The concept of Zen food first appeared in the Zen notes of the wise master in Sui Dynasty, The View of Filial Piety and Knowledge. The book puts forward that Zen food can be divided into four types: temporary food, touching food, intentional food and cognitive food. We need these four kinds of food to sustain life.
The index finger refers to all kinds of food we eat on the material level. Touching food is related to five senses. It will affect the physical and mental reactions, including the feelings of eyes, ears, mouth, nose and body. Try to keep the five in a comfortable and peaceful state. For example, eyes should look more at the green nature and put themselves in a comfortable state of mind. Intentional food refers to the mind and will. Only when we are always in mindfulness and guided by correct views can we be free from the interference of external environment, the influence of physiological reaction and indulge in pleasure or negative emotions. Knowing the index finger is to turn the persistence in life into a will. No longer cling to the length of life, but hope that the function of life will play better. With bodhi wish and bodhi mind, wisdom should be the center of practice when practicing bodhisattva. (The above content is quoted from Shi's book "Meditation, Four Most Correct Foods for Body and Mind", published in the 45th1issue of Life published by Culture.)
I didn't realize that I didn't know how to eat well until I was in my forties. I have never been silent, listening to the slow and elegant Zen music, and paying all my attention to eating. Take a bite of food into your mouth. Chew each bite 30 times and swallow it slowly. When all this slowed down, beauty began to appear. Only then did I find that bread, a simple food, can be so delicious and sweet. All the vegetables you eat can taste the sunshine. Every bite you take is a nourishment for yourself. Feel how these foods germinate, grow, die out and keep growing from seeds under the care of farmers. Then harvest, package, and come to every corner of the world by land, sea and air. I am deeply grateful for everything. Thanks to the earth and all the hard-working people, I can put these foods into my mouth, then enter my body and inject energy into me. I am grateful that these animals and plants gave up their lives and became a part of my body.
Because you eat slowly, it will be easier to know whether you are full or not. Only then did I find that it was actually easy for me to eat more, because my attention was not on eating, and I would unconsciously watch my mobile phone and chat with people, extend the time for eating, and then eat more. You will also feel that you often ignore your physical feelings. Because of work, I miss eating, and then I will gorge myself at the first opportunity, leading to overeating. The world is getting faster and faster, and everything we do is fast and efficient. The same is true for eating. So I do other things at the same time while eating. But eating itself is ignored.
I quite agree with Master Hui Min's suggestion of feeling hungry. Because when you have less energy, you will be more aware of not wasting your energy on unimportant and meaningless things (quoted from Life, No.329, Page 6, Diet of Zen).
The wonderful experience of Zen food made me extend the whole process to buy food and cook. Thinking about the wonderful and pleasant feeling when eating, the same is true for buying food and cooking. No more headphones when listening to the show and cooking. Instead, beauty and joy are integrated into washing vegetables, cutting vegetables and cooking. Later, I found that the way people eat my cooking has also changed. Last Sunday, I invited Laobai's sister's family. Everyone swept away the food on the table. At the last moment of leaving the table, Callum, the nephew of the white old man, and Ollie, the boyfriend of his niece, secretly put the last two jiaozi in their mouths. When we broke up, everyone said the most to me, that is, thank you for my delicious food. It is delicious. As Lin Xiaoyun, the author of Four Seasons Zen Food, said, "Intention is the best seasoning for Zen food". Everyone can eat their favorite food.
Inadvertently, I found myself beginning to pay attention to the amount of food per meal. I don't want to waste any food, because I am grateful. I began to observe my once unconscious. I never look at what's in the refrigerator before I buy food, so I can't eat the heavy ones and finally I have to throw them away. Cooking never considers the menu and the amount of each dish as a whole. Many times, because there are too many dishes to cook, everyone doesn't like leftovers, so they can't finish eating, which will cause great waste.
Although I can't make every meal a Zen food (talking with my family is inevitable), many Zen food experiences have begun to make me pay attention to my desires. You can't stop when you find your favorite food. Although I am full, I will want to eat more. When I am hungry, I always go into the kitchen and open the cupboard and refrigerator to find food. Plus, I miss my hometown very much, so I often flash my hometown food in my mind. Then there will be all kinds of reactions, buying ingredients, searching recipes and spending a lot of time cooking these foods. I always feel that I am still controlled by food. Remind yourself to take good care of yourself in diet. Not greedy for more, not greedy for taste. Eat western Zen. "(quoted from Lin Xiaoyun's" Good Relations with Zen Food "published in the 329th issue of Life) You should be mindful, always aware, not influenced by the surrounding environment, nor taken away by physiological needs and desires.
At the same time, Lin Xiaoyun said in his article that "eating with fate didn't persist" and every bite was happy. This kind of Zen food can nourish the body and is also an opportunity to cultivate the mind and realize the Tao. "Indeed, Zen food is so important in practice. Zen food can adjust the state of mind, preserve health and realize Tao. I began to think of craving for food (mindfulness) and knowing food (focusing on wisdom and exerting the greatest effect of life in the process of practicing Bodhisattva) mentioned at the beginning of the article. Many people are very concerned about health, and in order to make themselves immortal, they eat a lot of so-called supplements. And we should treat all foods with mindfulness and indifference (of course, this refers to natural and clean foods without too much chemical processing). Those "delicious" or "unpalatable", "rich in nutrition" and "poor in nutrition" are all accepted, not clinging to food, and turning the obsession with living a hundred years into a good wish to live this life. Life is fragile and short, full of impermanence. Don't waste precious time and energy on meaningless things.