Eating Meditation


Basic

Be aware of:

  • reactions in the body and mind such as sweetness, pleasure, urge and other experiences
  • the cause of the reaction such as sweetness or urge (e.g, food, farmers, motivation, earth, sun, your body, mind, ancestors)
  • your motivation for eating

Patterns

Be aware of the following patterns of eating by pleasure:

  • Tasting favorable food results in experiencing pleasure.
  • Experiencing pleasure results in desire to continue experience the pleasure.
  • The desire makes you eat.
  • Summary: food, pleasure, desire, eating (lifting food, chewing, swallowing)
  • Simpler version: food, desire, eating

Be aware of the following patterns of eating by displeasure:

  • Experiencing hungry sensations results in experiencing displeasure.
  • Experiencing displeasure results in desire to not to experience the displeasure.
  • The desire makes you eat.
  • Summary: hunger, displeasure, desire, eating
  • Simpler version: hunger, desire, eating

Relations

Be aware of the relation between:

  • the unpleasantness and the desire
  • the pleasantness and the desire
  • the desire and your eating (e.g. chewing, swallowing)
  • the food and the pleasantness
  • the sun and the food
  • the sun and the desire

More Practices

  • Be aware of the causes for the food
  • Be aware of the causes of interpreting hungry sensation as unpleasant.
  • Know the followings: why hungry sensation being perceived as unpleasant; what truly is eating; are you creating a contradiction?; what you do not know; the mind that is aware of the eating experiences; the one who is eating and experiencing; the cause for being liking/disliking the food; the dominant eating experience.
  • Eat with gratitude.
  • Discover yourself in food.
  • Eat as a whole.
  • Eat for others.

Guidelines

  • Voluntarily chew and swallow food by your choice rather than by urge.

See also