Now, anyone who knows the bio notes of the Buddha knows that Buddha died from eating spoiled food that someone had given him. It was not an intentional poisoning. A person offering what they had, to the Buddha, inadvertently filled the bowl with bad grub. The Buddha, being "the Buddha", realized what had been put in front of him. However, not wanting to embarrass nor hurt the feelings of the person, accepted the offering and ate it.
He ate it and died. Kaput.
Of course, he knew what would happen--he was "the Buddha".
However, being "the Buddha", he trusted impermanence. He also lived the truth of "no harm to sentient beings"--extending this to hurting the feelings of an aspirant who had offered the meal. Basically, Buddha knew it was time to leave this dramarama. So, surrounded by his followers, he laid down and died.
No one held a grudge about the bad offering. (At least no one writes about this in any text I've read nor speaks about it in any talk I've attended.) No one was lynched for offing the Buddha. His followers were very heart-broken, but they did not seek retribution. They didn't run amok in the village, overturning ox-carts nor burning structures. They didn't shoot arrows at passers-by and they didn't rape nor pillage. They mourned. They followed the set funerary practices. And then,they took the teachings to the ends of the earth and continued their own study; their own practice.
So, it makes sense that one of the meditation slogans that Pema Chodron suggests is: "abandon poisonous food". Hah! However, I think she was pointing to deeper meaning for all of us living in these times. "Poisonous food" can also be "food for thought". It can be how we fill our brain when we don't want to deal with pain. (Or guilt. Or self-criticism. Or depression.) "Poisonous food" can also be how we spread gossip about others to "feed" our own starving lack of self-worth--breaking down their reputations to feel more "equal" in our own wounded hearts.
"Poisonous food" is anything we put inside ourselves in an unhealthy degree. It can (obviously) be alcohol or drugs in excess. It can be Twinkies and hotdogs. It can be smoothies or enemas or wheatgrass juice with a shot of vitamin E. Anything which is an attempt to blunt our emotions or keep us momentarily "numb". I don't even mean numb to pain--I mean, numb to what is really going on inside our heads. Our hearts. Anything that distracts us from just being in the authentic moment.
Sort of like, if you are doing some radical new diet to prolong "youth" and so wrapped up in the details and regimen of the diet that you become obnoxious to everyone around you--hog the kitchen and the bathroom--can't hear anyone who is speaking about anything beyond this quest and won't listen to anyone except if they speak to you about this lifestyle--you aren't truly experiencing "authentic life". You aren't prolonging anything but fantasy. You are buying into the fear of impermanence; the terror of the natural way of the world.
So, what begins as a step towards good health, becomes a momentary obsession. It becomes a distraction. It becomes its own poisonous craving. It doesn't help you understand (examine) the underlying fear of death we all hold. It doesn't help you honestly understand (and accept) your own aging self. It makes you crazed. It ends up reinforcing your own feelings of failure. Inadequacy reigns in your heart--just because of "food".
Does it mean you give up and simply pig out? Don't care? No, that's repressing issues. You have to be gentle with yourself. You have to just sit still for a moment. Breathe in and breathe out. FEEL the emotions that are propelling you towards the poison. Don't ignore those feelings--but also--don't act them out. Choose the middle path. Examine, process, note that they are there. Watch them. Let them go. On the out-breaths. Move on to the next authentic moment. Do the same. Then, the poison food is not ingested. You ARE healthier. You are wiser.
Again, this sounds so simple. Yet, it felled the Buddha. (For different reasons, perhaps. But it was lethal, nonetheless.) Avoid anything which impacts negatively on your already-perfect selfhood. Anything which pulls your attention away from the moment of feeling that could be the doorway to Enlightenment.
How can we recognize which moment that might be? Well, that's another conundrum...safe to guess that ANY MOMENT can be that moment, if we remain open to it. Really examining, feeling, considering, allowing everything into our heart in that second. Easily summed up, but terrifically difficult to achieve. Thus the continuing practice of practice.
Namaste, my friends. Don't eat no poison tonight!
He ate it and died. Kaput.
Of course, he knew what would happen--he was "the Buddha".
However, being "the Buddha", he trusted impermanence. He also lived the truth of "no harm to sentient beings"--extending this to hurting the feelings of an aspirant who had offered the meal. Basically, Buddha knew it was time to leave this dramarama. So, surrounded by his followers, he laid down and died.
No one held a grudge about the bad offering. (At least no one writes about this in any text I've read nor speaks about it in any talk I've attended.) No one was lynched for offing the Buddha. His followers were very heart-broken, but they did not seek retribution. They didn't run amok in the village, overturning ox-carts nor burning structures. They didn't shoot arrows at passers-by and they didn't rape nor pillage. They mourned. They followed the set funerary practices. And then,they took the teachings to the ends of the earth and continued their own study; their own practice.
So, it makes sense that one of the meditation slogans that Pema Chodron suggests is: "abandon poisonous food". Hah! However, I think she was pointing to deeper meaning for all of us living in these times. "Poisonous food" can also be "food for thought". It can be how we fill our brain when we don't want to deal with pain. (Or guilt. Or self-criticism. Or depression.) "Poisonous food" can also be how we spread gossip about others to "feed" our own starving lack of self-worth--breaking down their reputations to feel more "equal" in our own wounded hearts.
"Poisonous food" is anything we put inside ourselves in an unhealthy degree. It can (obviously) be alcohol or drugs in excess. It can be Twinkies and hotdogs. It can be smoothies or enemas or wheatgrass juice with a shot of vitamin E. Anything which is an attempt to blunt our emotions or keep us momentarily "numb". I don't even mean numb to pain--I mean, numb to what is really going on inside our heads. Our hearts. Anything that distracts us from just being in the authentic moment.
Sort of like, if you are doing some radical new diet to prolong "youth" and so wrapped up in the details and regimen of the diet that you become obnoxious to everyone around you--hog the kitchen and the bathroom--can't hear anyone who is speaking about anything beyond this quest and won't listen to anyone except if they speak to you about this lifestyle--you aren't truly experiencing "authentic life". You aren't prolonging anything but fantasy. You are buying into the fear of impermanence; the terror of the natural way of the world.
So, what begins as a step towards good health, becomes a momentary obsession. It becomes a distraction. It becomes its own poisonous craving. It doesn't help you understand (examine) the underlying fear of death we all hold. It doesn't help you honestly understand (and accept) your own aging self. It makes you crazed. It ends up reinforcing your own feelings of failure. Inadequacy reigns in your heart--just because of "food".
Does it mean you give up and simply pig out? Don't care? No, that's repressing issues. You have to be gentle with yourself. You have to just sit still for a moment. Breathe in and breathe out. FEEL the emotions that are propelling you towards the poison. Don't ignore those feelings--but also--don't act them out. Choose the middle path. Examine, process, note that they are there. Watch them. Let them go. On the out-breaths. Move on to the next authentic moment. Do the same. Then, the poison food is not ingested. You ARE healthier. You are wiser.
Again, this sounds so simple. Yet, it felled the Buddha. (For different reasons, perhaps. But it was lethal, nonetheless.) Avoid anything which impacts negatively on your already-perfect selfhood. Anything which pulls your attention away from the moment of feeling that could be the doorway to Enlightenment.
How can we recognize which moment that might be? Well, that's another conundrum...safe to guess that ANY MOMENT can be that moment, if we remain open to it. Really examining, feeling, considering, allowing everything into our heart in that second. Easily summed up, but terrifically difficult to achieve. Thus the continuing practice of practice.
Namaste, my friends. Don't eat no poison tonight!
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