The Best Buddhist Writing 2010 - Melvin McLeod [122]
8. Mind hunger. Can you hear what the mind is saying about this food? (Hint: Often the mind talks in “shoulds” or “should nots.”) Now rate mind hunger. On a scale of zero to ten, how much would the mind like you to have more of this food?
9. Heart hunger. Is the heart saying anything about this food? On a scale of zero to ten, how soothing or comforting is it? Would the heart like you to have more of this food? You might like to repeat this exercise with liquid. Pick a drink you have never had before, such as an exotic fruit juice. Take your time and assess each kind of thirst separately.
At first we might find this exercise difficult. As with all aspects of practice, the more you do it, the more your awareness opens up. If you try this exercise with many kinds of food and drink, gradually you will be able to sense and rate the different kinds of hunger more easily. As you continue to practice mindful eating you will develop skill and confidence in a new and more balanced relationship with food. You will be able to nourish the body, heart, and mind, and to regain a sense of ease and enjoyment with eating.
Burning Alive
Andrew Olendzki
From belief in the self comes attachment to pleasure, repulsion to pain, and indifference to that which does not affect us. These are called the three poisons—greed, hatred, and delusion—and they are the real cause of our own and the world’s problems. The world is aflame with these destructive emotions, ever more so as the historical stakes rise, but as the Buddhist scholar Andrew Olendzki writes, the good news is that the fires can be quelled.
Everything is burning!” said the Buddha almost twenty-five centuries ago. “Burning with what? Burning with the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion” (Samyutta Nikaya 35.28). These words seem prophetic today, as our planet is slowly warmed by the fires blazing in our furnaces and engines, by the explosion of our bullets and bombs, and by the raging delusions around which our entire world seems to be organized. There is not a single problem we face as human beings—other than the tectonic (earthquakes), the astronomical (meteor strikes), or the existential (aging and death)—that does not find its origin in greed, hatred, or delusion, whether of people or their institutions.
Like a fire, greed is more a process than a thing. It is the state of combustion, the activity of consumption, the procedure by means of which organic resources are quickly reduced to a heap of ash. It is insatiable by nature, since the moment one desire is gratified another flares up, demanding also to be sated. Greed drives an unquenchable compulsion to consume, and as the guiding hand of our economic system, its reach is rapidly becoming global. As it burns it throws off a compelling light, dazzling us with the pleasure of its shapes and colors. We delight in playing with this fire.
Hatred is a hotter, bluer, more sinister flame. It seethes among the coals, preserving its heat over time, until blasting forth suddenly with a surge of the bellows. It can simmer as discontent, smolder as suppressed rage, or lurk hot underground as a molten river of loathing. When it does flare up, the fire of hatred scorches all in its path indiscriminately, often searing the innocent bystander with the ferocity of its angry flames.
Delusion is subtler. Like the lamp behind the projector or a reflection in a mirror, delusion shines with a soft light and illuminates indirectly. It shows things as other than they are—as stable, satisfying, personal, and alluring. Its optical tricks are endearingly creative, so much so that sometimes we hardly know where the light leaves off and the darkness begins. Delusion leads us to revel in wielding the fires of greed and hatred, oblivious of the harm inflicted both on ourselves and on those around us.
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