Bhanti's Monday Evening Teaching - 06/12/06

What do you need to survive?" ...

If someone were to ask you, "What is the first thing in the world you need to survive?" You might say you need air, then water and then food.

One time Buddha met a smart seven year old boy. "What is the first thing a person seeks?" Buddha asked him. The boy's answer was food. Of course we are not finding air because we breath automatically.  The first thing we seek is food.  There are three different kinds of food.  First is obviously what we eat.

The second kind of food is (pasa) touch.  For example,  we go to a beautiful movie we really want to see. We don't even notice the time passing and we are so into the movie we lose track of time. Meditation can be like that too. A few hours can feel like minutes!  During a movie we don't feel thirsty or hungry. It is like that with sports, music, or any special event. We are just so into those things we forget about hunger.  It is a kind of mind food for us.

As another example let's say something bad happened to us. We feel like we are burning from anger. Maybe, someone passed away. We get so involved in that we forget about being hungry.  Sometimes after breaking up from a strong relationship we don't feel like eating. We just don't feel the desire to eat. This provides food for our mind. It may be bad, but it is still food. Once again this is Pasa.

(Manosanchedenika) Some spiritual people or spiritual beings get satisfaction from joy. Maybe you finally understand a weakness we had and the understanding makes you joyful and that fills you with energy. That is a kind of food. Some people might experience this through slow moving, mindful exercises such as Chi Gon or Yoga. Many people who do these exercises feel like they don't need much food because they get energy from them.
 

Here are some more examples:

If we go to a meditation retreat, the first few days we might eat a lot of food. After being settled for about three or four days we might not need more food. We will probably eat small half size meals. Outside meditation we don't pay attention, we just throw our food into our mouths. Sometimes we are chatting or doing something while eating. We have a custom that if we want to get to know someone or talk to them, we invite them for dinner or lunch. The purpose is to talk while eating. So, we train ourselves to just throw the food in our mouths and focus on conversation. Thats why we involve in taste, because we need strong flavors to remind us. Most of the time we eat while we watch tv. We use flavors to feel out our food. When we meditate we learn to be mindful of our eating. That way we truly feel and taste our food and know when we have had enough. It is helpful to try this at home. Just eat slowly and mindfully and don't talk to anyone. This way we only eat what we really want to.

People who practice the Chi Gon or Yoga get food in otherways. They get a lot of energy through air and observing what they do.

Another example is people who meditate in the forest. Some of them don't eat food everyday. They eat once or twice a week. Since they do everything mindfully they get food in other ways. So, Pasa and Manosanchedenika are the other ways of getting food.

Our best experience is what is happening to us during meditation.  Our mind seeks food during meditation and it may get involved with stories.  One thought is enough to make a long story.  We have trained ourselves to enjoy the stories. We are addicted to some memories of our past. We don't like something about the past so we daydream some kind of alternative we do like. We enjoy it and get addicted to that. Sometimes we have fights we enjoy and we retell someone else, oh, I did this or that. So we enjoy the hatred. We are enjoying pain and unhappiness.  We trained our mind to do that. So, that’s why it is hard to be away from thoughts while meditating.

How can we use this? While we have food or thoughts, just notice it. Ok, I have a thought. That thought will help you to understand it.

Some people enjoy telling others about their pain to get sympathy. That is how they get food. Kids often show they are enjoying pain by pointing out tiny wounds for sympathy.
 

The most difficult part is when people have diseases. They are not ready to think without the disease. They want to maintain the disease because they aren't ready to forget it. 50 to 60 percent of people with blood diseases like diabetes are not ready to forget the disease.  The mind isn't ready to give it up, but thats not the hard part. The hard part is the addiction to the food people get from it. This can easily turn to hatred. They might hate their disease or other peoples response to the disease.

What about people who pretend to be happy and hold it all in? People who are hating others often hide themselves. No one can hate someone else without hating themselves.  We see other peoples faults and we don't see our own. When theres a breakup they will always complain about the other person. They never find their own mistakes. The complaining means they are not ready to correct your mistakes and fogive the person.  We seek forgiveness for us but we are not ready to forgive others. No ones perfect. If someone complains to you just don't involve in what they are saying. You can pretend to listen. Just realize why they are compaining to help you. We may not be able to help them, but we can help ourselves.  Do your best to change yourself.

Seeking sympathy is ok, but if people do it all the time that may be hurting themselves.

So if we have feeling or emotions there is no need to stop it or avoid it, just realize how you get food with your emotions and feelings. We enjoy them, but the bad part is the addiction and then we don't know how to live without them. If our mind is sick we will be sick.  If we change our mind it is good medicine for a disease.