The Fifth Mindfulness Training – Nourishment and Healing

Posted by discovering_dharma | Filed under Uncategorized

The Five Mindfulness Trainings are basically a guideline for cultivating the qualities of mindfulness, love and understanding in one’s daily life. They are a re-formulation or expansion of the Five Precepts of Buddhism by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. It is important to mention that they are not commandments or rules that, if broken, one is meant to feel guilty about or be punished for. They are a tool that can be applied to certain decisions and life choices we make, and are goals we aspire to, but never punish ourselves for, because of our lack of understanding or skillfulness in pursuing them. This is essential to remember, as with any practice I speak to in the my spiritual tradition, it is important to be gentle with oneself, and not to condemn or torture ourselves with guilt.

I had the extreme pleasure of formally taking the Five Mindfulness Trainings with Thay Thich Nhat Hanh in August, during a 6 day retreat. This means that I have made a public commitment in front of my peers to living my daily life in accord with these trainings, to the best of my ability. In doing so, I truly believe I can live a more fulfilling and happy existence. These trainings are an amazingly powerful guide, and if deeply explored and understood, can change one’s life profoundly for the better, in my opinion.

I would like to speak today about my experience with one of the Mindfulness Trainings, and I think I will start with the Fifth, as it is coming up for discussion in my local sangha this week. The following is the Fifth Mindfulness Training itself:

The Fifth Mindfulness Training – Nourishment and Healing

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will practice looking deeply into how I consume the Four Kinds of Nutriments, namely edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. I am determined not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations. I will practice coming back to the present moment to be in touch with the refreshing, healing and nourishing elements in me and around me, not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past nor letting anxieties, fear, or craving pull me out of the present moment. I am determined not to try to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering by losing myself in consumption. I will contemplate interbeing and consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth.

What this means for me:

This Mindfulness Training (MT) is HUGE for me. It contains so much, and I think it is a very rich source for inspiration in our society, which is dominated by the need for more, more, more, and the tendency to use consumption to cover up our own pain. We shop, watch TV, listen to certain types of music, engage in certain conversation, and eat certain foods in order to push our pain to the side and distract ourselves. We think that getting new clothes, a new DVD, a new car, a new haircut, will soothe our pain and lead us to happiness. These desires and cravings are really leading us away from the truth in ourselves – the truth that we are suffering and need to heal. We need to come back to ourselves and look very carefully at how we are ‘consuming’ in order to see how we can be more kind and loving towards ourselves and our own pain.

My tendencies in this regard are massive. After all, being raised in this society, it’s almost impossible to completely escape the effects of capitalist and consumer brainwashing. What’s been important first and foremost is for me to realize how exactly I am affected, and what habits this has led to. Let me share some of them with you:

When I’m lonely or bored, sick or in pain, I tend to cover these things up with television watching. Now, this has vastly improved from the days where I used to have the TV on as a constant companion in the background, but this tendency has NOT disappeared, by any means. It comes back at times when suffering is greater, and it will start subtly like “It’s okay to just watch this one documentary…” and then will spiral into watching episodes of addicting TV series on Netflix (which currently happens to be manifesting in a Quantum Leap addiction.)

I am more careful now to avoid TV programs and movies that water the seeds of violence, aggression, and fear in me, and have been pretty vigilant about not watching these types of programs. However, when boredom strikes, which has been huge lately because of my lack of physical ability to do a whole lot in the latter stages of this pregnancy, it comes back again, and I tend to justify it to myself by saying that the programs I’m watching aren’t really damaging me psychologically – but they certainly aren’t doing any positive seed watering, either. I’m not confronting this feeling of boredom – a feeling of not being satisfied with the present moment.

I also am a huge FOODIE. I love, love good food. And I can easily lose myself in it. I am definitely one of those “eat when I’m bored” folks – although I have vastly curbed this tendency as well, I still get probably a little too much pleasure out of “good” food (read: probably has a lot of calories and might make my tummy upset), and a little too much displeasure out of bland / “bad” food (read: probably is really good for me, but tastes yucky). I often struggle and suffer psychologically with “eating decisions”, like where to go out for dinner (“Should I go for Thai or for pasta? Will I regret going for pasta later?”), what to make and how much energy I want to expend surrounding dinner prep. I often will overeat food that is especially tasty – I’m full but I keep eating anyway. Nom nom. I definitely have a subtle food fetish. I haven’t quite figured out what this is about yet. Some oral fixation from childhood? Freud, I could use some insight.

Another toughie is “toxic conversation” – convo that is divisive, complaint-oriented, or sarcastic. Wow, that sucks me in. I have major tendencies toward ‘negative’ subject bases and complaints, especially when feeling socially anxious, as that’s my natural go-to. With family and those I’m very close to, it’s become easier to avoid these tendencies, however, as I feel more comfortable and thus allow myself to think more carefully before I speak, rather than just blathering anxiously.

What’s easy for me about this training: drugs and alcohol. I’d given those up a few years ago when first becoming Buddhist, as I know and now dislike how they dull my mind and distract me from the present. No problem here – I don’t like the out of control, yucky feelings that drugs and alcohol lead to. I like my mind to be sharp. Although it WAS very challenging to give up marijuana at first, despite how I was often having panic attacks after smoking it in my later stages of use. The ritual and social aspect of it had become quite addicting. And I DID roll the best joints. Pride, anyone? It helps to also have my partner abstaining, I’m sure.

Another “easy” for me is not shopping for pleasure – although I have developed the recent tendency to be a plant-aholic. If it were not for my cats I would likely have a jungle in my living room. When I do shop, I try to buy things that make the least impact on my environment, the health of my species, and on the social wellbeing of others. I have a natural drive to do so as I feel it’s my duty to help the Earth, as she has helped me to be here, alive.

An important point to note and close with in this training is the motivation to return to the present moment and look deeply at ourselves. I strive to do this as often as possible during my day. This is a constant goal, and is extremely helpful for my mind and my heart. When I am not being mindful and present, my mind suffers, and my health suffers. When I can stop and come back to my breath, I suffer less and notice dysfunction habits and tendencies before they grow too large and dominate my behavior.

Awareness and mindfulness is key – if you can begin to be aware of your habits in consuming, perhaps you will begin to understand yourself more, and look deeply at the reasons behind your behavior. If you can begin with awareness, change is possible, if you seek it. I challenge you to look into your habits of consumption, to look deeply at yourself so you can love and understand yourself better. Look into the ways you nourish yourself – you “are” what you “eat”, literally and figuratively – the kinds of sense nutriments we take in – food, drink, drugs, television, consumer goods, conversation – deeply affect how we are. Do you run away from yourself in the direction of consumption, or do you consume in order to nourish your body and mind so that you can live fully here and now? This is an important question I think we all need to ask ourselves.

After all, if we look deeply enough, if we are alive, we have all we need to be happy. Life itself is the ultimate gift. If we consume mindfully in order to preserve and enhance our experience of life, we will be much happier. If we consume to distract ourselves from our life, we may become very sad.

Breathe, you are alive! This is the ultimate blessing. Much love to you