Nourishing the body and mind

Having the body, we have a must to meet the demands on food. That’s why when being young, we are nourished by mother’s pure milk; when we grow up, our mother chooses fresh food to prevent toxin from damaging our health.

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According to conception of Buddhism, human beings born in\r\nthis world are constituted by two parts: renown and form. Renown means feeling,\r\nperception, volition, and consciousness; Form means the body.  Feeling,\r\nperception, volition, and consciousness belong to the mental world; Form\r\nbelongs to physical world. In other words, that’s the body and mind.Having the\r\nbody, it is a must to have demands on food, that’s why when being young, we are\r\nnourished by mother’s pure milk; when we grow up, our mother chooses fresh food\r\nto prevent toxin from damaging our health. About the mind, the mother uses good\r\nwords to teach her children, send them to school to broaden their knowledge.\r\nWhen being adult, every body has to take care of themselves since health is as\r\ngold, having health means having everything. If having “a mountain of money”\r\nbut suffering interminable illness, we can not feel peaceful or happy. It is\r\nthe same to the mind, we have to nourish, look after it to make it increasingly\r\nholier and nobler.

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1.  Nourish the body
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1.1  Eating

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When eating, be aware that eating is to nourish the body and\r\nwhether the food taken in your body is nutritious or not. For example, we\r\nshould not eat the food getting stale, spoiled, and toxic or containing much\r\nsaccharin. From the old time, it is said that “Food imported from mouth causes\r\ndisease.” All illness is by eating. Therefore, just eat sufficiently, regulate\r\neating enough food; eating too much also causes illness, lack of food also\r\nmakes the body weak. In the Samyutta Nikaya, there is a story: Once, the\r\nKing Pasedani Kosala in the heavy body visited the Buddha and said: “World\r\nHonoured One! My body is getting obese. I do not know what I should do.” The\r\nBuddha read a verse, then the King asked his servants to learn by heart and\r\nread it out in every meal time of his so that he had right mindfulness about\r\neating. As a result, the King ate in moderation and his body was slim again.

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Right mindfulness while eating is careful chewing, not\r\neating at improper time and considering the food’s origin. For example, when we\r\neat a piece of meat, we just know that it’s delicious but we do not know that\r\njust for that meat, many sentient beings were in pain, hatred. If taking other\r\nsentient beings’ lives to nourish our life, where is the heart of compassion\r\nand kindness? The Buddha taught that you will reap what you will sow.\r\nKilling other sentient beings for getting their meat; it is a certainty that we\r\nwill get the same result in the future. Moreover, in this cycle of life and death,\r\nwe are not born once but revolving for many lives in the six-path cycle.\r\nEating meat of animals means we accidentially eat meats of our grandparents,\r\nancestors, parents of the previous life. That is also a cause leading to\r\nuniversal suffering from misery in six paths.  

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For those who watched the 8th Wonderful Dharma Program,\r\nthey all know that General Director of Hoa Sen Group keeps a permanent\r\nvegetarian diet but he is still healthy and successful. Indian eats cooked rice\r\nwith soup made from string bean and salt, and Chapati made from soft dough\r\nflattened, grilled and then dip it with the soup. Tibetan people also have the\r\nsame way of eating. In Japan, Mr. Oshawa discovered a method called\r\nmacrobiotics by eating brown rice and sesame. All of them live healthily,\r\nenduringly and seldom get illness. This proves that eating simply is not the\r\ncause leading to illness or unhealthy situation. As a matter of fact, some\r\npeople eat all kinds of delicacy cooked in all methods, but they still get\r\nillness. Therefore, we need to consider our eating. If we know how to eat\r\nproperly, eating vegetarian food still makes us healthy and decreases the risk\r\nof getting illness. For Buddhists, the Buhhda taught to eat breakfast and\r\nlunch, not to eat dinner. Eating dinner too full can easily get sleepy and much\r\nlust. Therefore, just take a light meal in the evening.  

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1.2 Drinking

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Depending on activities, weather, or demands of the body to\r\nhave a suitable intake. When drinking, choose kinds of drink that is good for\r\nour health, prevent drink bad for our health. According to researchers, soft\r\ndrinks contain carbon dioxide; therefore, when drinking, it goes to our blood,\r\ncausing aches in gut and stomach. In an experiment, people put a piece of bone\r\ninto soft drink, ten days later, and the bone gets decayed and melted up.

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Wine is a kind of drink damaging not only in current\r\ngeneration but also next generarions. In Buddhism, drinking wine is a\r\nprohibition. Its rules state that the drunk will be: 1. Mind gets scattered,\r\nproperty gets lost; 2. Body often get illnesses; 3. Killing mind grows; 4.\r\nHatred mind crambles, causing fighting easily; 5. Intelligence weaks gradually;\r\n6. Blessing gets attrition; 7. Career is uncessufully; 8. Misery gets greater;\r\n9. Causing miseries to parents, wife and children; 10. Corrupted body, ending\r\nlife, being fallen into the hell, suffering miseries, sorrows for enternally.\r\nTherefore, drinking is very dangerous, not only causing delusion but also\r\naffect next generations.

1.3 Breathing

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The Buddha taught that life is just in the breath. Every\r\nday, we breathe smoke from factories, plants, dust and vehicle, etc. Therofore,\r\nit takes time to purify the body by practicing breath every day. Sit and inhale\r\nuntil our belly is full and can not inhale any more, then breathe out. Inhaling\r\nmakes belly bulged, breathing out makes belly sunken. Every day, we should\r\npractice this way of breathing to help the blood circulate, increase the\r\nresistance, preserve the youth. This method is especially useful for office\r\npeople, helping eliminate stress, rekindle the mind. Therefore, instead of\r\nchatting, we should spend time on deeply breathing along with Buddha\r\nrecitation. Breathing and reading Buhhda recitation at the same time can\r\nbenefit body and mind. This is also cultivation.\r\n         

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1.4 Activity

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Thanks to activities, our blood can circulate and decrease\r\nillnesses. A vehicle which does not run for many years also will become rusty.\r\nIt’s the same to our body, no activities also causes illnesses. Those who work\r\nless should try to do exercise, Buddhists should practice meditative walking.\r\nDharma which is especially good for body and mind is the initiation of praying\r\nto Buddha. Praying to Buddha is a way of activities to make the blood circulate\r\nand a way of cultivation as well. Every morning, kowtow 100 times. There is one\r\nimportant that should not be missed. In human’s body, there are three important\r\nelements: body, mind, spirit. Body means human beings’ bone marrow formed from\r\nnutrition of food; full body leads to strong mind, full mind will make the\r\nspirit sound. Therefore, those who are escessively dissolute, lecherous will\r\nloss strength, the body get thin. So, if we know how to moderate, live\r\nscientifically, we will be healthy and have a long life.

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1.5 Sleeping

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The body having activities must rest. Therefore, sleep is\r\nespecially important to our body. Depending on time for activities of each\r\nperson, method for scheduling should be performed suitably. Do not sleep too\r\nmuch since it can cause the spirit tired, the mind dazed, the body lazy, etc.

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 In conclusion, nourishing the body needs eating,\r\ndrinking, breathing, activities and sleeping in the right mindfulness.\r\nPractising this in life, we will have a healthy and joyful life. 

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2. Nourish the mind

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Mind also has the need of “eating”. Everyday, if we nourish\r\nthe mind by malignity, it will become malignant. Watching many movies,\r\nnewspapers in erotica, killing, etc will absolutely have bad effects on\r\npersonal characters of each person. Therefore, Buddhists have to nourish the\r\nmind by good Dharmas, which leads our soul to the truth, the good and the\r\nbeauty. The sutra writes: “Penetrating all the sutras will raise wisdom as\r\nprofound as the oceans.” Therefore, every day, we should frequently read sutra,\r\nlisten to Dharma. When we plant a tree and want it to be verdant, we have to\r\ncultivate it. It is the same to human beings’ mind. If we are diligent in\r\nreciting the Buddha sutra, listening in Dharma and correct the faults of\r\nourselves, our mind will be always in peace.   

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2.1 Nourishing the mind of kindness

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Mind of kindness is the compassion, wishing that all people\r\ncan know about method to attain virvana, avoid devil things, direct to good\r\nthings. Those who have the mind of kindness look like a mother loving and\r\nprotecting her children in spite of the fact that the children are handicapped,\r\ndepraved or disobedient. That is an unconditional and unlimited love. If we can\r\nmake our mind be like that, our mind of hatred, sulk will increasingly get\r\nsmaller and the love in us will increasingly get bigger.

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2.2 Nourishing the mind of pity

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Mercy is the pity when seeing sentient beings suffering from\r\nbeing overwhelmed in misfortune in birth-death, accidents, fighting, miseries\r\nin the hell, hungry ghosts. We should raise our compassion, wishing that they\r\nwill be free of misery, considering all sentient beings our relatives. When\r\nthey are in misery, we are also in the misery. The bigger our mind of mercy is,\r\nthe smaller our mind of devil, cruelty will be.

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2.3 Nourishing the mind of joy

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Joy means being cheerful not because of concupiscence,\r\ndissipation or satisfying trivial lust but cheerful because of seeing people be\r\nsuccessful, wealthy and cultivate virtue and morals. Nourishing the mind of joy\r\nis competing against the mind of envy in us and improving ourselves to be\r\nnobler.  

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2.4 Nourishing the mind of detachment

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The mind of detachment means no attachments, unchanged mind\r\nin spite of criticism. If there is the mind of attachment, worry will follow\r\nit. When a birth flew over a river, its shadow under the river’s surface will\r\nnot appear any more. Living like that makes the mind peaceful and content. We\r\nshould accept things happening to us, not to have a grudge against things\r\nleving us to avoid having a broken heart. Buddha taught: “You shouldnt chase\r\nafter the past or place expectations on the future.” Living in that spirit\r\nis also synonymnous to nourishing the mind of detachment in us.

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2.5 Nourishing the mind of modesty

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Modesty means always respecting and showing attitites of\r\ngenle, courteous, careful to other people. A person with presumptuous mind make\r\nother people be hard to love and keep close. If we know how to be modest,\r\nregconize that we still have weaknesses and shortcoming, we can study more. In\r\nTheravada countries, all kings kowtow before the Buddha. That is the modesty\r\nthat eradicate arrogant mind. 

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2.6 Nourish the mind of respectfulness

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When being enlightened, the Buddha said: “I have already\r\nbecome the Buddha; you all (all sentient beings) would become the Buddha\r\ntoo.”Therefore, in spite of being luxurious or humble, beautiful or ugly,\r\nintelligent or stupid, handicapped or unbroken, all people have Buddha nature.\r\nTherefore, when we respect every body, seeing that every body is a Buddha, our\r\nmind of honour will increase.

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2.7 Nourish the mind of Anatman (no ego), selflessness

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Nonego means self-denial, selflessness means for other\r\npeople. Purpose of Buddhists is praying first to become a Buddha and later\r\nhelping sentient beings. Today we can know about Buddha-Dharma and cultivation,\r\nwe should have the mind to bring and popularize these things to many people,\r\nmaking every body know about Buddha-Dharma and cultivation like us. In accordance\r\nto cause-effect law, if we sow good cause, we will get good effect. If we live\r\nselflessly, we will be loved and respected by many people.
\r\n2.8 Frequent cultivate and study Buddha-Dharma

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Buddhists should pay attention to two issues: reciting the\r\nBuddha sutra and listening to Dharma, meditation and praying to the Buddha.\r\nReciting the Buddha sutra and listening to Dharma help us widen our knowledge\r\nbecause right understanding will lead to useful practice. Therefore, the\r\nancestors said: “Meditation for food, and be full with the joy of\r\nthe dharma” (Taking the joy of meditation as a food, take the joy of\r\nDharma to nourish our mind). Studying Dharma also looks like a person going in\r\nthe mist also getting wet. Nourishing good mind makes words, actions become pleasant,\r\nmakes this life peaceful and happy, next life will be born in good realm. On\r\nthe contrary, those who nourish devil mind, cruel words, and bad actions will\r\nmake all people want to keep away for them, this life will be in misery, and\r\nnext life will be in devil realm.  

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In conclusion, Buddhists have to be conscious of nourishing\r\nthe body and mind. Although the body is temporary, it is a boat taking us\r\nacross miseries of birth-death. If we do not take care of our health,\r\ncontinuous illness, there is o time left for cultivation. About the mind, we\r\nshould frequently recite the Buddha sutra, pray to the Buddha, listen to Dharma\r\nspeech and practice nourishing the mind of kindness – pity – joy – detachment\r\n– modesty – respectfulness – no ego - ,selflessness. If we can do that, in\r\nthis life, the body and mind will be in peace and happiness and direct to be\r\nescaped form birth-death samsara.

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Translated into English by Huynh Thi Thảo

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