Transcript
[0:02] All right. Well, thank you so much
[0:04] Manori and uh Matias and Nina for um
[0:10] facilitating this and first and foremost
[0:13] someone pala actually last but not
[0:15] least.
[0:17] So, Nio Pala who has been working hard
[0:19] also behind the scenes and hopefully has
[0:22] uh enjoyed a nice fruitful and restful
[0:25] basa and uh thank you to all of you for
[0:28] your enthusiasm in the dha.
[0:44] Well, it used
[0:47] reality. So you can rejoice and we can
[0:49] get into a seated position
[0:56] and we can close our eyes
[1:01] or keep them slightly open if uh we feel
[1:05] a little bit tired or drowsy.
[1:21] And just allow ourselves to simply be
[1:24] here in the present moment
[1:37] with what is happening in our hearts.
[1:42] What is happening in our minds?
[2:01] If there is noise,
[2:06] we just acknowledge that there is noise.
[2:17] If there is calm and peace,
[2:22] we just acknowledge that there is calm
[2:24] and peace.
[2:48] Whatever there is, it's just fine the
[2:51] way it is.
[3:12] What is important is not really what
[3:16] there is,
[3:19] but that we're mindful of what there is.
[3:59] And we can now welcome
[4:03] the presence of our body.
[4:11] Feeling
[4:14] the heaviness of our body.
[4:21] The thickness of our body.
[4:39] Becoming aware with the space
[4:46] that this body
[4:48] takes,
[4:50] occupies
[5:12] This body subject to gravity.
[5:42] This body that
[5:45] we constantly
[5:48] bring around,
[5:51] carry around,
[5:56] hang around with
[7:00] This body covered in skin.
[7:07] No different than a leather bag
[7:13] or a suitcase
[7:15] that we carry around
[7:19] that is useful,
[7:24] needed
[7:29] and that is full of so many different
[7:32] things.
[7:36] Just like our bag, just like our
[7:38] suitcase, this body
[7:42] is full
[7:46] of different
[7:48] things.
[7:58] Full of bones.
[8:04] Full of blood.
[8:10] Full of organs.
[8:23] Full of flesh.
[8:29] Full of fat.
[8:45] nerves, veins,
[8:51] feces, urine.
[9:00] So many different things are in this
[9:03] heavy bag
[9:09] wrapped up with skin.
[9:24] Color it in hair.
[13:00] And we can contemplate how this body
[13:04] is constantly
[13:06] shedding bits and pieces
[13:10] in the world.
[13:16] Bits of hair,
[13:20] fingernails,
[13:23] pieces of skin,
[13:27] mucus,
[13:31] urine,
[13:33] feces,
[13:36] tears.
[13:44] Oh, different.
[14:07] that we take parts of the earth,
[14:12] eat them,
[14:15] drink them,
[14:18] Breathe them
[14:25] and turn them into what we call this
[14:28] body.
[14:46] This constant exchange
[14:51] of elements
[14:57] outside that become inside
[15:02] and inside that become outside.
[20:02] And just as any bag or suitcase
[20:09] might with time get torn
[20:14] or by accident get ripped.
[20:21] or simply start decaying.
[20:29] In the same way, this body
[20:32] subject to rips,
[20:37] to tears,
[20:42] to decay.
[20:53] Thanks, B.
[20:59] out
[21:05] of this bag.
[21:13] Some things can be ended,
[21:17] some things can be repaired,
[21:21] and some things are just
[21:24] destined to break.
[21:29] and not be repairable anymore
[21:37] until this bag, this body
[21:43] just like any other bag will become
[21:46] unusable.
[22:12] become
[22:14] ripped into many different pieces.
[22:34] I'll be with the earth.
[22:49] And so we can rejoice to have
[22:55] this body currently in its present form.
[23:03] Useful functioning.
[23:09] A great condition to see the dharma and
[23:12] understand the dharma.
[23:18] a good support for awakening.
[23:29] And just like we would do with any
[23:32] useful bag,
[23:36] we would make sure to take care of it.
[23:46] Make sure it has
[23:50] the right conditions to preserve itself,
[23:58] but not obsessed with it.
[24:02] Not expect it
[24:05] to last forever.
[24:18] Not rely on it
[24:22] as a source of pleasure.
[24:35] But understand the purpose.
[24:42] The usefulness
[24:49] for the sake of awakening.
[25:07] And we're going to slowly hand
[25:12] and say three times sadd. And come out
[25:14] of this meditation practice.
[25:18] Su
[25:20] su
[25:24] su.
[25:33] And we can slowly open our eyes and do a
[25:36] little bit of stretching if we need to
[26:03] Okay.
[26:06] So, we can now pay homage to our
[26:09] original teacher Shakim Buddha, the
[26:11] reason why we are gathered here today.
[26:36] Buddhasi.
[27:03] and eating in Buddhism, we think too
[27:06] much about what we put in our mouth
[27:10] and too little on what comes out of it.
[27:13] So hopefully today when talking about
[27:15] this topic about eating ethically we
[27:18] will think about both and get hopefully
[27:21] good about both. Um because so just as
[27:24] we need to cultivate right speech very
[27:26] important aspect of the path we also
[27:29] need to think about what is right
[27:30] eating. And so now you will say but yeah
[27:34] that is not in the noble eight-fold
[27:35] path. I don't remember this right eating
[27:37] in the noble eightfold path. What are
[27:38] you talking about?
[27:40] But actually it's present in the
[27:42] eightful path. So right um eating is
[27:45] comprised in right view. It's comprised
[27:47] in um right intention in right action in
[27:50] right livelihood in right effort and
[27:52] also in right mindfulness. Uh as a
[27:55] matter of fact actually the Buddha tells
[27:56] us that if we understand eating we
[27:59] become we can become an anagami. That's
[28:01] like really
[28:03] you know
[28:05] not a small feat right? So we should
[28:08] actually really put the effort in
[28:11] understanding uh what it is um eating in
[28:16] to begin with. Yeah. Uh how should we be
[28:19] eating? So h that's a as a result if we
[28:26] really understand it anagami I think we
[28:27] can all sign up for that right and so
[28:30] that is quite an accomplishment. Um so
[28:32] we should really take the time to
[28:34] contemplate this
[28:42] And
[28:44] so what does this
[28:49] actually mean? um eating uh right what
[28:52] does it mean to eat what contrary to
[28:55] Mahayana traditions we do not have a vow
[28:57] of vegetarianism that might be you know
[28:59] a way in which we tend to think uh in
[29:02] terms of of ethical eating right uh but
[29:06] as just as our Mahayana friends uh do in
[29:08] invad Buddhism we definitely have vows
[29:12] not to hurt any sensient being we have
[29:14] vows not to harm others so it is
[29:18] important that in
[29:20] tradition, we really ask ourselves what
[29:22] does it mean to uh eat ethically and why
[29:27] actually don't we have a vow of
[29:29] vegetarianism right why is it that we go
[29:32] to pretty much the majority of tabata
[29:34] temples there's a lot of meat there both
[29:38] the monastics both the lay people uh
[29:41] it's maybe in Sri Lanka a little bit
[29:43] less right but it's it's pretty present
[29:46] also in Sri Lanka obviously it's a it's
[29:49] an land. So maybe more fish than meat,
[29:52] but that's still the flesh of sensient
[29:54] beings. So how does this play out? It is
[29:57] something to to ponder.
[30:01] And um I would say that first before
[30:03] pondering um this particular aspect uh
[30:08] we should do a little bit of a step back
[30:10] and we need to kind of understand once
[30:13] again food like what is food and first
[30:16] recognize that food contrarly to many
[30:20] other things in the in the path it is
[30:22] something that we cannot avoid right we
[30:25] can avoid all sorts of things also as
[30:27] monastics right we are renuncients We
[30:30] renounce many many many different things
[30:32] but we can't renounce food or at least
[30:35] we can't renounce food for a long period
[30:37] of time
[30:39] after a while. All right, if we renounce
[30:41] food completely, well, our body is just
[30:44] going to die. So, we need food. It's
[30:47] something that we cannot avoid. As
[30:50] humans, we have a body and this body is
[30:52] sustained by food. It is made by food.
[30:55] It runs on food. It's basically just
[30:58] like a car that cannot run without fuel.
[31:01] Well, we have a body that requires this
[31:03] type of sustenance in order to work and
[31:06] that is food. Right? So that is the
[31:08] first result of what we can say uh is a
[31:11] bit of mixed karma from past lives both
[31:14] good and bad
[31:23] the human existence.
[31:25] Um we're not das now. We don't just be
[31:29] make life easier of the heavenly realm
[31:32] that either don't have a body at all or
[31:34] have a more refined body.
[31:50] We have a huge body is of an arm. So
[31:54] it's a car that
[31:56] predator. So a being who cannot only
[32:00] subsist on grass, right? It's a body
[32:02] that it's a it's a coarse enough body.
[32:05] Uh it's a it's a body um like the body
[32:10] of an omnivore is a body that needs
[32:12] several nutrients and of very different
[32:15] types and that is in order to function
[32:17] well. So that is something that we need
[32:20] to acknowledge, right? Uh it's it's part
[32:23] of
[32:26] Okay, somebody's telling me that
[32:28] connection is a little bit off. Mhm. Can
[32:31] you hear me now or is it uh good? Okay,
[32:36] very good.
[32:40] Yeah. So, what was I saying? Let me know
[32:43] if you if it's still problematic.
[32:46] Ironically, I'm in a in the monastery in
[32:49] the United States that I just arrived.
[32:51] So, I should be having a good
[32:53] connection, but ironically in Italy,
[32:55] maybe I have a better connection even
[32:57] though we don't have all the
[33:00] all these um particular conditions. Um
[33:03] but yeah so so once again we need um so
[33:07] many different nutrients of different
[33:09] types right to get this body to to just
[33:13] be operating.
[33:15] And so when it comes to requisites like
[33:18] food that we need daily in order to
[33:20] survive the Buddha suggests that the
[33:22] contaminations of the mind that we might
[33:25] have in regards to them should be
[33:27] transcended by using. So in the Sabbasa
[33:30] suta he speaks precisely on how to
[33:33] transcend these asavasas these
[33:35] contaminations by using and when eating
[33:38] he says we should wisely reflect very
[33:41] important we should
[33:44] not for fun not for pleasure
[33:47] not to look good
[33:53] but only for
[33:57] sustance. of this body so that we can
[34:01] continue spiritual practicular
[34:05] way to gain weight or lose weight. All
[34:08] of that is not the purpose of food. The
[34:12] purpose is to get the right nutrients in
[34:14] so that we can support this body for one
[34:18] and only one particular purpose.
[34:20] Awakening. That's the only reason why we
[34:25] actually eat. That's the only the only
[34:28] reason really to support this body for
[34:30] that particular uh purpose. That's why
[34:33] we want a healthy body essentially. And
[34:36] another suta that is very powerful, very
[34:38] intense suta, one of my favorite sutas
[34:41] is the palamsa suta in which the Buddha
[34:43] uses a very intense singli uh like the
[34:47] he draws a parallel uh with the bad
[34:50] predicament basically of a couple
[34:52] stranded in the desert that in order to
[34:54] survive and have the strength to cross
[34:56] the desert, they need to resort to
[34:58] eating the flesh of their only child.
[35:01] And so as they do so obviously they're
[35:03] distressed, crying like in uh so much
[35:06] pain as we can all imagine obviously if
[35:09] we were in in that situation that we
[35:13] have to eat the flesh of a of another
[35:15] human being let alone our only son. And
[35:18] so they they're so distraught by the
[35:20] fact that they have to eat their son's
[35:21] flesh uh just in order to survive that
[35:24] the Buddha obviously points out that
[35:26] clearly right they would not be
[35:27] enthralled by the activity. They
[35:29] wouldn't be like throwing a dinner party
[35:31] and and having a sensual experience.
[35:35] They wouldn't fantasize about the
[35:36] condiments, the flavors. They wouldn't
[35:38] be overeing or indulging like going,
[35:41] "Oh, yes. Let me have a little bit more
[35:43] of those um uh of those, you know, um
[35:47] sons flesh nuggets, right?" So they
[35:50] wouldn't be um having um a central
[35:53] experience but they would clearly be
[35:55] understanding the purpose of of their
[35:58] action of eating
[36:02] which is survival
[36:10] right to cross the desert. And obviously
[36:12] he had to cross this to actually do
[36:14] awakening
[36:16] uh to really do make the the shift
[36:18] essentially
[36:20] and um and so he the Buddha uh tells us
[36:23] to cultivate the same perception right
[36:26] and that's that's very intense once
[36:28] again it's like not to eat for fun not
[36:31] to eat for pleasure not for beauty not
[36:33] for dormant only to sustain this body
[36:35] for the sake of spiritual practice and
[36:37] to reduce previous bodily painful
[36:40] sensations not to create new ones,
[36:42] right? That is uh the per like that is
[36:46] the way the Buddha tells us to train
[36:48] ourselves.
[36:49] And so when it comes to eating ethic,
[36:51] ethically, right? We need to understand
[36:54] um first and foremost that we need to
[36:57] get in tuned less uh with the thinking
[37:00] brain and more with the body. So what
[37:03] does this body need in order to uh be
[37:06] healthy, in order to sustain my
[37:09] spiritual practice?
[37:11] And when we step a little bit outside of
[37:14] you know modern society uh modern you
[37:17] know I believe mo most most people here
[37:20] are in the UK but here I am in the
[37:23] United States or also in Italy like
[37:25] these days we are getting very
[37:27] disconnected uh right with food. Um and
[37:31] so if we look a little bit more at
[37:32] traditional cultures and we're very
[37:34] lucky as Buddhists to be you know
[37:37] surrounded by so many friends from the
[37:39] Sri Lankan tradition uh from the the
[37:42] Thai tradition but in particular I would
[37:44] say the Sri Lankan tradition uh just
[37:46] like a lot of Indian friends um they
[37:49] preserve uh a whole way of um of looking
[37:53] at food that is embedded in the culture
[37:57] the Ayurvedic principles uh also Chinese
[38:00] culture has very much of that. Um and so
[38:04] when we look at traditional cultures
[38:06] such as the Chinese uh or traditional
[38:08] medicine, right? Uh rather so like
[38:11] Chinese traditional medicine or
[38:12] Ayurveda, we see very much these
[38:15] principles uh that the Buddha is talking
[38:17] about embedded in them. In Buddhism, we
[38:19] have a way to develop the four elements
[38:22] meditation for example uh which is the
[38:24] practice that we did um before as well
[38:27] as the contemplation of the uh of the
[38:31] some of some of the parts of the body
[38:33] not all of them.
[38:36] Um and so
[38:39] so yeah uh with um getting in tune with
[38:44] um with the four elements meditation for
[38:47] example uh we start getting in tune with
[38:51] this other type of mindfulness of the
[38:53] body which translates really well for
[38:55] example with an Ayurvedic medicine
[38:57] perspective. The interesting thing about
[38:59] Eastern medicine is that really uses
[39:01] first and foremost food for example as
[39:03] the number one medicine. It is used even
[39:06] before herbs basically to balance um and
[39:10] obviously simplifying everything but the
[39:13] idea sometimes is that in order to uh
[39:16] whenever we have a kind of illness there
[39:18] is a an an unbalanced
[39:21] uh elements are unbalanced right and so
[39:23] then we need to understand what is
[39:25] unbalanced and bring it back to a bit of
[39:27] a balance and one of the easiest ways to
[39:31] do that is to shift our diet to actually
[39:34] change um understand the properties of
[39:38] fundamentally the the different foods
[39:40] that we're ingesting and um and healing
[39:44] ourselves with that. So essentially then
[39:46] food in this context is fundamentally um
[39:50] medicine right and so this is an
[39:53] interesting perspective because if we go
[39:55] you know in wherever whether we're in
[39:57] New York or London or wherever
[40:01] right um if we go to the pharmacy we
[40:03] don't start getting excited for example
[40:05] towards ibuprofen or aspirin we don't
[40:08] take it recreationally right we actually
[40:11] take it just as little as needed and
[40:15] only when needed, right? And so if food
[40:19] is medicine, then it's no different than
[40:21] aspirin. It's no different than
[40:22] ibuprofen.
[40:24] And just as too much aspirin or taking
[40:26] aspirin when not needed might damage our
[40:28] body. So it's the case with food. And
[40:31] also if we don't have a heart condition,
[40:33] well, we just don't start taking heart
[40:35] pills, right? If we don't have asthma,
[40:38] we don't just take medicine to cure
[40:40] asthma.
[40:42] So when it comes to food, it's very
[40:45] interesting to start adopting this other
[40:47] perspective, right? It's like what um
[40:51] what do what is my current condition?
[40:53] Like how uh is this body in this
[40:56] particular um time and place, right? And
[41:01] so then how will this food be beneficial
[41:04] for medicinal purposes to this body or
[41:07] how what might it be detrimental?
[41:10] Right? These are very good questions to
[41:13] ask instead of uh having a theory about
[41:17] food or following a diet, right? Having
[41:20] a bit of a another perspective that
[41:23] comes more from um yeah, more of a four
[41:27] elements type of meditation
[41:30] both in inner um elements, four elements
[41:35] and outside uh four elements, right? And
[41:39] so when it comes for example to eating
[41:41] then animal products I would say that
[41:45] the ethical thing suggested in the sutas
[41:47] is not necessarily uh to go vegan. It's
[41:51] not necessarily even to go vegetarian.
[41:53] This can be very shocking to some of us.
[41:56] Uh we might go how is that possible? How
[41:58] does that line up? But when we think
[42:02] about it with what I've been saying so
[42:04] far, then
[42:06] well maybe the the question is a little
[42:10] bit different, right? It's more asking
[42:12] ourselves,
[42:14] do we need meat to survive
[42:17] or do we not need meat to sustain this
[42:21] body? Do we need animal products
[42:25] or do we not need animal products to
[42:28] sustain this body? And this might change
[42:30] the answer. This might change actually.
[42:32] There are sometimes that we might um
[42:35] need something. The answer might be yes
[42:38] and sometimes the answer might be no.
[42:41] And so not as a matter of principle but
[42:43] as a matter of actually understanding
[42:45] our health conditions. And you know in
[42:48] the vinaya for example we have an
[42:50] exception for health. As monastics you
[42:53] know if we're sick we can actually
[42:55] request meat and fish to the lay people.
[42:58] These are all things that I've been
[43:00] pondering a lot throughout the um you
[43:03] know my my monastic life. You find all
[43:06] of these bits and pieces and you're like
[43:08] oh wow that's that's very interesting.
[43:10] How is it that usually we can't you know
[43:13] really um express our preferences but
[43:16] then there are some exceptions to the
[43:18] rule and in this particular case right
[43:21] for for meat you know being an alms
[43:24] bandicant monastic in Italy we do a lot
[43:28] of practices of of going on a daily
[43:30] basis u right for pindapata and also
[43:33] doing tudong well then you really
[43:35] understand understand that you know
[43:38] whether we like it or Not actually meat
[43:41] and animal products have a lot of
[43:42] nutritional properties and they can be
[43:45] very medicinal for the body. As a matter
[43:48] of fact, yeah, um you know once again
[43:51] when we do these practices of of going
[43:54] around the country uh for many days we
[43:57] might only have bread or very little
[44:00] more than than bread. Maybe some some
[44:02] fruit here and there. And it's um it's
[44:07] tangible
[44:09] when we get a meat offering how it has
[44:13] an in like your body almost absorbs it
[44:16] absorbs the nutri the nutrients
[44:19] and this has been a very interesting
[44:21] experiential teaching for me in which
[44:25] then uh you know when we do the
[44:28] lifestyle uh just as seen in the sutas
[44:31] then you know all of our food
[44:33] preferences has become just food. You
[44:35] know,
[44:37] when you're really really hungry,
[44:39] there's uh it doesn't matter uh what is
[44:42] offered. You really just need nutrient.
[44:45] You really just need sustenance. And I
[44:48] feel like that's also why actually the
[44:50] the Buddha has made us arms bandicans.
[44:53] Um because then we we start having a bit
[44:56] of a a less brainy approach towards
[44:59] these topics and more of an experiential
[45:02] like our body starts screaming a little
[45:04] bit.
[45:05] So from my experience right uh we need
[45:09] to be quite realistic right with uh the
[45:12] fact that our body might need specific
[45:14] foods to be sustained and if we don't
[45:17] give it the right sustenance we might
[45:19] harm it and this is whether we are you
[45:21] know if we are carnivore vegan if we go
[45:24] on a keto diet or we are you know it
[45:27] doesn't matter what it is um but if we
[45:30] actually don't quite understand well
[45:32] this is the the situation and this I
[45:35] need this medicine. We might take once
[45:37] again heart medicine when we actually
[45:39] have no problem with the heart and we
[45:42] might take um yeah an aspirin or too
[45:45] many aspirins when you know we didn't
[45:48] need aspirin to begin with. So
[45:50] developing a bit of a different approach
[45:53] and a different uh contemplation which
[45:56] personally I find the four elements
[45:58] meditation to be very very useful to to
[46:01] kind of step out
[46:12] these
[46:15] other
[46:16] other way
[46:19] in our motherhood we tend to look about
[46:22] food actually well this is type of and
[46:25] that is supportive simple
[46:30] it is you know non-harming In in in
[46:33] Buddhism, aimsa is not harming any
[46:37] single being, but that includes
[46:38] ourselves. And so that has to be very
[46:43] much present within our um our way of
[46:48] approaching food.
[46:50] Understanding that we can
[46:53] have the aspiration not to harm and
[46:56] really bring it forward to our the best
[46:59] of our possibilities. Right? It's uh
[47:01] it's not possible to be 100%
[47:04] um impeccable
[47:07] right just by the nature of having this
[47:09] body by the
[47:11] by the the way of existing unfortunately
[47:14] we are to a certain degree
[47:17] uh having an impact in the world. So
[47:20] then the aspiration should be to not
[47:22] harm but also not to sacrifice ourselves
[47:26] um for
[47:28] with
[47:30] yeah uh to harm ourselves
[47:33] and so with any type of food but
[47:35] definitely in the case of meat it is
[47:37] definitely um as we were saying
[47:39] important to first consider if we need
[47:41] it right so if we don't we should skip
[47:44] it and if we need it then uh if the
[47:48] answer is yes I need this food then we
[47:50] should definitely not kill the animal or
[47:53] have it killed and also in these days of
[47:56] factory farming I would say that we need
[47:58] to also add another step we should also
[48:01] make sure that we know where the meat is
[48:03] coming from it's quite important to make
[48:06] sure it's from the most sustainable farm
[48:08] like right in which the animals have had
[48:10] the most ethical living conditions
[48:11] possible it will be expensive and that
[48:14] is a good thing for everyone involved
[48:16] you know as by necessity like if it's
[48:18] expensive we will consume consume less
[48:19] of it and only when is when needed which
[48:22] actually has been the case for the
[48:24] history of humanity really. It's only
[48:27] until the horror of factory farming a
[48:29] couple of decades ago that we actually
[48:31] have cheap meat and this overconumption
[48:35] and this um disease that comes from all
[48:39] of this. And so it's once again very
[48:41] important uh to reduce as much as
[48:45] possible which has been the case once
[48:46] again with every pretty c pretty pretty
[48:49] much every culture that I know of. Um
[48:51] right there's hardly ever been um a big
[48:57] consumption of meat unless one was in a
[48:59] specific territory like Tibet where
[49:02] hardly ever anything else was growing.
[49:05] Uh but there was also
[49:07] right the understanding that okay well
[49:10] if one is eating meat which is very
[49:12] nutritious like it has to be like it's
[49:14] also a very expensive thing. So one is
[49:17] very um parsimonious. So we say in
[49:20] Italian I don't know I have translated
[49:21] in English. It might not be an English
[49:24] um term but right like very uh um
[49:31] circumspect in in that. And once again
[49:35] if the answer is well I actually right
[49:37] now do not need this meat. Perfect. One
[49:41] should not actually eat it. if one has
[49:44] that perspective.
[49:47] But
[49:49] even when we're not talking about um
[49:53] meat per se, but we're talking about
[49:55] food in general, I would say that today
[49:57] we also have other complicated issues
[50:00] like the industrialized, you know, food
[50:03] um paradigm is not only
[50:08] about
[50:19] When we come to farming it gets very
[50:22] complex food today unfortunately today
[50:24] is industrialized food and this is
[50:26] processed food designed to be addictive.
[50:29] So we should really also make sure to
[50:31] avoid that s
[50:33] all those substances uh that are
[50:35] hindrance to our spiritual pra spiritual
[50:38] practice to our clarity of mind to our
[50:41] mindfulness and to our health and um and
[50:45] also to keep in mind the conditions in
[50:47] which these products it doesn't matter
[50:48] if it's labeled vegan it doesn't matter
[50:50] if it's labeled plant-based it doesn't
[50:53] matter if it's um whatever it's labeled
[50:55] as uh but we should really put the time
[50:58] to investigate uh what are the
[51:01] circumstances in which they are
[51:03] produced, right? How are they um
[51:07] beneficial and how are they harmful for
[51:09] everyone involved for the people who eat
[51:12] them but also the people who make them,
[51:15] right? As well as the planet.
[51:19] to be quite frank, you know, I've I've
[51:21] done actually quite a lot of research on
[51:23] this and uh and I recently wrote um not
[51:26] wrote but gave a talk for for tricycle
[51:29] that they put the sort of um they wrote
[51:33] um there's kind of like a sort of
[51:35] article on that uh which goes a little
[51:37] bit into detail uh of the bit of the
[51:41] horror that we are facing today in um in
[51:45] in sort of the industrialization of food
[51:48] and the implications that it has uh on
[51:51] um
[51:52] on our practice as as Buddhists. But we
[51:55] should really so I won't tire you with
[51:57] that. You can actually go and and look
[51:59] at it if you're interested. Uh but
[52:01] really I invite all of us uh to
[52:03] contemplate that
[52:05] right and to really see how
[52:08] fundamentally in the end the best food
[52:12] uh that that we can have is the food
[52:14] that we grow ourselves. The second best
[52:16] is possibly the food that is grown by a
[52:18] farmer that does not exploit people in
[52:21] the in the in the workplace that does
[52:23] not harm animals but stewards the land.
[52:26] And so a simple way to do this is to
[52:29] either join a community garden if we
[52:31] live in cities or to go
[52:36] you know to a farmers market to connect
[52:39] with local farmers and other peace
[52:41] harmful way possible for the benefit of
[52:43] of all sentient beings. Uh but really
[52:46] looking at that really looking
[52:48] what is um where are we getting our food
[52:52] from and actually getting as close as
[52:54] possible to the source and really if we
[52:57] have the opportunity to grow it
[52:58] ourselves it's such a also great dharma
[53:00] practice I learned so much uh as a lay
[53:03] person uh growing food um we you know
[53:07] one of the meanings of dharma is also
[53:09] nature and so why is it so hard for us
[53:12] these days to understand the dharma
[53:15] Why don't we have as many enlightened
[53:17] people as we used to have in the past?
[53:20] Because we are so distant from nature
[53:23] because we set things essentially on
[53:25] fire. We cut all the forests. We don't
[53:29] grow anything. We are so removed. And so
[53:33] everything then becomes very theoretical
[53:35] and very difficult to actually really
[53:39] see the nature of things outside. and
[53:41] then even more difficult to see the
[53:43] nature of things in the heart.
[53:47] Okay, so these are a few a few thoughts
[53:51] for this evening and if it um
[53:55] I hope
[53:58] okay I hope it wasn't too bad the
[54:00] connection. I just saw Shirley's um
[54:03] comment. Uh if now there are some
[54:05] questions or thoughts and comments and
[54:08] I'll try our best to to answer them.
[54:33] I hope I didn't depress you all. You all
[54:37] very silent.
[54:41] Okay, someone.
[54:49] I can't hear you. I just unmuted. Thank
[54:52] you, Ya.
[54:54] >> Thank you.
[54:55] Um, I'm curious uh about your thoughts
[54:58] on kind of mild food intolerances and
[55:04] like as a monastic, how how far would
[55:09] you go to request or deny specific
[55:12] foods?
[55:15] >> Yeah, thank you so much.
[55:17] Yes. When it comes to uh food
[55:19] intolerances, well, that is all in the
[55:22] domain of uh our
[55:26] um medical needs, right? So that is
[55:32] really what the Buddha is
[55:34] trying to get us to understand um is not
[55:40] that if we eat afternoon um we go to
[55:43] hell, right? It's a way it's skillful
[55:45] means in order to understand our
[55:49] like face right the the hunger pains
[55:52] face our defilements our attachment
[55:54] toward food and let go of it. Um and so
[55:59] it's uh there there are obviously the
[56:02] the Buddha was very kind. He's not like
[56:04] okay you shouldn't touch anything at all
[56:06] just water afternoon but there is
[56:08] afternoon just water unless right we
[56:11] need some tonics unless we need
[56:12] something that is supportive and so when
[56:15] we come when we are talking to our lay
[56:18] supporters I would say that if there
[56:20] there is something that is injuring the
[56:22] body um that we should it would be good
[56:26] to to communicate it right so that um
[56:32] always checking our mind, right? Is it
[56:35] really an intolerance or is it just
[56:37] something that we don't like that we
[56:39] don't particularly um
[56:42] uh yeah, we're like, "Yeah, I'm very
[56:46] intolerant to lettuce." Well, that
[56:48] that's clearly our us talking. But if
[56:52] instead it's uh having, you know, a kind
[56:55] of intolerance to gluten, well, usually
[56:59] actually people really like bread.
[57:02] people really like faga
[57:04] um people really like you know all those
[57:07] those type of things but if it's very
[57:09] harmful to the body well then uh
[57:12] communicating it is uh I would say very
[57:14] much in line with uh with the dharma
[57:28] and I see that Barbara here asks can you
[57:31] say how food may be connected to mental
[57:33] health.
[57:35] Um what do you mean by that by bra? if
[57:38] you would like to expand a little bit on
[57:41] um on what you mean. Um the
[57:56] we definitely obviously
[57:59] um I a few things um that we have these
[58:02] days
[58:04] then um
[58:07] and also the as I was mentioning
[58:09] industrialized foods is actually
[58:11] designed to make us quite addictive.
[58:13] You know, we are in the era of the four
[58:16] ignoble truths where everything is
[58:19] designed to fuel our craving, make us
[58:22] more addicted and um you know, practice
[58:24] the ignoble uh eight-fold path so that
[58:27] we just keep on being stuck in
[58:29] suffering. And uh that's very important
[58:34] to understand because sometimes we can
[58:36] um and also the system is designed to
[58:39] make it the fault of the individual. And
[58:41] so we might tend to say, "Oh, it's
[58:43] really my fault. I'm I can't, you know,
[58:46] I'm I'm obsessed with food." You know,
[58:48] right now there is also uh definitely in
[58:50] the United States, I don't know about
[58:52] the UK, but just like we have AA, there
[58:55] are groups of people that um have
[58:58] addictions to food and that they meet uh
[59:00] because actually the food is designed to
[59:02] be addictive.
[59:04] It sells more. You know, if you're an
[59:06] addict, then you want more of that over
[59:08] and over again. And so that creates a
[59:10] lot of mental health issues, mental
[59:14] problems. And we have an abundance of
[59:16] it. We have
[59:18] so much cheap food that it can kind of
[59:22] easily create that uh that habit, that
[59:26] reliance. Um so
[59:30] so yeah, the the solution obviously to
[59:34] uh wrong view is right view.
[59:37] The solution to the wrong uh ignoble
[59:40] hateful path is the
[59:43] right
[59:45] noble hatful path as taught by the
[59:46] Buddha. And so once again going to the
[59:49] root of it. Uh understanding that is
[59:52] just like any addiction we need to
[59:55] separate from it and train the mind to
[59:59] to get to something that is a little bit
[1:00:01] more wholesome. Right? And at the
[1:00:03] beginning, obviously, the mind is going
[1:00:05] to scream. It's going to have a fit, no
[1:00:11] different than any addict.
[1:00:14] Whatever we're addicted to, at the very
[1:00:16] beginning, when we'll be separated from
[1:00:17] it, the mind will go crazy. And so, it
[1:00:20] will seem like there's more suffering.
[1:00:22] But if we, you know, build through it,
[1:00:25] no different than a meditation retreat.
[1:00:26] Probably the first meditation retreat
[1:00:28] that we all did, right? The very
[1:00:29] beginning was very difficult. But then
[1:00:31] if you stick with it or also with
[1:00:34] meditation practice ah the it's so
[1:00:37] unbearably painful at first but then you
[1:00:39] stick to it and then ah it becomes very
[1:00:41] pleasant. Why does it become very
[1:00:43] pleasant? Because we let go
[1:00:46] there's um some relief.
[1:00:49] So so yeah uh I would say really working
[1:00:53] on that first establishing right view
[1:00:56] then right intention and right action
[1:00:58] and it goes from there.
[1:01:02] And I see a Rosemary.
[1:01:04] >> I I'm unmuted at this point. So, I
[1:01:07] thought I would um chime in. I was
[1:01:09] thinking more around the gut brain
[1:01:11] connection as well, cuz what we put into
[1:01:13] our bodies is then going to also affect
[1:01:16] what's going on up here.
[1:01:19] Yeah. Um well, my mom suffers from
[1:01:22] dementia. So, I have done a little bit
[1:01:23] of research on that domain. I'm
[1:01:26] obviously not an health expert and I'm
[1:01:28] not in that uh capacity of being you
[1:01:32] know an expert in the field to to talk
[1:01:34] about that but I definitely will share
[1:01:36] that yeah you know uh one of the
[1:01:40] the researches that seems to be very
[1:01:44] prevalent also in the domain of of all
[1:01:46] these uh problems that we have is that
[1:01:49] the goth is actually our second brain
[1:01:52] and uh all of this uh really terri
[1:01:55] terrible food with lots of pesticides.
[1:01:58] Well, it kills everything. You know,
[1:02:00] glyphosate, for example, kills every
[1:02:01] every single pest. Um, well, what is
[1:02:06] inside our guts? Well, it's a lot of
[1:02:09] microbes. It's a lot of different tiny
[1:02:12] insects. We have a lot of a lot of life
[1:02:14] living inside of us. And um so between
[1:02:18] the the food that we're ingesting, the
[1:02:20] antibiotics that we're we'reing
[1:02:26] kind of like destroying all of them.
[1:02:32] Um also the the kind of extreme uh for
[1:02:35] example that has grown um she's 5 years
[1:02:39] old um and she she was raised for the
[1:02:42] these five years um by her parents who
[1:02:46] love her dearly but they're very very
[1:02:48] you know protective. She only gets in
[1:02:50] basically supermarket food, very very
[1:02:52] clean food. Wow. She has a whole array
[1:02:54] of diseases
[1:02:56] unfortunately at the age of five. She's
[1:02:58] very weak, very weak immune system. And
[1:03:02] uh it's interesting uh to reflect on
[1:03:06] that. Um my mom had a very different
[1:03:08] approach uh right she was very old
[1:03:10] school Italian mom. So she would make
[1:03:12] everything from scratch and you know
[1:03:14] cook um and all of that. and it's um and
[1:03:17] expose also the children to bacteria. So
[1:03:21] we have it a little bit all the we kind
[1:03:23] of have the have it the way round.
[1:03:26] We tend to think of this body as this
[1:03:28] pure thing and therefore we tend to kind
[1:03:31] of sterilize and purify everything uh
[1:03:35] and kill everything. Uh but it we don't
[1:03:38] really understand that this sort of body
[1:03:41] and and brain and everything is a little
[1:03:43] bit more complicated and it's actually
[1:03:44] quite dirty and it needs dirt. That's
[1:03:46] what food is. it's some kind of, you
[1:03:49] know, dirty
[1:03:52] fancy piece of dirt that we put in our
[1:03:54] mouths. And so, yeah, there's definitely
[1:03:57] a lot of connections between between
[1:04:00] that, but there's many studies uh that
[1:04:02] one can find online that also are
[1:04:05] connected with um the prevalence of of
[1:04:07] dementia,
[1:04:09] one of the conditions. Obviously, it's
[1:04:10] not the sole condition, but um
[1:04:12] definitely a condition
[1:04:18] Okay. And Rosemary,
[1:04:26] thank you. I uh Can you hear me? Okay.
[1:04:30] Can you hear me?
[1:04:34] Can you hear me? Okay.
[1:04:38] >> Yep. Yeah, I can hear you.
[1:04:41] >> Thank you. Um Yeah. As in uh Italian
[1:04:46] American
[1:04:49] food uh was such an
[1:04:55] central um
[1:04:58] part of my life growing up and um such a
[1:05:05] central way of expressing love and care.
[1:05:10] And um
[1:05:14] um
[1:05:16] and it's, you know, and it's also the
[1:05:19] way that I give myself self, you know,
[1:05:21] self-care, right?
[1:05:24] And
[1:05:25] um so I've been thinking recently or
[1:05:28] wanting to recently like take another
[1:05:31] precept besides the five and one being
[1:05:34] the uh not um
[1:05:38] you know eating once a day.
[1:05:41] And when I think about that a lot of
[1:05:44] like fear comes up for me. And also I
[1:05:47] have a job that you know is physical
[1:05:49] labor and it's like and my friend was
[1:05:52] like oh you'll disappear you know don't
[1:05:55] do that you know and I was think so
[1:05:58] there's a few things going on there's
[1:06:00] you know
[1:06:03] the part about um
[1:06:07] the love that love and caring
[1:06:11] and then um
[1:06:14] the part around oh I need this I need
[1:06:16] this food because
[1:06:19] um I'm in the world and I'm working and
[1:06:21] I need all this energy and all this and
[1:06:24] would it be different in a monastery?
[1:06:26] So, I'm thinking about that like if I
[1:06:28] were to visit a monastery and be there,
[1:06:30] you know, would that make it a little
[1:06:32] bit easier? Probably.
[1:06:35] Um but also even thinking within like if
[1:06:39] I were to
[1:06:41] be with others who are you know in a
[1:06:44] monastery who are you know eating once a
[1:06:47] day um uh still even though even when I
[1:06:50] think that it's like no way can't do it
[1:06:53] I'm not going to do it I got to have my
[1:06:56] fruit I got to have this I got to have
[1:06:57] that you know and it's really a
[1:07:00] frightening thing for me
[1:07:02] um
[1:07:04] it's a scary thing uh to imagine.
[1:07:08] Thank you.
[1:07:11] >> Thank you for sharing.
[1:07:13] >> Yes. Um don't feel special.
[1:07:18] Uh when I first started my Buddhist
[1:07:21] practice, that was um the hardest thing
[1:07:25] for me to do. Um, so
[1:07:30] when I got on the eight precepts,
[1:07:34] you know, people thought, "Oh, South BC
[1:07:36] must be the hardest thing." I was
[1:07:38] actually not eating afternoon.
[1:07:41] My mind would literally go crazy. And
[1:07:45] uh, all the allowables that we had at
[1:07:47] the monastery, uh, I hated every single
[1:07:50] one of them. But not because I didn't
[1:07:52] like the particular allowables. It was
[1:07:54] because of the restriction. So it was
[1:07:55] driving me crazy, you know, even if
[1:07:57] pizza had been at the allowable, I would
[1:07:59] have probably hated pizza. Like I had
[1:08:00] no, it didn't matter what it was. And so
[1:08:03] my mind was literally screaming. Why?
[1:08:06] Because I had trained my mind my entire
[1:08:07] life to take refuge not in Buddha Dame
[1:08:09] Saga, but to take refuge in the fridge.
[1:08:12] So whenever I had a little bit of
[1:08:13] dissatisfaction, I would go like, "Okay,
[1:08:15] open the fridge. Okay, numbum, yum, yum.
[1:08:17] That's nice. That's a nice little
[1:08:19] gratification."
[1:08:22] or if um yeah anything was going wrong
[1:08:25] once again open the pantry take
[1:08:27] that or get a snack right we have so
[1:08:31] much also access this is also a kind of
[1:08:34] disease of like um of this uh kind of
[1:08:38] opulent uh times we're all king pad of
[1:08:42] kala
[1:08:44] we all have way too much food way too
[1:08:47] much wealth
[1:09:07] understand. Okay. Well, that's you know
[1:09:11] than training,
[1:09:14] right? So how to bring sessation of
[1:09:18] suffering
[1:09:20] and um naturally we will be fearful
[1:09:24] about it. Naturally you know as
[1:09:25] monastics obviously we make it uh we do
[1:09:28] even more extreme um practices
[1:09:35] nature of the mind is the same. So we
[1:09:38] see also the sutas thought and going on
[1:09:44] alms round was the first thought that I
[1:09:45] had when I did my first pinapata not at
[1:09:48] the monastery because I know that at the
[1:09:49] monastery a lot of nice people come but
[1:09:52] pinapata out you know where for example
[1:09:55] in Italy no Buddhists um just random
[1:09:58] people and I was like am I going to be
[1:10:01] able to eat anything
[1:10:04] what is going to happen like the food
[1:10:06] insecurity pops up like all of these
[1:10:09] different anxieties
[1:10:12] uh come into being. That is good. That
[1:10:14] means the training is working.
[1:10:18] That means we have the opportunity to
[1:10:20] see all of this. And so going to a
[1:10:23] monastery, I would say as a lay person
[1:10:26] for periods of time is good training. We
[1:10:29] don't have to go from zero to 100%. we
[1:10:32] can just do from zero to 1% 2% 3% 4%
[1:10:36] build it up and um and so that's we see
[1:10:40] the wisdom of the Asian tradition
[1:10:45] for lay people.
[1:11:01] This
[1:11:04] person is they actually are on the
[1:11:07] priest twice to monasteries for a little
[1:11:11] fast
[1:11:13] and with little fast one starts seeing
[1:11:16] enchantment that comes and then building
[1:11:18] up from there. Right? So we want to
[1:11:22] allow ourselves to to kind of grow
[1:11:29] this
[1:11:31] instead of forcefully doing it with a
[1:11:35] mind. The other thing that was very, you
[1:11:37] know, Italian descent, what really world
[1:11:40] story, uh, when we had our first retreat
[1:11:43] center in Rockaway Beach, um,
[1:11:47] and we were on the eight precepts at a
[1:11:49] certain point, we decided to offer free
[1:11:51] dinners to the neighbors, free vegan
[1:11:53] dinners. And so uh the first we had the
[1:11:59] uh I still remember the Jamaican vegan
[1:12:02] dinner and then the second one was the
[1:12:03] Chinese vegan dinner and the third one
[1:12:05] was the Italian vegan dinner which I
[1:12:07] made. But the first one, you know, there
[1:12:09] was our friend Nicole who made this like
[1:12:11] delicious. She cooked, you know, the
[1:12:13] entire day this beautiful meal and then
[1:12:16] the neighbors, everyone came uh to the
[1:12:19] center and I was on the eight precepts.
[1:12:21] So I I couldn't, you know, myself and
[1:12:24] the residents, we weren't eating the
[1:12:25] dinner, but I was seeing everyone eating
[1:12:28] this delicious food and commenting it.
[1:12:30] And my mind was so full of chillesas. I
[1:12:34] wasn't, you know, sharing it, but I was
[1:12:36] just like, "Ah,
[1:12:39] I wish I could have that experience.
[1:12:43] Ah, this is so awful."
[1:12:47] And then Nicole, I remember, was so
[1:12:48] sweet. She had saved a little bit of
[1:12:50] this delicious um you know um uh
[1:12:55] Jamaican food and I had it the next day
[1:12:58] for lunch and I had it and I was like
[1:13:01] wow I mean it's tasty but it's not as
[1:13:03] great as my mind had pictured it to be.
[1:13:07] Then the second week comes and it's the
[1:13:10] time for the Chinese dinner. Same thing.
[1:13:12] My mind the whole day. Oh wow, this
[1:13:15] smell is killing me. I want it so much.
[1:13:17] Oh, this is so unfair. I hate these
[1:13:20] precepts. Why?
[1:13:23] Like so much duka. So much duka. And
[1:13:26] then second, you know, have the Chinese
[1:13:28] food the next day. I was like, oh, it's
[1:13:30] good but not as great. And then the
[1:13:33] third week comes, I make this I spend
[1:13:36] the whole day making this um Italian
[1:13:38] vegan food.
[1:13:40] And people come and you know there's one
[1:13:43] thing that Italians like to do more than
[1:13:45] they like to eat. They like to
[1:13:51] more
[1:13:53] like
[1:13:59] so as soon as I was offing this food
[1:14:03] here mine was delighting in
[1:14:07] and that was very precious because in
[1:14:10] that moment I was like oh the experience
[1:14:13] is the same in the way that I'm still
[1:14:15] not eating. I'm on the eight precepts
[1:14:17] and I'm still surrounded by people who
[1:14:19] are eating and having a good time, but
[1:14:22] now I'm not suffering. What has changed?
[1:14:26] Well, I swapped craving for
[1:14:30] for sensuality with muda, rejoicing in
[1:14:35] other people's good fortune. And so from
[1:14:39] then on, it was so easy to be on the
[1:14:41] precepts.
[1:14:43] It's so easy, you know, for me to be
[1:14:45] surrounded by people who are eating
[1:14:47] because I learned how to train the mind
[1:14:49] of like looking at what is really
[1:14:52] beneficial. It's like, oh yeah, so
[1:14:54] great. Oh, so happy that you're having
[1:14:55] really good food. And as monastics, we
[1:14:58] have plenty of that opportunity, right?
[1:15:00] Because we don't have dinner and dinner
[1:15:02] is the really the time when there is um
[1:15:05] a really awesome like kind of assortment
[1:15:08] of food. In Italy, people don't start
[1:15:11] really eating
[1:15:14] good delicious food until 2 p.m. So it's
[1:15:19] always out of reach. Have two um
[1:15:22] options. One is to suffer. The other one
[1:15:25] is not to suffer. We need to train
[1:15:28] ourselves not to suffer. And muda is a
[1:15:32] way not to suffer. But we need to
[1:15:34] observe the suffering in order to learn
[1:15:37] how not to suffer.
[1:15:44] Okay, hope that was helpful.
[1:15:48] And Joelle, I hope I'm pronouncing your
[1:15:51] name properly. Says, "I work as a
[1:15:54] registered nurse in psychiatry and
[1:15:56] reflecting over how most of us don't
[1:15:57] misuse medications, but some have
[1:15:59] addictions to medicines, drugs. If more
[1:16:02] people would test those medicines that
[1:16:04] can give addiction, more people would
[1:16:05] have addictions. But with food, no one
[1:16:08] can refuse to eat test food as we need
[1:16:10] it to live. Isn't it expected that most
[1:16:13] people in the world that are wealthy
[1:16:14] enough to have a limited access to
[1:16:16] animal food are addicted to eat that
[1:16:18] type of food?
[1:16:21] Well, I would say that usually the
[1:16:24] addictions that we have is to processed
[1:16:28] food, which can also be animal food, but
[1:16:30] it can also be I mean sometimes it can
[1:16:33] also be vegan food actually.
[1:16:36] So the more processed it is, the more uh
[1:16:40] it's designed to be addictive. You know,
[1:16:42] nobody gets really addicted to lettuce.
[1:16:44] I had never heard of anybody getting
[1:16:46] addicted to lettuce or a potato. But
[1:16:49] definitely people get addicted, for
[1:16:51] example, to potato chips. Potato chips
[1:16:53] are addictive, but the potato is not
[1:16:56] addictive. Why is that so?
[1:16:59] Because one comes from nature and the
[1:17:02] other one comes from a factory. It comes
[1:17:05] from different scientists uh different
[1:17:08] people who were paid to understand how
[1:17:12] essentially our brain works and also how
[1:17:15] our chillesas work, our defilements
[1:17:17] work. And unfortunately, the more we're
[1:17:20] addicted to potato chips, the more they
[1:17:23] make money because actually it requires
[1:17:25] even less potatoes
[1:17:27] and like it's cheaper to sell
[1:17:30] um for them, you know, they make more
[1:17:32] money out of a bag of potato chips than
[1:17:34] out of a bag of potatoes. So that's uh I
[1:17:38] would say the unfortunate thing. And um
[1:17:42] the other thing I would say is um that
[1:17:45] we have to pay attention um with this
[1:17:49] focusing only on animal food versus not
[1:17:52] animal food in this day and age is very
[1:17:55] dangerous
[1:17:57] because the industry has understood that
[1:18:01] that is the way to essentially
[1:18:03] disconnect people even more.
[1:18:11] from
[1:18:14] where comes from. Um that's all of that
[1:18:19] food. It's
[1:18:22] we open a can of worms. Um that is what
[1:18:24] I actually analyzed
[1:18:27] a little bit
[1:18:32] with the friends uh from tricycle
[1:18:35] to kind of guilt trip us harmful for for
[1:18:38] everyone uh and in premise for the
[1:18:40] environment. So I would say that the
[1:18:43] work that we need to do is to get the as
[1:18:45] close as possible to the root source uh
[1:18:48] as close as possible to a farmer as
[1:18:51] close as possible to humans less AI in
[1:18:54] any any possible way and more human uh
[1:18:58] wisdom. We need HW human wisdom, no
[1:19:02] artificial intelligence um in any type
[1:19:05] of way. and
[1:19:08] and food once again. Um I would say
[1:19:13] let's study more Ayurveda. Let's study
[1:19:16] more traditional Chinese medicine. Let's
[1:19:18] actually hang out with the elders from
[1:19:20] the Srianka tradition. It's remarkable
[1:19:23] like you know whenever I'm with people
[1:19:25] who are elders of the Asian community
[1:19:31] is just an
[1:19:37] of what
[1:19:43] the mind of spiritual practice without
[1:19:47] having to give a damat having to be a
[1:19:49] dietician without having to be an
[1:19:52] expert. It's something that the culture
[1:19:55] has absorbed and is um passed down in a
[1:19:58] very very simple easy way. And when we
[1:20:00] get also in tune with that with that
[1:20:02] food
[1:20:04] also yeah like all of these addictions
[1:20:07] stop obsessing the mind and then we can
[1:20:10] really also understand better do I
[1:20:12] actually need meat or do I not need meat
[1:20:15] and we can go back to that that sort of
[1:20:17] um sort of question there and the answer
[1:20:20] for meat will be I would say most of the
[1:20:22] time we don't need it we really don't
[1:20:24] need it we don't need that much meat to
[1:20:27] survive unless we are in a really Yeah,
[1:20:30] in a place in which there's nothing else
[1:20:32] but but animal products. But there might
[1:20:34] be some times that we want we might need
[1:20:36] it. It really is subjective to each
[1:20:39] person and we need to train ourselves to
[1:20:41] get to that point in which we understand
[1:20:45] um what is supported.
[1:20:49] Okay. And Georgia says it's interesting
[1:20:51] times because all around I also see so
[1:20:53] much suffering from people restricting
[1:20:55] food and feeling that they need to eat
[1:20:56] less, be thinner, etc. and therefore not
[1:20:58] eating enough. How can we start to
[1:21:01] understand what a generally healthy
[1:21:02] relationship to food is rather than
[1:21:04] overrestricting or overeating for our
[1:21:06] own bodies? Yeah, thank you Georgia.
[1:21:09] Yes, as I was saying once again getting
[1:21:11] to the reflection of the Buddha. Why do
[1:21:14] we eat? Not for fun, not for pleasure,
[1:21:16] not for adorment, not for beauty, but
[1:21:17] only for the sustenance of this body and
[1:21:19] to support our spiritual practice. So
[1:21:22] that contemplation as monastics, we do
[1:21:24] it all every day. every every day
[1:21:28] constantly training the mind to um to go
[1:21:32] in accordance with dharma. It is true.
[1:21:34] Yes. Today the
[1:21:37] it's a it's this uh we must have done
[1:21:40] some really bad um karma. I know that
[1:21:43] invad Buddhism we don't have collective
[1:21:45] karma but here it seems a little bit of
[1:21:48] this bad collective karma that we all
[1:21:50] did in the past that we have this
[1:21:52] extreme capitalism that we're living in.
[1:21:55] And so everything is sold.
[1:21:57] Unfortunately, the more we have
[1:21:59] suffering
[1:22:01] in the world, the more people will pay
[1:22:05] will be willing to pay so much money to
[1:22:08] get out of that suffering. And so then
[1:22:11] there's,
[1:22:12] you know, that really works well for the
[1:22:14] GPD or GB G I don't know these acronyms,
[1:22:18] but yeah, whatever economical of the
[1:22:21] thing of the country, right? If we are
[1:22:24] Oh, okay. I really need all those um
[1:22:27] medicines in order to lose weight or to
[1:22:30] gain weight or to look in that
[1:22:32] particular way or this new diet has come
[1:22:35] out or this other diet has come out or
[1:22:37] this other diet. That's why we should
[1:22:39] just
[1:22:41] forget about fashion, forget about all
[1:22:43] the trends, forget about all the
[1:22:44] nonsense and really go to the tradition.
[1:22:48] Just like you know Buddhism is why is
[1:22:50] Buddhism effective? because we've had
[1:22:53] two for 2500 years people who have
[1:22:56] tested this
[1:22:58] like it has a 2,500 years old um
[1:23:02] five-star review.
[1:23:05] So I would say that instead of whatever
[1:23:08] type of random diet that someone usually
[1:23:11] in the United States comes from with and
[1:23:14] then says TM trademarked we put that in
[1:23:18] the bin and instead we go once again
[1:23:20] aurora traditional Chinese medicine
[1:23:24] there also used to be
[1:23:26] um spageric medicine in the
[1:23:29] Mediterranean it was erased now we we
[1:23:32] have only bits and pieces we don't know
[1:23:34] too much. Why has it been erased? Once
[1:23:37] again, because if we don't know any of
[1:23:40] that, we don't know how to eat, we don't
[1:23:41] know how to cure ourselves with herbs,
[1:23:45] and then we are very good consumers.
[1:23:49] I had moved to the United States in
[1:23:51] 2008. I still remember when I had moved
[1:23:53] from Italy. I remember my first thought
[1:23:55] was like, why these people are so crazy?
[1:23:57] They keep on calling themselves
[1:23:59] consumers. They keep on talking about
[1:24:02] consumers instead of citizens. I was
[1:24:04] like, I am not a consumer. Why are they
[1:24:07] calling me consumer?
[1:24:10] And now I got back to Italy, everybody's
[1:24:12] doing the same thing. Citizens don't
[1:24:14] exist anymore. Everybody's a consumer.
[1:24:17] On the paper is consumer on the, you
[1:24:20] know, whatever social media is consumer.
[1:24:22] The people that you talk about consumer,
[1:24:25] consumer, consumer, consumer. We think
[1:24:26] we're consumers. We are indoctrinated to
[1:24:29] be consumers and we are just consuming
[1:24:31] our life. So I would say that as
[1:24:34] Buddhists we should toss that consumer
[1:24:38] identity out of all the identities that
[1:24:41] are harmful. that must be the worst
[1:24:44] the worst identity and instead you know
[1:24:48] talk about ourselves as first and
[1:24:50] foremost spiritual practitioners as
[1:24:52] Buddhist as committed to the path and
[1:24:54] really see okay how should we navigate
[1:24:57] this world and yeah everything that
[1:25:02] is um in our lives should be should have
[1:25:05] a five-star review of a couple of
[1:25:07] hundred years old the minimum but I
[1:25:10] would go with a thousand
[1:25:12] No, we think we're so clever in the
[1:25:13] west. Parkinson disease, we call it
[1:25:15] Parkinson's disease. Actually, it's
[1:25:17] Kavata in Ayurveda. It was diagnosed
[1:25:20] about um thousand I think 500 years
[1:25:24] earlier. So,
[1:25:28] so it's a little bit you know kind of
[1:25:30] like the study of the mind that we think
[1:25:32] that in the west we are so advanced.
[1:25:34] Well, actually we're coming to the same
[1:25:36] conclusions of actually not even the
[1:25:38] same conclusions the we're still not at
[1:25:40] the conclusions of the Buddha.
[1:25:43] So we need to go back back be so
[1:25:47] backwards that then we're avenguard.
[1:25:54] Okay. So I think we're close to the end
[1:25:58] of our time together.
[1:26:06] I think Manori, you might have a few
[1:26:08] things to share.
[1:26:12] Um, yes, I um
[1:26:18] I'm just searching for my Oh,
[1:26:25] I was so involved in in in engrossed in
[1:26:29] your
[1:26:30] talk and I totally forgot about pulling
[1:26:33] out my Dana talk
[1:26:37] here and I am. Yeah. So thank you so
[1:26:40] much for that talk and um it is
[1:26:43] connecting the nature and the nature is
[1:26:45] a dharma and um and uh and how to look
[1:26:49] at um you know our feelings when we see
[1:26:52] the food especially at dinner is it's so
[1:26:55] important and thank you so much for
[1:26:57] giving us so much of so much of
[1:26:59] knowledge and so much of things to think
[1:27:02] and thank you all of you for being part
[1:27:04] of ana community as well and um coming
[1:27:09] today for the fragrance of dharma
[1:27:11] program. Um and as usual I like to say a
[1:27:15] few words about dhana generosity because
[1:27:19] giving develop the wholesome qualities
[1:27:21] that form the foundation of fadama
[1:27:23] practice and we at anuka
[1:27:27] uh provide several ways on this um
[1:27:31] dhana. Uh the normal the easiest thing
[1:27:35] is the financial there is um there is a
[1:27:38] link um in the website
[1:27:41] if you are able to do a donation or uh
[1:27:45] if you're financially able to do a
[1:27:46] standing order and then there's other
[1:27:49] ways as well.
[1:27:52] Um there is volunteering if you are able
[1:27:54] and if you have any particular skill you
[1:27:57] can contact team at uncomparro.org
[1:28:00] or and now you can see um some naru pala
[1:28:04] in the monastery. Um and uh we'll soon
[1:28:08] have when uh Ajan Chandanda as well
[1:28:11] coming in and so providing meals to the
[1:28:14] monastics um if the the dhana is a
[1:28:18] cooked cooked meal delivery if you can
[1:28:20] do you can do either in person or voc
[1:28:24] meal delivery in remote um there will be
[1:28:28] meal calendar um dana calendar uh in the
[1:28:33] website and um you can Always talk to
[1:28:37] team at anukcomparro.org
[1:28:40] um if there are any particular days that
[1:28:42] you can you want to give dhana and there
[1:28:46] will be sending you know for sending
[1:28:48] groceries and other household items as
[1:28:51] well. Um so supermarket deliveries those
[1:28:55] are the things that we need at this
[1:28:57] time. So please check out on those
[1:29:00] things in our website and um uh also um
[1:29:05] check with team at uncomparro.org.
[1:29:09] Um
[1:29:12] uh Elena do did I tell correctly? Okay
[1:29:16] fine. Thank you.
[1:29:19] Um so yeah because at this time it is a
[1:29:22] supermarket deliveries which we need as
[1:29:24] um uh the monastery starting to get
[1:29:27] filled again. And thank you so much for
[1:29:31] all of you and we'll see you again next
[1:29:34] Sunday uh when Ajan Chandanda will be
[1:29:37] back and um giving the talk on her
[1:29:41] experience on the vasa and thank you so
[1:29:44] it was such a wonderful talk.
[1:29:48] Thank you all. Many blessings.
