So it’s Friday today and of course one needs to find food to eat. How to do that properly? If one considers carefully, food should be consumed and understood via only honest, articulate and ethical methods.
Beginning the day with a wisdom state of mind, a bodhicitta motivation, one should aspire to and engage as follows. May I attain the state of Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. I’ll get to why compassion is the means to that end later.
Firstly, the ABC of Buddhist thought and action is how to perform and artistically engage in mindfulness, alertness and introspection for the purposes of creating actions of body, speech and mind that are beneficial and useful to oneself and others. Don’t just mindlessly roll out of bed in a bad mood, selfishly thinking life is just a basketcase and all too hard. Life maybe not much if you don’t understand Buddhist logic, but these days we have little excuse because the Tibetan Buddhist Dharma is being spread throughout the world.
OK, so I am a valid teacher, but how to prove that? Well use your common sense and look at my long list of qualifications.
The day usually starts off with and continues with action right? Action must be designed carefully, with a positive understanding of the nature of reality, the empty nature of reality. Really how lucky are we to be able to acquire and happily drink an organic Ceylon Tea, with full cream organic milk? No, further back. I started the day with a nescafe coffee, with raw sugar and beautiful runny cream, in a lovely handcrafted cup. These essentials for the body and mind are indicative of the great kindness of others, of skill and method and wisdom. So it’s very important to always live with an attitude that is gracious and appreciative of how difficult it is to gain or organize these things. Really, Ceylon isn’t next door.
I’m not saying you need to consume a great deal to be happy, to find happiness, but you do need to act with care, with a caring mind, with a mind intent on the benefit of oneself and others. Firstly, aim not to harm oneself and others, and then if you can with great wisdom create actions that benefit the community as a whole.
Life at the Foodcourt.
Not much these days is said about the nice Indian food retailer at Chadstone Shopping Centre. I arrived at the foodcourt a little after 12pm and most of the tables were already occupied. I ordered two curries, a lamb korma and a beef curry to go with dhal and rice and a bottle of water. It’s good value and the meat is not really tough.
What stinks is the form of humans that surrounds the place. Really the human form is regarded to be filthy. You are supposed to overcome it’s dysfunction by aspiring to and engaging in the deeds of bodhisattvas to create the causes to achieve the profundity of the fully enlightened body, speech and mind of a Buddha.
I like to try to eat in quiet, just mindfully taking one bite of food at a time and trying to chew it carefully so as not to cause digestive problems. Anyway, without taking with you in your mind everywhere you go the attitudes of mindfulness, alertness and introspection, conscientiously applying these to your deeds, you simply won’t have a very good time.
Instead of walking with aggression, impatiently pushing past others or into others with anger and hostility, try taking life at a slower, more meaningful pace. Don’t be a jerk, thinking you are more important than others, because the simple answer to that is that we are all in need of being relevant, by being positive and caring of the beings within our environment, with whom we share this realm.
Copyright © Vanessa Anne Pollock 2016
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