| When I was living as a Buddhist monk in the | | | | stateside when I would eat all day, and anything in |
| backwater jungles of Thailand, I learned many | | | | sight! |
| important lessons that have made my life much easier. | | | | I went in at about 220 pounds and in no time was |
| One of them was how to handle food. The rules of a | | | | down to 180, about right for my six-foot two frame. I |
| Theravada monk include eating only once a day, and | | | | never felt better. As a matter of fact, the experience |
| that is in the morning. Typically, we would walk to the | | | | has stuck with me all these years, and at 65, I now |
| surrounding villages at sun up and proffer our bowls to | | | | weigh about 185. This is such a simple thing. No money |
| the farmers, who would fill them with the same foods | | | | or programs involved, only meditation, which improves |
| that they ate - mostly sticky rice, bananas, vegetables, | | | | health dramatically, particularly the immune system - |
| and an occasional smattering of protein, perhaps | | | | and the mind - reducing fear and worry. And |
| chicken, grasshoppers, or dried fish. And once in a | | | | meditation does something else, it curbs desires, all |
| while a treat of some fruit juice or mangoes to | | | | desires, so that you can live a more sane, peaceful life |
| accompany the gallons of water that I drank in the | | | | of few harmful indulgences, and less karma. |
| sweltering climate. | | | | And it's easy to begin, just start every evening sitting |
| We would then return and sit in the meditation hall and | | | | quietly for 15 minutes. Complete meditation instructions |
| silently eat our meal, meditating on how we are eating, | | | | (posture and mental processes), are on our website: |
| not for pleasure, not for health, not for strength, but just | | | | and as a former Buddhist monk, I don't charge for any |
| for fuel so that we can continue our efforts toward | | | | advice. The Truth should always be free; if isn't . . . it |
| enlightenment. The first couple of weeks were rough, | | | | might not be Truth! |
| but I got used to it, and the surprising thing was that my | | | | Please email any questions to: Copyright © E. |
| meditation improved dramatically from what it was | | | | Raymond Rock 2007. |