An Exercise on Mindfulness

Hi Friends,

I am happy to publish the second article under the Mindfulness Trilogy. This is an exercise which can be read, practiced by many to enhance mindfulness and self awareness ( read consciousness )

Read this exercise before your meal. Record it on your phone/recording device allowing thirty minutes. At the conclusion of the tape, you will have additional thirty or more minutes to complete your meal. So you need to chose a time, situation for this .

• Place the prepared food and all that is necessary for your meal in front of you. Remain quietly in your chair for five minutes. Allow your mind and body to become still, leave the matters of the day, and focus on the eating process. The meal is to be taken in silence over a period of thirty minutes with slow and deliberate movements.

• Become aware of how eating is the symbol of sacrifice. The sky sacrificed rain for the food to grow; the earth sacrificed its nutrients, the plant its fruit. The cook who had sacrificed her/his time and put in efforts to cook the food for you. In turn, we sacrifice as we serve life. Then think of the mantra in mind ( "Annadhaatha Sukhi Bava" ( This is a mantra we chant just before partaking any food-".... Vedas".)- Let the person who has cooked the food for me remain happy

• Begin by observing the food in front of you. Notice its shape, texture, colour and aroma. Notice how the utensils and foods play against each other. Notice the warmth or coolness of the food. Slowly choose how you will begin the meal, and then raise the utensil/spoon/fork/hand.

• Place the food in your mouth and notice its texture against your body, it's temperature, and its touch. Slowly chew your food, drawing your attention to all the sensations. Take as much time as possible to chew the food as you experience the mechanical aspects of digestion; the movement of the jaw, teeth, and tongue, the salivary juices, the slow breakdown of the food, and the change in texture and taste. When ready, swallow the food, observing its movements into your throat and stomach. Pause to allow the food to digest. (Pause five minutes)

• You are now ready for your next forkful/handful of food. As you chew this handful, become aware of the deeper essence of the food. It incorporates the elements of the earth, the nurturing of the farmer, and the preparation in your home/outside, all so you may live. It is life giving to life. (Pause five minutes)

• You are now ready for your third handful/forkful..

• Food is the life of all beings; and all food comes from the rain above. Sacrifice brings the rain from the clouds, and sacrifice is sacred action.

• “Sacred action…. Comes from the Eternal, and therefore is the Eternal ever present in a sacrifice” (The Bhagavad-Gita)

• Take your next handful of food. Become aware of how this food, product of the sky and the earth will become part of the chemicals and structural elements of your mind and body. This food represents your union with all that is, and all that will be. (Pause five minutes) Notice how filled you can become without a large quantity of food.

• Chew each and every piece of food until there is nothing left of it. In addition, all the time you are chewing you may give attention to the flavour of the food, to its consistency and temperature, to the pressures on your teeth and the feel of the muscles in your jaws.

• Return to the meal and continue as you have begun. Slowly, with reverence, complete your intake of the food (using a total of twenty to thirty minutes from the beginning of this exercise), at all times being mindful of the experience. When you have finished, remain in silence for an additional five minutes, aware at all times of the present moment.

• Plan to practice this exercise atleast twice a week if not every day and enjoy being in the present.

Have a great meal.