Offerings

Last week I wrote a little bit about generating  a mind of gratitude that understands our interconnectedness with all beings before delving into a meal. Many Buddhists say prayers or do specific offering or other visualisation practices before eating. Following are five contemplations that are recited and examined at Sravasti Abbey before a meal.

Five Contemplations  Before Meals

1. I contemplate how much positive potential I have accumulated in order to receive this food given by others.
2. I contemplate my practice, constantly trying to improve it.
3. I contemplate my mind, cautiously guarding it from wrongdoing, greed, and other defilements.
4. I contemplate this food, treating it as wondrous medicine to nourish my body.
5. I contemplate the aim of Buddhahood, accepting and consuming this food in order to accomplish it. 

Pretty amazing, eh? They also say a variety of prayers while imagining that the food becomes blissful nectar that transmits wisdom to those who consume it. They then offer the nectar to a small Buddha visualised at their heart chakras. 

Food offering  is one of the oldest Buddhist practices and can take the form of offering food to monks and nuns, those in need, or animals. Offerings are also made in sometimes elaborate rituals to Buddhas and the like, not because the Buddhas are going to eat them but as a mind training practice for ourselves. These practices assist us in developing a mind of generosity and in loosening the grasp of attachment. If you look closely you will often see Buddhist altars decorated with food offerings. Cookies/biscuits, fruit and chocolates are probably the most common. During specific ceremonies intricate sculptures are made of butter and flour. 

One time I helped prepare for a special Tibetan Buddhist ceremony for which food offerings were integral. I went to a local market and picked up yummy foods including dried pasta and jarred sauce, peanut butter and vegetables as well as the usual sweet  treats. My offerings elicited some smiles and laughter, but they were true offerings from the heart and we were able to donate them to a local food bank afterward. Venerable Thubten Chodron explains the practice of offering further in this article.

A good beginning offering practice is the offering of water. Water is something most of us have at home so it is easy to offer. The practice is to find some sort of clean containers and each morning fill the bowls with water while offering it to the Buddhas and Boddhisattvas. In the more advanced practice each of 7 bowls is filled with water while one visualises a variety of offerings (flowers, incense, music, water for drinking, water for washing, food, and light). The  bowls are then emptied and cleaned at the end of the day. Here is an article from the Tara Institute that explains the practice of keeping an altar at home including the water bowl offering practice. 

Another offering practice might be to offer food to people or animals in need, your elderly neighbour or a friend who hasn't been well.

Practice: Let's try some offering practice this week. Even if you don't feel comfortable with the concept of offering food or water to imagined Buddhas, try visualising yourself giving the food to those in need. You might even wish for those in need to have food and drink materialise for them. Do you think these practices will assist us in loosening our attachment? I am going to try....

p.s. I came across this fun little article about one woman's realisation about her Nutella fixation. Enjoy! :) 

Have a great week!

Dharma Mama

Grace

A number of years ago, my mother invited our extended family over for Thanksgiving. My step father got to work organizing the menu (he is a fantastic cook) and my mom worried about cutlery and seating. My task was to come up with some sort of "grace" to say before the meal. Sounds simple enough, and it would be in most families, but not in mine. We have an odd mix of lesbians and republicans, vegetarian hemp-wearing animal activists and good old boys, atheists, Buddhists, and Mormons. I wanted to say something meaningful without offending the Christian set. I spoke from the heart about gratitude and interdependence and when I finished there was a dead silence in the room. "Well this is awkward",  I thought. I then asked if anyone else wanted to say something, thinking the Mormons might want to thank God for the abundance before us. My cousin piped up, "Wow, how can any of us say anything after that?" We then began to eat with gratitude in our hearts (at least I hope so, they may have just been stunned). Below is something similar to what I said that night. Wouldn't it be great if we took the time to think of this before each meal every day? I am going to try to do so more often.

A Buddhist "Grace"

Today a great meal is on the table before us. Aren't we fortunate? Think of all the effort that has gone into the preparation of this meal for us. Wow, what kindness we have received! We can think of the people who planted the seeds, nurtured them and harvested the crops, for us. The minute beings who helped the plants grow and those who gave their lives in the process of growing and harvesting them. The people who prepared the goods for sale and those who transported them. The people in the supermarket chain who prepared and delivered them. Those who stocked the supermarket shelves and those who sold them to us. Even those who baked and stirred and minced and mashed them into a meal today. Beyond these easy to see kindnesses there are more, as we are all connected in the web of interdependence. The farmers and the supermarket workers would not be able to do their work if they did not have homes made for them by builders or farm equipment manufactured by factory workers. The seeds themselves would not be present if there weren't plants before them, similarly cared for by those who grew them. The truck drivers could not transport the produce if it weren't for the truck manufacturers or the road crew who built the highways. And all of these beings would not be able to do the great work that they do if it weren't for their parents who gave them life (and perhaps the doctor who saved it as well) and their parents, and their parents, and so on. When we look further we will see that every single sentient being has put great effort into the preparation of the meal before us. Let us be grateful and endeavor to repay the kindness we have received. Let us eat the food before us to gain energy to do good work in the world with an aim to benefit all sentient beings.

Practice: This week let's try to stop before putting anything into our mouths. Let's pause and think of all of the effort put into creating the food or drink we are about to consume. We can then generate a mind of gratitude aimed at benefiting others. Let me know how it goes!

Here are a few new links and tidbits to explore...

A World of Grace (a beautiful poster of examples of grace from cultures around the world)

Practicing Buddhism in Daily Life by Ven. Thubten Chodron

Exploring the 8 R's of Meditation: 

The Value of Nothing (from a yogic perspective rather than a Buddhist one):

Buddhist Blessing for Food
by Annie B. Bond

Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space
combine to make this food.
Numberless beings gave their lives
and labors that we may eat.
May we be nourished
that we may nourish life.

Have a great  week!

Metta,

Dharma Mama

Getting Back On Track

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post but don't worry, I haven't forgotten Buddha At My Table. Rather, I have been doing a lot of thinking! You see, I am a working mother of a preschooler with special needs and with a partner who works evenings. I get 3 hours once per week to myself and I usually spend them at a cafe writing this blog, but the last two weeks I had the opportunity to attend a Dharma Centre for a meditation and teaching and I jumped at the opportunity. Afterall the blog is useless if I don't put the tools that we discuss into practice myself. how luxurious it was to spend some time with other meditators and spiritual seekers!

I found it somewhat entertaining when I sat down on my meditation cushion at the first session and learned that the teachings for the two weeks were to be on patience and attachment! Perfect I thought. I wished I had brought a pen and paper and deperately tried to remember every word so i could recount them here. However, after nursing my family back to health from a nasty cold and then spending a week with my inlaws in the country, where eating masses meticulously prepared artery clogging Italian/Australian dishes is mandatory,  I unfortunately remember very little.

So today I finally have  time to write but have fewer things to say. A book on the Buddhist monastic code sits beside me on the table as I sip my tea, but I will need more than these three hours to absorb the details enough to discuss them. Next week we will get back on track with a new topic related to Buddhism and food. I will leave you this week with some interesting links and a question. Do any of you say grace, a prayer, or express gratitude at meals? Do you have rituals around eating like taking a deep breath before starting, eating in silence or chewing each bite 20 times? I think we will discuss some of the Buddhist blessings and practices performed before or during eating soon.

I am curious what you think of this one...do any of you feel like the author sometimes?
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/amonticello/2012/08/against-the-pursuit-of-happiness-a-meditation/#comment-243544

The latest Zen Habits post on foodaholism is great...

http://zenhabits.net/foodaholic/

And a teaching on the roots of addiction from Venerable Metteyya on Tricycle...

http://www.tricycle.com/blog/video-teaching-venerable-metteyya-addiction

Practice: This week let's focus on gratitude. For what are you grateful? Have you expressed it lately? 

Metta, 

Dharma Mama

With gratitude....

The Noble Eightfold Path

Last week I explained the Four Noble Truths and said that we would delve further into the fourth truth, the Truth of Path, which is the path outlined by Buddha to cease our suffering. After we make it through these we can get into how all of this talk of the 4 of this and the 8 of that and the 3 of the other relates to our topic of food and eating.

So here they are:

Right View - This is about seeing reality as it really is. It specifically refers to understanding the teachings of impermanence and emptiness (we haven't gone into these yet but will!). In simple terms these teachings are about the changing nature of everything and how things aren't really as they seem, they are less solid, less concrete. This is a complex concept so I will point you towards teachings by qualified teachers when we get further into the subject of emptiness.

Right Intention - This refers to one's attitude and determination. It is about seeing the value in spiritual endeavors. It has three aspects. The first is receptivity or openness. The second is renunciation, being willing to give up that which causes us suffering. The third aspect is having loving thoughts.
Right Speech - This refers to what Jack Kornfield calls "speech from the heart". It is using our speech in ways that benefit others rather than those that harm others. The first aspect is of telling only that which is true and the second is of using speech that is helpful. The opposite of Right Speech (Wrong Speech) is gossip, unnecessary or untruthful speech.

Right Action - This refers to what is called "Ahimsa" in Sanskrit. It is acting in a way that does not harm other beings. That sounds far more simple than it actually is. Most of the time we go about our lives without stopping to think about the consequences of our actions. Buddha asks us to do so. There are two aspects to Right Action.There is the restraint of not-harming, for example not killing, and then there is the active side of performing positive actions, for example, saving lives. The five basic precepts of a lay practitioner we discussed previously fall under Right Action. What I found when I first started to examine my actions to determine if they were beneficial, a small space appeared between the thought and the action, so I could make a purposeful decision about my actions. It's amazing. I remember thinking that I had always thought that I was a nice person until I started studying Buddhism! When you start to look at your actions you might see areas that need improvement like I did.

Right Livelihood - This refers to making a living in a way that does not harm. It has five aspects. The first is doing something that is not harmful, so not doing work that involves weapons, drugs, killing, slavery, poisons, etc. The second is appropriate happiness. There are three aspects to appropriate happiness. The first is having some kind of work that you can do. The second is producing something from your work so you can contribute in some way to your family or the community and feel good about your contribution. The third is being free from debt (how wonderful would that be?!) and the fourth is being free from blame or fault, not doing work for status or because of some other external reason but rather because it comes from the heart. The third is growth and awareness which is about bringing awareness to your work so you can use it as an opportunity to grow. The fourth is simplicity which has become a movement hasn't it? You may know people who quit their job in advertising to start a nursery or become a musician. The fifth aspect is service. We can frame our work as service no matter what what we do. We can focus on giving service to those with whom we interact every day, our coworkers, employees, managers, clients, readers, customers, etc. Keeping service in mind can transform our work.
Right Effort - This is about putting effort into spiritual study. No matter how many teachings we attend, how many books we read, how much knowledge we have, we will not become enlightened unless we put effort in and practice! There are four types of effort. The first is to abandon what is not skillful (i.e. attachment, anger). The second is to sustain the cessation of what you have abandoned. It wouldn't do a lot of good to stop and then start again, eh? The third is to cultivate that which is skillful such as love, compassion and wisdom, and the fourth is to maintain that which you have cultivated.

Right Mindfulness - This is about seeing clearly without judging or trying to change what is. It is about being fully aware, being really present in the moment with all our senses. It is then about reacting to that what we see with our awareness in a positive way.
Right Concentration - This has two parts. The first is about quieting the mind, to slow down and calm ourselves so we can begin. The second part is to focus the mind into single pointed concentration. This is the vehicle to understanding.

Sometimes a simple reminder can bring me back to a skillful mindset. I find it hard to get through the mountains of email I receive but it's such a nice surprise to get a weekly Buddhist Quote. They tend to pull me back to a positive attitude. Shambala Publications has a variety of weekly quotes to which you can subscribe, His Holiness the Dalia Lama, Pema Chodron, Chogyam Trungpa...check them out here. Another thing I used to do and have recently just begun again is to find a book of quotes or sayings and read one every morning, perhaps as you sit down for breakfast. An old housemate Sam and I used to do this. We had a book of Dalai Lama Quotes and another from the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Reading a short statement gave a focus for the day. I had forgotten about the practice until Sam sent me this book in the mail recently. Much better than watching the news or checking facebook messages over breakkie!

Practice: This week let's look at Right Livelihood. Examine how you can infuse service into your work life. Are there moments when you can practice mindfulness? Meditation? Compassion and Care? Restraint? See if you can transform your experience at work by looking at it as an opportunity to practice patience, love, kindness, non-attachment, etc. Maybe if I was focused on others I wouldn't be focused on the afternoon tea and treats quite so much? Let's see.....

Have a great week!

Metta,

Dharma Mama

The Four Noble Truths

Continuing from last week's discussion of Buddhist ethics, today we will look at the 4 Noble Truths. When the historical Buddha first began to teach, he explained the Four Noble Truths which are the core of Buddhist teachings.

The First Noble Truth is called the Truth of Suffering and refers to unsatisfactory nature of life. Buddha  explained three types of suffering. The first is called the Suffering of Suffering. This is the suffering of pain and illnesses, etc. The second is the Suffering of Change. This is the suffering we experience when a relationship ends, a favourite tea cup breaks, or our reputation is tarnished. The Third type of suffering is called All-Pervasive Suffering. This refers to the conditions that exist because of the way in which we perceive ourselves in relation to the world. It is the basis of the other two sufferings and is challenging to see. However if we strive to understand the nature of our experience then we can change it. I have heard it equated to a dormant fatal disease. It's there even if we are consciously unaware and we are not able to heal it  until we know and understand it.

This leads nicely into the Second Noble Truth which is the Truth of the Cause of Suffering. Buddha taught that the mind which is influenced by negative thoughts is the cause of suffering. The clinging mind that wants something other than that which is at the present moment is the problem. When we have positive mindstates or experiences we cling to them, not wanting them to end and when we have negative ones we want to push them away. This clinging mind is what causes our suffering.

The Third Noble Truth is the Truth of Cessation of Suffering. Buddha taught that it is possible to cease the suffering we experience. If the root cause of suffering is within our own mind, then the way out of suffering will be found by deeply examining the true nature of mind. Buddha said that if we realise the true nature of our minds then we will be released from suffering.

The Forth Noble Truth is the Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering. Buddha outlined the method for achieving the cessation of suffering which is the Noble Eightfold Path, separated into three categories, Wisdom, Ethics and Concentration. I will just list the eight today and explain them further next week.

Right View
Right Intention
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration

Another way to explain the 4 Noble Truths is by using a medical analogy. Think of Buddha as the physician. The 1st Noble Truth is the Diagnosis, the 2nd Noble Truth is the Etiology, the Third Noble Truth is the Prognosis, and the 4th is the Prescription.


Practice: This week spend some time examining suffering in your life. When you get upset, take a look at what type of suffering you are experiencing. Suffering of suffering? Suffering of change? Does examining your suffering in this way change it? Let us know how it goes! 

Chat with you next week....until then take good care of yourselves!

Metta,

Dharma Mama

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

Buddhist Ethics - The Five Precepts

In introducing the topic of ethics last week I mentioned the 5 Precepts to which lay Buddhists adhere. There are different levels within each precept. For example, the first is not to kill. Breaking the precept at the root is to kill a human, but once you start to examine your behaviour to see if any of your actions, words or thoughts are harmful to others, you might also decide to avoid stepping on bugs or eating meat, or you might decide to take the fewest lives possible. I find it quite interesting that in western society we tend to evaluate the value of a life according to a hierarchy. Some westerners say they don't mind eating fish or chicken but won't touch larger more "sophisticated" animals like cows or pigs, for example. Others opt out of eating animals with a face, but are happy to munch on a muscle or a scallop. Buddhists on the other hand, tend not to apply this hierarchy and rather focus solely on taking as few lives as possible . Therefore they would rather kill one yak which can feed an entire village than kill the heap of fish necessary to feed the same village, as it would be necessary to end many more lives. I have heard it said that a bug's life is just as precious to that bug, as a cow's life is to a cow, as yours is to you. Some Buddhists advocate for eating a vegetarian diet. We will discuss that more next week.
The other four of the 5 Precepts similarly have different layers. The vow against intoxicants usually refers to alcohol and mind altering drugs of the non-prescription variety, but taken further it can mean abstaining from caffeine, sugar, television, or even friends and environments that do not support a calm mind. The precept to refrain from stealing has been explained to me as not taking what is not your own and has not been given. That means pens from work, or sugar packets from the cafe! The vow against lying is about refraining from saying that what is not true (even to the telemarketer on the phone who has interrupted your dinner!), but my teacher also points out that exaggeration is also included, such as embellishing a story to make it sound better or complaining that your partner NEVER does the dishes.  The precept regarding sexual misconduct refers to adultery, but if you look deeper you can also ask yourself if you use your body or sexuality in other ways which are harmful. My teacher includes abstaining from the use of pornography.

So how do these precepts relate to our relationship with food? I don't know about you but I am pretty sure that I am at least somewhat deceitful, at least to myself, in terms of what and how I eat. I may even polish off the last bit off my partner's chocolate, or "borrow" a few coins from my son's piggy bank for my morning caffeine when I am low on change. When it comes to intoxicants, I am pretty sure that my sweet treats or my "habit" for a strong cup of tea counts at some level. Perhaps there is something for us all to learn from these basic vows. As I mentioned last week, the basis for Buddhist ethics is examining weather a specific action could be harmful to other sentient beings and then choosing actions which are beneficial. I suspect that if we all did just that we might make some changes to our eating habits. In the modern era that might mean choosing organic, non-GMO, or local foods or to purchase items from farmers markets so that packaging is kept to a minimum. It may mean only eating enough to sustain us and donating extras to those in need.  At the very least I think it would mean that we would treat ourselves with compassion and choose foods that are not harmful to our own health. Choosing foods that make us feel our best might also help us to be more compassionate, loving and wise with others.

Want more? This is a link to a teaching by Venerable Thubten Chodron on Ethics. She discusses the 8 worldly concerns which we will discuss more in the coming weeks.  This one is about the Eightfold Path which Buddha prescribed. Again, we will get to that as well, before we finish with ethics. Stay tuned for more on ethics including; the Bodhisattva Vows, Monastic Vows, The Noble Eightfold Path, The Eight Worldly Concerns, Eating Meat (who does, who doesn't, why and how), Fasting, and more...as always I welcome your comments, questions, and additions. I look forward to hearing from you. Until then. Have a great week!

Practice: This week let's take a closer look at how our actions and thoughts in relation to food harm or help ourselves and others. Do a short breathing meditation to calm your mind and then spend some time contemplating the 5 precepts in relation to your own experience.

Metta,

Dharma Mama