Many of us may remember the wonderful play and movie “Oliver! the Musical” with warmth and laughter. There is a song in it that is so powerful and yet sad if you really listen to the words. Watched by his fellow orphans, Mark Lester, as Oliver Twist, dares to ask for more, in the film “Oliver!” (Columbia Pictures). [1]
There’s not a crust, not a crumb can we find,
Can we beg, can we borrow, or cadge…
When we all close our eyes and imagine food, glorious food!
There are 12.9 million children in the US who are food insecure.[1] There are 15.6 million US households suffering from food insecurity. Around the world 795 million people do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life and thus are undernourished. Every second a person dies of hunger. This year 36 million people around the world will die of hunger[2] while billions of tons of food are rotting in our gardens, farms, and city dumps. In 2010 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food was wasted.[3]
In fact, the highest or next highest person in any zendo and monastery is the Tenzo who is in charge of the kitchen! The monks were initially mendicants who went out with only the clothes on their backs and a bowl which they used to beg/ask for food to keep them alive. Thus, the power of prayer before every meal!
In Zen we have many different meal Gathas/chants. I particularly like the one we use in our Zendo and before I eat, wherever it may be, I recite this gatha to set the tone for a mindful and thankful meal. How many times a day do you eat so quickly and mindlessly that you haven’t really tasted the food, felt its texture in your mouth, the smell of it, or hot or coldness of it. In fact, so much so that some time later you do not remember if you ate and if you did what it was. Yikes! Imagine what one of those 36 million people would have done with that meal? If nothing else remembered it as their last. How sad is that?!
Southern Palm Zen Group’s food blessing or chant goes like this:
Earth, water, fire, air, and space combine to make this food.
Numberless beings gave their lives and labors so that I (we) may eat.
May I (we) be nourished so that I (we) may nourish life.
And finally, as a Unity minister we often had meals together and we always said a prayer, of course, before the meal. At the children’s table our prayer was “Rub-a-dub-dub thank you God for the grub!” Sometimes the parents got a little bent out of shape and upset with me when I taught them this prayer. However, I knew that it was something easy for them to learn and memorize and to say whenever they ate at school, church, or at home. It helped set up the age-old practice of giving thanks for the good/food that was in their lives.
The song goes on…
What wouldn’t we give for that extra bit more that’s all we live for. Why should we be fated to do nothing but brood on food, magical food, wonderful food, marvelous food, beautiful food, food, glorious food.
What can you do today to make a difference in someone’s life when it comes to food insufficiency? Now go and do it…
[1] https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/packages/html/movies/bestpictures/oliver-re.html?scp=2&sq=night%2520train&st=Search
[2] https://whyhunger.org/just-the-facts/
[3] http://www.theworldcounts.com/…/global_hunger_statistics/how_many_people_die_from_hu…
[4] https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm
Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano writes, “Buddhism teaches that human beings are imperfect yet may become perfect by their own exertions, as long as those exertions are directed along the Noble Eightfold Path (page 89).”
prayer will help keep you alive through the night—great what can you lose! If not eating meat is how you desire to live your life wonderful, go for it. If eating meat but not pork or crustaceans (lobster, crabs, shrimp, etc.) is your choice that’s great too. In ancient times you might have been better off not eating pork because it caused an infection we know as trichinosis, but so did lots of other foods. Just a few more reasons “not to believe” everything found in your ancient texts.
ll whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to right, and a perfect contentment.”
rada Roshi in his beautiful book, Moon By The Window, wrote:
t is the source of everything.”
The Secret to a More Fulfilling Life! Part 1: Introduction Thoughts are Things!
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I saw a wonderful book on my bookshelf by Kazuaki Tanahashi e
ntitled Zen Chants, Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary. It made me think of all the affirmations, vows, and chants that I use on a regular basis and how powerful and fulfilling my life has become by using them. Thus, the theme of the new blog series and workbook!
Each chapter will provide you with all you need to know about affirmations, vows, and chants and how– when used consistently and persistently– they can change your life for the better. We will work with some created by others and learn how to create our own.
Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich wrote: Truly, “thoughts are things,” and powerful things at that…(page 19).[1] Thoughts and things have weight and measure. That’s crazy you say! Yet true it is. Much research has been done on the mind and the affect that our thoughts have on our body.
One of the initial simple studies done was to place some college students (all men at the time) on a seesaw. The participant balanced himself on it, so his body was flat and stable. Then they asked him to think of a very difficult math problem and try to work it out in his mind. Oddly enough the seesaw began to move lower and lower on the end where his head was. Next, they asked him to see himself running in a race with a friend and guess what? The seesaw began to move lower and lower at the end by his feet!
Thus, thoughts have weight and measure! So, when you affirm that you can not do something for sure you can’t! But with time, effort, and persistence and these techniques you will be able to do most anything! I’m not saying you can jump over a mountain or a hill in one leap like Superman and Superwoman, but you can hike to the top that’s for sure.
And so, people have written chants, poems, prayers, affirmations, and songs to help lift us up, to help us think positive, and to help us create a more fulfilling life.
Here are some words of wisdom to start off on our adventure from Yongjia Xuanjiao’s Song of Realizing the Way (page 78).
Thus, with your mind you can encounter the infinite world and create a reality filled with all the good you desire for yourself and others! As Captain Jean-Luc Picard said in Star Trek: Make it so!
[1] Hill, N. (1960) Think and Grow Rich. Fawcett World Library: Greenwich, Conn
[2] Tanahashi, K. (2015) Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary. Shambhala: Boston and London
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