MINDFULNESS EATING

Years ago, when attending meditation class at a Buddhist temple or 'Centre' as they preferred to call then, indeed they were held in an old Welsh Baptist church. I would go everyday all day Saturday to read Buddhist scripts and then discuss them with other like minded people lead by our very own in house Tibettan monk, Donyo, who I loved dearly.

He was always so kind and loving and made each and everyone of us feel better about ourselves and the world. He was a joy to talk to and listen to. |He had a great knowledge of Buddhism and put up with all our ignorant questions with a smile. He would always answer ever so patiently and kindly.

One day we were all taught the mindfulness eating meditation. This can infact be applied to anything in the world.

Today I mindfully eat a cabbage and peanut in cheese sauce dish I had made earlier. Having just read a 'How to de stress' book, by Charles Lindon it recommends concentrating of one thing only. 

I had some for my lunch and rather than flick Netflix on to watch something, I decided to apply this meditation to my meal as I was eating.

It consists of looking at your , in this case, plate of food and remembering all the effort and the people who made the effort in getting those things to you. How they were created and cared for by others so that they could end up in your possession and in this case in my tummy !

The cabbage 

A farmer, many months ago, took a seed and planted this cabbage, probably along with thousands of others. He made sure it had enough water to grow and may even have fertilsed it to improve his stock. when it was time to harvest he employed people to go out in the fields and pick it. This then had to be transported back to the farm to be loaded onto the lorry. In this instance we will not go into all the time and effort that went into making the lorry, but that could be another meditation for another day.

The lorry driver then transported the cabbage to the shops, either directly or via a distribution point. This particular cabbage ended up in Morrisons in Fort William where I bought it.

The store facilitated me being able to buy it and the woman on the till made a n effort to come into work to be able to scan my shopping. I brought it home and placed it on the vegetable rack to await cooking.

The Peanuts

It is a similar story with the peanuts albeit it from another country which also meant they had to be transported via a plane. The bag in which they were sealed needed some one to design the package and another factory to manufacture the bag of peanuts. They also have to be packed by packers and loaded onto a plane by airport staff. Add a pilot to their journey and a lorry at either end no doubt.

This time I remembered buying them at the Co Op in Kinloch. so this adds another worker in another shop to their list.

The Flour

The flour like wise came from a foreign country as I used Chinese flour from the Chinese supermarket in Chesterfield. so their journey adds more workers, more lorry drives more farmers and pickers and another plane journey.

The Butter, and Milk and Cheese

All cow derivatives all extracted in a particular way. Both need a dairy farmers and in the butters case

a creamery a packing station and lorries and lorry drivers. The milk requires a dairy farmer, a herdsman a milking parlour and packaging. Lorries and lorry drivers and shops to be delivered to and bought from. Like wise the butter wrapping and the milk bottle all had to be manufactured in another factory and designed before manufacture

Likewise the cheese.

All these people, were involved in me being able to combine them to make this recipi, which was very tasty and enjoyable.

It's amazing isn't it? I am grateful to all those people who work tirelessly, often on low wages to bring food to my table. I hope they realise that we all are grateful for the food on our tables the world over.

Mind you you wouldn't be able to do this meditation on everything as I think your head would explode, but every once in a while it is useful to do to develop a sense of community and thankfulness which is always good for ones' soul.

Try it for your self, you might be amazed at the amount of effort it takes to enable you to live your life in a comfortable way. It certainly evokes gratefulness and compassion and I am glad I was taught it.