Hi! I was querying about the buddhist diet and there beliefs towards a raw diet as well. I recently did a 8 day silent retreat at a buddhist temple and found juicing and eating raw very beneficial with regards to my mindful practice.

I did a similar silent retreat the year before and eat a vegetarian cooked food diet which seemed to numb and close my mind to the practice.

I have always wondered, why do buddhist not eat raw food as you can connect the mind to higher states more easily. I have met a couple of lama's who have been known to be enlightened but they still have coOked meat once in a while? It dosen't make any sense!

From experience and teachings i have found meditation very effective. It is not easy and requires a lot of time and commitment, this is what i think puts a lot of people off!

Instead of starting meditation with a mind that constantly does battle with its own thoughts; the mind that eats cooked food, why not encourage a healthy tranquill mind from the beginning and make the journey more enjoyable rather than a chore;a diet on raw food!

I remember my first 30 day raw experience 1 year ago i was into the second week and i was driving my van. There was a strange feeling of nothingness that i had never came across before. Normally i could only go into this state with meditation and with my eyes shut so to experience it outside was amazing. My mind became settled and there was no longer a constant turn over of thoughts and doubts, no matter how much my mind tried to go back to the constant turnover of negative thoughts and emotions they would fade away before i could allow them into my conciousness.

I have been meditating everyday for 4 years now and can only enter that state on a raw food diet. There is no battle of thought or trying to solve deep emotional issues it all becomes clear and negativity fades away. It is totally bizarre but feels so natural, like finally coming home.

has anybody else experienced this?

David

David,

Yes, I think a raw diet is definitely complementary to meditation. I meditate fairly regularly and I have found that since going raw I have the energy to sit in the early hours and the mental clarity to meditate more effectively. The strengths gained in meditation help with "cravings", a big theme in Buddhism.

yeah..it can be confusing

. very few people have the inner dicipline/desire/drive to bring attention to their dietary habits and their process of internal cleansing and healing in the way that many folks here are. Some folks don't experience the crisis that often brings folks to their health reversal through raw foods. Its something to congratulate oneself...not to condem or 'size up' others...this would be the Buddhist teaching..I would think.

. I do think raw eating/internal cleansing in some ways is a spiritual tool for accessing one's true being. perhaps some can 'skip' this process (although doubtful to skip premature deterioration of their organism) and cut right to the chase of reversing their mental/emotional maze.

. I know, for me it was quite a necessary step, both physically (in clearing of internal blockages and in revitalizing my breath/oxygen intake) , and also in manifesting a more healthful pattern of being a better parent to myself.


>> I have always wondered, why do buddhist not eat raw food as you can connect the mind to higher states more easily. I have met a couple of lama's who have been known to be enlightened but they still have coOked meat once in a while? It dosen't make any sense!

. more easily........I don't..understand...LOL


ice cream 'koan'

If you have ice cream I will give you some.
If you have no ice cream I will take it away from you.

also I wanted to say that I liked/related to your experience


. meditation prior to the ability to step away from the pain-body (at least for a bit) is just one big struggle/task to complete!

My meditation practice has evolved concurrently with my diet changes to raw, so I can't say from experience that being raw makes it easier to experience the "blank screen".

From a little I've read not all of the Indian spiritual masters were even vegan, much less raw, so it can be done. It just doesn't seem to be very important beyond an interesting mind exercise.

"Seek not to walk in the footsteps of the masters, rather seek what they sought."

Uti :
>> "Seek not to walk in the footsteps of the masters, rather seek what they sought."

That statement is beautifull. I totaly agree.
I think that where the mind leads the body will follow rather than the other way round.

Also.. while eating raw does seem to calm the mind in our modern day with all of its stimulants and stresses etc. One might ask if this was a product of the natural diet or a "part of the parcel" of the choices that lead to it.

I definately believe that a raw diet is conducive to finding inner harmony, but I feel that the inner harmony does not require any particular criteria for its embodiment

I found this article about walking meditation that I thought was good, in chetday.com's newsletter:

Mindful Walking for Health

by Thich Nhat Hanh
[www.plumvillage.org]

I would like to speak a little now about walking. When you move from one place to another, please practice mindful walking, no matter how short the distance.

Perhaps you have used a seal before. When you stamp a seal onto a piece of paper, you make sure that the whole seal prints on the paper, so that when you remove the seal, the image is perfect.

When we practice walking, we do the same thing. Every step we take is like placing a seal on the ground.

Mindfulness is the ink. We print our solidity and peace on the ground.

In our daily lives, we don't usually walk like that. We print our hurry, worry, depression, and anger on the ground.

But here, together, we print our solidity, peace, and freedom on the ground. You know whether you succeed or not with each step.

Bring all of your mindfulness to the soles of your feet and walk. Enjoy every step you take. Allow plenty of time to walk. Every step can be healing and transforming. Every step can help you cultivate more solidity, joy, and freedom.

We have only one style of walking in Plum Village: mindful walking. Whether we are having a retreat or not, everyone always walks the same way. That is why when our friends come to Plum Village, they naturally join in the practice and are supported by everyone else in their walking meditation.

Walking meditation is a wonderful way to learn how to live deeply each moment of our daily life. You will be surprised to find out that, when you return home, it is possible to implement this practice in the busy city. There are ways to put into practice what we learn during a retreat. When we leave Plum Village and go to the airport or the train station, we practice the same way.

Everywhere is Plum Village.

When I board an airplane, I walk in exactly the same way, printing peace and joy with every step.

Fifteen years ago, I led a mindfulness retreat in a center called Cosmos House in Amsterdam, where people practiced Tai Chi, Yoga, Zen, and so on. Our meditation room was on the top floor, and the staircase was quite narrow, especially up to the third and fourth floors. But I have only one style of walking. I cannot walk otherwise. My students and I blocked the stairs for hundreds of people behind us. On the third day of the retreat, everyone in Cosmos House had learned to walk like us.

I also remember when I marched for nuclear disarmament in New York City in 1982. There were a million Americans walking together that day. We were a group of thirty people. A Zen teacher, Richard Baker-roshi, asked me to join the march, and I said, "Will I be allowed to walk peacefully in the peace walk?" He said, "Yes, of course."

So I joined, and our group walked mindfully, and we blocked more than two hundred thousand people behind us.
Strangely enough, people accepted that, and they slowed down. Then the peace walk became more peaceful.

Please enjoy every step you take. Every mindful step is not only for your sake, but for the sake of the whole world.

When you take a peaceful step, all of your ancestors in you take that step at the same time.

You also walk for your children, whether they are born or unborn.

Do not underestimate the strength, the value, of one step taken in mindfulness.

One mindful step can produce healing and transformation for many generations.

I promise to do my best.

Peace is every step.

All of us can do it.

By the third or fourth day, you will have seen the difference.

Beautiful!!! Thanks for posting that Karen. Everytime I log onto this board I take away something new and spiritually delicious!
I have noticed a nutural movement towards more mindfulness since becoming raw... simple things that would have never occured to me before, like stopping and getting out of my car on the way home from work simply because I wanted to fully enjoy the way the late afternoon sunlight was falling on the mountains and sugarcane fields. I would have noticed it before, but only in passing. Now I find myself giving thanks out loud, and slowing down my time to be fully present in the moment. It's becoming obvious to me now that "mind" is so much more than the brain. The brain is an organ, the mind is everywhere, in our bellies, our eyes, our fingers, it fills us and surrounds us. It is how we feel, how we sense and how we "know". This may seem so obvious to people who have meditated for years, but for me it's the single most profound realization I've had so far.

Great thread...delicious mind-food!!!

Exactly, the brain is an organ but our mind is everywhere. That's why our emotional state affects us so much. A friend made that same statement about the mind years ago and I ask her where she got it and she said she made it up. lol But it is so-o-o true!