Mindful Eating - Thich Nhat Hanh

When you come to the dining hall, after you get your food and sit at a table, and when
your table has enough people, you can begin the practice

We sit beautifully. We are aware of the people that are a part of our sangha sitting around
us. We are aware of the food on our plates. This is a deep practice. Each morsel of food is
an ambassador from the cosmos. When we pick up a piece of a vegetable, we look at it for
half a second. We look mindfully or recognise the piece of food, the piece of carrot or a
string bean.

We identify it with our mindfulness: "I know this is a piece of carrot. This is a piece of
string bean". It only takes a fraction of a second. When we are mindful, we recognise what
we are picking up. When we put it into our mouth, we know what we are putting into our
mouth. When we chew it, we know what we are chewing. It's simple.

Some of us, while looking at a piece of carrot, can see the whole cosmos in it, can see the
sunshine in it, can see the earth in it. It has come from the whole cosmos for our
nourishment. You may like to smile to it before you put it in your mouth. When you chew
it, you are aware that you are chewing a piece of carrot. Don't put anything else into your
mouth, like your projects, your worries, your fear, just put the carrot in. And when you
chew, chew only the carrot, not your projects or your ideas. You are capable of living in
the present moment, in the here and the now. It is simple, but you need some training to
just enjoy the piece of carrot. This is a miracle.

I often teach `orange meditation' to my students. We spend time sitting together, each
enjoying an orange. Placing the orange on the palm of our hand, we look at it while
breathing in and out, so that the orange becomes a reality. If we are not here, totally
present, the orange isn't here either. There are some people who eat an orange but don't
really eat it. They eat their sorrow, fear, anger, past and future. They're not really present,
with body and mind united.

Visualise the orange as a blossom, the sunshine and rain passing through it, then the tiny
green fruit growing, turning yellow, becoming orange, the acid becoming sugar. The
orange tree took time to create this masterpiece. When you are truly here, contemplating
the orange, breathing and smiling, the orange becomes a miracle. It is enough to bring
you a lot of happiness. You peel the orange, smell it, take a section, and put it in your
mouth mindfully, fully aware of the juice on your tongue. This is eating an orange in
mindfulness. It makes the miracle of life possible. It makes joy possible.

The other miracle is the sangha , the community in which everyone is practising in the
same way. The woman sitting next to me is also practising mindfulness while eating her
breakfast. How wonderful! She is touching the food with mindfulness. She is enjoying
every morsel of her breakfast, like me. We are brother and sister on the path of practice.
From time to time we look at each other and smile. It is the smile of awareness. It proves
that we are happy, that we are alive. It is a smile of enlightenment, of happiness. That
smile has the power to heal.

If we talk about the weather or the political situation in the Middle East, we can never say
enough. We need the silence to enjoy our own presence and the presence of our dharma
brothers and sisters. This kind of silence is very alive, powerful, nourishing and
transforming. It is not oppressive or sad. Together we can create this kind of noble
silence. Sometimes it is described as `thundering silence' because it is so powerful.

Thich Nhat Hanh