breakfast I love, not porridge but a high fibre cereal I mix myself that includes linseed, psyllium, rice bran, and corn flakes, which I mix with berries, pea protein and soymilk. A friend has also recommended green smoothies and I can't wait to try them for the summer. Staying away from snacks, sugar and dessert is a harder one for me but also valuable.

I read another article recently (which I have lost but will post when I find it again) that spoke about taking the same care in preparing food as we do eating food, to see food preparation as a sacred act. How mindfully do you prepare food? I know I am often stressed, rushing, trying to multi-task as I hurry to make dinner after a long day of work, before my son hits meltdown or cooking porridge for the family while I load the washing machine, unload the dishwasher and eat my own breakfast. Perhaps tomorrow night I will sit my boy in front of a Thomas DVD (we often cook together but when we do I am always in "risk aversion" mode, trying to keep him from catching something on fire, cutting a limb off, or destroying something), and breathe while I chop, cook and wash. Will you try too?

Practice: Try the practice above of making food prep into a sacred act. Think of it as an act of generosity. Be grateful for the opportunity to prepare food for others if you are cooking for a family or friend, or simply be grateful for the food in your hands. Breathe while you cook. Notice the smells, colours, and textures of the food you are preparing. Be present in the moment. And as always please let us know how you go!

Have a great week!

Metta,

Dharma Mama

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Eating Meat

“People think of animals as if they were vegetables, and that is not right. We have to change the way people think about animals. I encourage the Tibetan people and all people to move toward a vegetarian diet that doesn’t cause suffering.”
– H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

In the last couple of posts I mentioned that the basis for Buddhist ethics is determining whether actions are harmful to sentient beings and then refraining from those things which are determined to be harmful. So when it comes to the topic of eating meat we have to examine whether doing so is harmful to others. There are countless writings illuminating the suffering involved in the production of animal products in our society. If you are not familiar, you might take a look at Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals, watch the film Food Inc. , or read one of Michael Pollan's books. I really enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma. These are not Buddhist arguments, but rather general writings on the ethics of food production in our society.

Taking a look from a Buddhist perspective we might take note that Buddhists consider the time of death a particularly important moment in one's life. It is said that one's state of mind at the time of death is a major factor in determining one's next rebirth. When we kill an animal for food, we have no idea what state its mind is in, and if we were able to view its thoughts we would likely see fear or anger. Therefore by killing it at that moment we may be condemning the animal to a poor rebirth filled with intense suffering. We might also consider how our own karma might be affected by eating meat. A karmic result of killing or being involved in the killing of animals (even if it is an indirect action) may be a habituation to killing, leading to being one who easily kills in future lives. It may also lead to being killed oneself or may result in a rebirth filled with suffering. For these reasons it would be wise to refrain from killing animals. We may think that it doesn't matter because we don't actually kill the animals ourselves, but rather purchase animal products at the supermarket, but having others kill for us means we are condemning those people to the same karmic suffering. Further to the point, Buddha explained that all sentient beings have been reborn over and over again since beginningless time. If that is so, then we can infer that we have been every type of sentient being and have been in relationship with every sentient being in our previous lives. The Buddhist teachings encourage us to see every sentient being as our mother, since each has been our mother at some point in the past. Some of us have strained relationships with our parents but in general you see mothers providing tremendous love and care to their children, whether the mother is an elephant or a human. Remembering your appreciation for that motherly love and care and then imagining that the spider crawling across the floor once provided that for you, the cow in the burger you just ate gave that to you, the guy who cut you off on the highway provided that for you, even the grumpy teller at the bank once cared for you as a mother, can dramatically change your relationship with the beings around you.

 All of these points lead us to think that a vegetarian diet is the most compassionate way to sustain ourselves. However I think it important to remember compassion for ourselves and those around us, remembering to "start where we are". If vegetarianism is not an easy option for you, you might like to try a day without animal products once per week. Any little bit helps. Check out Meatless Monday for more info on the one day a week idea. I was mostly vegan for 15 years, but then my Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor suggested I eat meat due to an illness I was having trouble overcoming. At the time the hardest part was letting go of the identity of being a vegetarian and the experience gave me a new understanding of how I had been judgmental of others in the past and how attached I had become to a certain image of myself. I became more appreciative through the process of having to change my diet. More recently, I returned to a mostly vegetarian diet but this time I have found it much more difficult due to the complexities of my family situation. I started the family on Meatless Mondays a couple of years ago and soon enough my meat and potatoes partner was reading Dr. Esselstyn's book and was Gung Ho for a change to a vegan diet . We don't always adhere 100% (my son in particular is a big meat eater) but we do our best with a "middle way" sort of attitude and feel better about our relationship to the world around us for it.

The majority of Buddhist cultures prescribe a vegetarian diet. Often monks and nuns follow a vegetarian diet, even if lay people do not. In Tibet however, Buddhism encountered a strong meat eating culture and incorporated it. While I was living in a Tibetan refugee community in India I found that Tibetan Buddhists were often meat eaters and had various reasons for it. Some said that it was hard at a high altitude to find enough vegetarian foods for proper nutrition. Some said that they were not wealthy enough to purchase vitamins like we do in developed countries and felt a vegetarian diet without supplements would not keep them healthy. Others told me that they feel it is okay to eat meat because it is possible to purify actions after committing them ( Purification practices are something like the Buddhist equivalent of saying confession and doing a number of Hail Mary's) . There was also the argument I mentioned in the last post that at least if they eat a yak they can take one life and feed the whole village, whereas if they ate fish it would require taking a large number of lives to feed the same number of people. While spending time with Tibetans it became clear to me that they have a strong cultural attachment to eating meat and dairy products, after generations of reliance on animals as nomadic peoples. A long term Dharma friend, Zhiwa, recently pointed me in the direction of a Tibetan by the name of Geshe Phelgye who is trying to change that with his Universal Compassion Movement. Here is his website.

Please also take a look at Zhiwa's comments and website. After practicing law for many years he is very skillful with the written and spoken word. He shares his thoughts as a Buddhist environmental activist on the subject of eating meat here on his website. Scroll down to the section called Anti-Establishment Planetarianism! for the "meat" of  it.

Practice: This week spend some time thinking about the love and care your mother provided for you. If you have a strained relationship with your mother you may want to choose another person in your life who has cared for you, such as a father, grandparent, guardian, carer, etc. Spend some time focusing on your feelings around that person and generate true appreciation for their care. Think about how you would like to repay their kindness. Then spend some time thinking about the concept of rebirth and the possibility of all sentient beings around you having been your mother at some point in the past. Try to generate a genuine feeling of love and compassion for all sentient beings.

Have a great week!

Metta,

Dharma Mama