Where there is food, a mouth will appear, and where there is a mouth, food will appear. Everything is somebody's lunch.

Sound horrific--like the bad storyline from a grade B movie? As unappetizing as this idea might seem, it is in fact a very real and amazingly efficient phenomenon. Every life form on Earth survives and flourishes by consuming another portion of the world and making that food part of itself. Consider the corn plant that consumes the Earth's water and minerals and the sun's energy. When the corn is harvested and processed into corn flakes, the cereal is eaten by human beings and transformed into thoughts, words and actions.

Every time you eat you take for granted that the raw materials of the Earth and the energy of the sun have been reliably transformed into the carbohydrates, fats and proteins your body and brain need to function. You accept without question that the calories (energy) you consume will become the physical body you inhabit and will give that body the strength it needs to act.

The human body (anamaya kosha) is comprised of food and water. Therefore, we are redefining ourselves every time we choose which specific piece of the outside world we will bite off, swallow and make part of ourselves. In fact, the philosophy we bring to this intimate experience and our
attitude toward the entire miraculous process reflect our ideas about every other relationship. So, is it any wonder then that changing eating habits is so challenging? It's really no different from changing the personality.

If maintaining a well balanced diet were solely a matter of making good choices about nutrition, you would be a much healthier person than you are today. In practical terms, however, your eating habits are directly linked to powerful emotional forces that seek security and tie you to your family--the people with whom you regularly eat. Imagine that after reading a few inspiring health articles, you told your closest friends or relatives that you're no longer going to eat what your family normally eats. You're going to become a vegetarian. You will eat no flesh: no poultry, pork, beef or fish. You can imagine how disturbed others would be. "Are you no longer part of our group?" they'd wonder. "Are you rejecting our values and us? Are we not worthy of your identification anymore?" When you break with a group norm, your actions can be psychologically threatening to others, and their reactions can consciously or unconsciously pressure you to abandon your worthwhile intentions.

Through grace, this quandary logically brings you to Yoga--the science that re-engineers the personality and provides you a nurturing framework for positive change. The Yoga of Eating helps you to examine all your desires and the attachments of the senses by encouraging you to make conscious, discriminating choices concerning what, when and under which circumstances you eat. Only when your choices reflect the discriminative faculty of buddhi will your food nourish and strengthen the body, mind and spirit to the fullest extent possible.

In Yoga Science, the motivation to change the eating habits of a lifetime is provided by a new, profound understanding of who you are. By meditating every day, you access a super-conscious wisdom that awakens you to the realization that you are actually a citizen of two worlds. You are a mortal citizen of the material world of change, and an immortal citizen of the subtle, changeless world of consciousness and spirit. Your acceptance of dual citizenship makes it possible for you to view the body-mind-sense-complex as a transitory vehicle of action that houses your true Eternal Self. When you contemplate and incorporate this Truth into all your relationships, the act of eating becomes a sacrament--an appropriate, visible offering that leads to unbounded happiness.

When the Yoga of Eating becomes an integral part of your philosophy of life, the rock upon which you stand in this world, food is no longer merely "stuff" to entertain or to keep you alive. As a Yoga scientist, you recognize that food choice is one of your spiritual "fields of action" upon which you engage the world. On this particular field of action (as on all others) you are simply asked to do one thing: base your outer action on the inner intuitive wisdom of your higher Self.

From a yogic perspective, every time you face a desire for food, your consciousness is actually rendezvousing with the consequence of some previous action. The new relationship--in this case with food--provides you the perfect opportunity to diminish your personality's limiting attachment so that the perfect wisdom of the higher Self can be employed in the world. In effect, your food choice becomes an offering to your higher Self. At the last supper Jesus, speaking as the Christ, echoes this consciousness when He offers a prayer over a piece of bread, saying in part, "This is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me." In Christian as well as in yogic terms, food--like every other aspect of the manifest world--is considered to be the "body of Christ." Food is a manifestation of the One Supreme Reality that is intended for your well being. If the buddhi (conscience or Holy Spirit) advises that a particular food is a shreya (the choice leading to perennial joy), consume the food as an offering. If the buddhi indicates the desired food is a preya (a choice merely serving an ego or sense gratification) you are to sacrifice the desire as an offering. Either way, your skillful action will lead you for your highest and greatest good.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna--representing the wisdom of our higher Self--teaches that "When you let your mind heed the siren call of the senses, they carry away your better judgment as a typhoon drives a boat off the charted course to its doom. Therefore, use all your will power to set the senses free from both attachment and aversion alike, and live in the full wisdom of the Self." These verses provide a perceptive description of the disaster that awaits anyone who mindlessly remains enslaved to the charms, attractions and temptations of the senses. Krishna then advises us to train the senses by turning them into loyal servants of our higher Self. This is known in Yoga Science as the practice of pratyahara.

By allowing the advertising media to control your palate, you ensure yourself an undisciplined mind and an unhealthy body. Mahatma Gandhi observed that by controlling the palate you immeasurably strengthen the mind, and therefore experience a sense of physical, mental and emotional well being.

When you practice the Yoga of Eating, you increasingly understand that Yoga's highest precept, ahimsa (non-injury, non-harming, non-violence), requires that you not ingest foods that injure your body or cause unnecessary harm to the world. As you contemplate the profound and far-reaching nature of ahimsa, you naturally examine all aspects of your life: your desires, your behavior and your emotional attachments. Ask, "Are my food desires injurious in any way? Can the medical principles of Ayurveda, vegetarianism and alkaline therapy make my body and mind more vital and creative?"

Desires for certain foods (even for a Big Mac) in and of themselves, are not bad. Like gasoline in a combustion engine, desire is the fuel for action. Desire is what motivates you to eat, and eating assures the continuation of your life and the entire human species. But not every desire, including desires for certain foods, will help you experience unbounded happiness. Such happiness occurs only when your choices serve the Divine wisdom reflected by a purified buddhi.

While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta report that 53 percent of illness is attributable to lifestyle choices, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop pegs the actual figure at 70 percent. Volumes of medical studies confirm that a vegetarian, Ayurvedically balanced and alkaline rich diet--rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, quinoa and legumes--is your best bet for living a longer, healthier and more enjoyable life. At the same time, you're doing the planet a huge favor by helping to preserve natural resources and cutting down on pollution generated by excessive animal agriculture.

While there are literally hundreds of great reasons to practice the Yoga of Eating, here are my personal Top 10.
 

10 Great Reasons to Practice the "Yoga of Eating"

1. You'll live a lot longer. Vegetarians live about 7 years longer, and vegans (who eat no dairy products) about 15 years longer than flesh eaters, according to a study from Loma Linda University. The China Health Project found that Chinese people who eat low levels of fat and animal products have low risks of cancer, heart attack and other chronic degenerative diseases.

2. You'll save your heart. Cardiovascular disease is largely due to the standard American diet laden with saturated fat and cholesterol from flesh and dairy. Heart disease is found in one in nine women aged 45 to 64 and in one in three women over 65. Today, an American male eating a flesh-based diet has a 50 percent chance of dying from heart disease. His risk drops to 15 percent if he cuts out flesh; it goes to 4 percent if he cuts out flesh, dairy and eggs.

3. You'll save money. MSNmoney.com claims you'll save an estimated $4,000 annually when you replace a diet of flesh (chicken, poultry, pork and fish) with fruits, vegetables, legumes, quinoa and rice.

4. You'll reduce your risk of cancer. The National Cancer Institute says that women who eat red meat every day are nearly four times more likely to get breast cancer than those who don't. By contrast, women who consume at least one serving of vegetables a day reduce their risk of breast cancer by 20-30 percent. Studies have also found that a plant-based, alkalizing diet protects against prostate, colon and skin cancers.

5. You'll lose weight. On average, individuals who incorporate vegetarian, alkalizing and Ayurvedically prudent foods to their diet are slimmer than flesh eaters, keep the weight off up to seven years longer and are less likely to fall victim to weight-related disorders like heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

6. You'll give your body a spring cleaning. Giving up flesh and acid-forming foods helps purge the body of toxins (pesticides, environmental pollutants, preservatives) that overload our systems and cause illness.

7. You'll help reduce waste and air pollution. Circle 4 Farms in Milford, Utah, which raises 2.5 million pigs every year, creates more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles. And this is just one farm. According to the U.N., livestock raised for human consumption is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide--more than all the combined planes, trains and automobiles on the planet.

8. Your bones will last longer. Sugar and animal proteins (from flesh and milk) make the blood acidic. To neutralize this condition, the body steals calcium from the bones--contributing to osteoporosis. The average bone loss for a vegetarian woman at age 65 is 18 percent--less than half that of non-vegetarian women. Instead of milk as a source for calcium, vegetarians turn to legumes and dark green vegetables such as broccoli and spinach.

9. You'll be more "regular." Eating fruits and vegetables means consuming fiber, which pushes waste out of the body. Flesh contains no fiber. Studies done at Harvard and Brigham Women's Hospital found that people who ate a high-fiber diet had a 42 percent lower risk of diverticulitis, and have fewer incidences of constipation, hemorrhoids and spastic colon.

10. Your meals will taste delicious. Vegetables are endlessly interesting to cook and a joy to eat. When preparing meals, think of yourself as an artist and the food as your palette, and create a masterpiece of flavors, colors, textures and tastes. Everyone will enjoy and benefit.
 

How to Spiritualize Your Relationship with Food
Based on Vegetarian, Ayurvedic and Alkaline Therapy Principles

1. Reduce or avoid sugar. Processed sugar cane and corn syrup are poisons, so use honey instead. Don't bring sodas or sugar-laden baked goods home, but you can still enjoy occasional sweets. After a restaurant meal treat yourself to a nice dessert and savor it without guilt.

2. Avoid cold drinks during meals. Cold liquids retard digestion and cause the production of ama, a subtle poison that Ayurveda considers to be the cause of disease.

3. Honor your food. Depending on the texture of the food, chew 20-30 times before swallowing. You'll eat less, feel more satisfied, digest better, assimilate more completely and eliminate a lot more easily. Move away from the dinner table with a little empty space left in your stomach.

4. Drink hot water. Drink 6-8 cups of plain hot water (the same temperature as coffee or tea) every day. It will give you extra energy and is invigorating for your entire urinary system.

5. Use mineral or sea salt. Table salt is refined and chemically cleansed. Unrefined mineral or sea salt is a naturally occurring complex of sodium chloride including calcium, magnesium and a complement of essential trace minerals needed for a strong immune system.

6. Eat quinoa. Quinoa is technically a berry.It's alkalizing, relatively low in carbohydrates and is a complete protein with all the essential amino acids. Use it as breakfast cereal or as a rice or pasta substitute for lunch or dinner.

7. Make your mid-day meal your dinner.

8. Use cilantro and basil to cleanse the blood. You'll enjoy their wonderful flavors.

9. Mediterranean-ize your diet. Serve chopped tomatoes garnished with basil, garlic and Lucini olive oil as a side dish with just about anything.

10. Eat a medley of three vegetables. Use your favorites and change the trio often. When you create a balance of colors, you're ensuring a healthy balance of vitamins and minerals.

11. Eat fresh, first-generation foods daily. As often as possible, prepare food just before it is eaten. The life force of vital prana contained in your food is greatly diminished in leftovers.

12. Use ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil. Reduce or eliminate butter and margarine. Although ghee does contain cholesterol, the absence of milk solids makes it a better choice for clean arteries and veins. Olive oil (Lucini brand) is a delicious substitute for butter in cooking.

13. Reduce or eliminate flesh, dairy and eggs.

14. Take a full-spectrum vitamin every day.

15. Take pro-biotic greens and an acidophilus supplement daily.

Leonard is a philosopher, educator, author and founder of the American Meditation Institute.

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One of the worst things about dying is that-I'm pretty sure-there are no Starbucks in the after-death state. That's bad news for someone who feels mocha frappuccinos are probably the closest thing to heaven we can experience on earth. Is "heaven" even an appropriate name for a place where Rum Raisin Haagen Dazs may not be served?

When I received my cancer diagnosis, for the first time in my life I found myself looking hard at the prospect of never again, never in all eternity, enjoying a marzipan Princess cake swathed in whipped cream. It's not that I don't believe in reincarnation. It's just that if global warming and world economic collapse continue, there may not be any Scandinavian bakeries when I'm
re-embodied. Or I might be born in the Middle East, where they don't specialize in dairy-based desserts like my fellow Norwegians do. If there's a massive energy crisis and no way to generate electricity, there may not even be any refrigerators. You can't have whipped cream if you don't have refrigerators!

In our time, we partakers of Western civilization have created a heaven of self-indulgence here on the material plane. So many good things to eat! So many terrific movies to see! So many beautiful sites to visit, new products to purchase, new worlds to explore. No wonder no one wants to die. There's so much to lose!

Yet no one escapes death. Not even the president. Not even the Beatles. Not even the great masters in the Himalayas. And it sure looked like my number was up. One little word scribbled across my medical chart, "osteosarcoma," taunted me with all my attachments-all the things I was about to lose. Funny, I'd always known this life wouldn't last forever, but it's so easy to delude oneself that there will always be another peppermint cappuccino at Starbucks. Was that last one really the last one-ever?

It was unbelievable. I would look in the mirror and simply not recognize the woman staring back at me. She looked like a whale! But no amount of dieting or exercise could stop the daily encroachment of more and more fat. It didn't help to live in a culture where drug addicts and alcoholics get more sympathy and respect than fat people. We are the pariahs of Western culture, revolting and grotesque. Other addicts can conceal their vices. But everyone who looks at an obese person knows, "That person's got a problem. She can't control her appetite."

As a yoga student I was faced with several perplexing questions. The first, looking at the horrifyingly unfamiliar person in the mirror, was, "Am I that?" Am I really my body? And as a yoga student I know the answer is yes. This body is my creation: I invoked it when I returned to existence on this plane. The karma I carried in from past existences was the spiritual DNA that crafted this new body in the womb, giving it characteristic features that would allow talents and liabilities from past lives to remanifest. My actions in this life, like including a rich dairy dessert in my daily menu, contributed to the body taking its present shape. And my stressful lifestyle without a doubt helped push my thyroid gland over a cliff. I had to take responsibility: the whale in the mirror was my own doing.

And as a yoga student I also knew the answer is no. I am not my body. Bodies come and go, but there's an ancient traveler who puts on one after another as if it's changing clothes. It brings its baggage with it: habits, preferences, virtues, vices, skills, fears. I don't think I'd ever so profoundly felt the body isn't me as when I looked into the disbelieving eyes of that 180 pound woman in the mirror.

It was a different story after my cancer diagnosis. Never before in my life had I realized how truly deeply I'd identified with my body. In meditation I could move beyond it, quite easily in fact. But my physical body was the base camp to which I had always returned. The world its senses displayed for me was the one I habitually identified as "real." What would life be like without a body? What world would I dwell in? How would I support myself? What would I eat?

Interestingly, according to the Yoga tradition we have not one body but five, and each eats something different. The physical body is called the annamaya kosha because it eats anna, food. (Maya here means "made of," kosha means "body," so "body made of food."). But the next, more subtle body is called the pranamaya kosha because it eats prana. Prana as you know means "life force," and it comes to us directly from the sun or indirectly through the food we eat. Fresh food like fresh produce is filled with prana because it's still alive. Dead foods, like the Hostess Twinkies of my youth, supply physical nutrients (carbohydrates, sucrose, etc.) but no prana. They fill your stomach but don't contribute to your vitality. If you ate only Hostess Twinkies for a week, your physical body might not feel hungry, but your pranamaya kosha would be starving because it needs prana.

The next even more subtle body is the manomaya kosha which eats sense perceptions. Seriously! The manas is the part of your mind that processes sensory data and responds instinctually. "A car is speeding toward me. Quick! Jump out of the way!" "Colleen is taking her homemade peach strudel out of the oven. Quick! Start salivating and help yourself to a thick piece!" Without sensory stimulation the manomaya kosha starves. People in sensory-deprivation experiments actually start hallucinating. But all of us are familiar with the common feeling that arises from lack of fresh stimulation: boredom. That means this body is getting hungry.

The fourth body is the vijnanamaya kosha. It eats ideas. Really! (Vijnana means knowledge.) I know this one well. Whenever anyone shares an exciting new idea or a particularly intriguing piece of information, I feel energized. I literally get as much of a lift from compelling new information as I do from a Starbucks Americana. When your vijnanamaya kosha is fed, you feel intellectually enlivened. When it's not, you sit in front of your flickering HDTV screen like a couch potato, passively assimilating material without engaging with its implications, with what it really means.

Yogis call the innermost body the anandamaya kosha. It lives off ananda, bliss. This is the body that comes to life when we meditate, moving beyond physical sensations, mental images, and abstract ideas. In this silent place we experience pure lucidity. It's not the sensory bliss that comes from a mocha frappuccino. It's the bliss that comes from pure existence itself. People who never exercise this body are spiritually inert. They feel lost and ungrounded; their lives feel purposeless. Beyond this body we are no longer embodied in any sense. Beyond it lies the "I" that is "all," the Sutratma or Great Self who manifests through every body everywhere and is confined by none of them.

So I'm all my bodies. And none of them. As spirit I have a transcendent existence beyond my material appendages. Yet as a soul those bodies appended to me are my responsibility. If I want to be healthy and balanced while I'm touring the material plane, I need to make sure all my bodies receive the nutrition they require. And that their unhelpful cravings are controlled.

I also know that's not me (and it is me) craving another cup of sweet, milky chai. That's my brain chemistry in the throes of an addiction. My brain, like that of an alcoholic or drug addict, is commanding me to indulge in a potentially dangerous (certainly a calorie and cholesterol laden) habit. My buddhi, the discriminating intelligence couched in my subtle bodies, answers back, "No. It's not healthy!" My brain and my buddhi go round and round every day of my life, one winning one time, the other the next. I've managed to lose 30 pounds, but my buddhi needs to get me down another 20.

We've all got our cravings, and some are worse than others. Some of us are struggling with physical desires like cigarette addictions, or with a disturbance of the manas like computer game addictions. Some of us crave information or music or new technology so much, we're focused in our mental world to the extent that we can barely keep our homes clean or pull the weeds in the yard. But we're not the one who craves. We're the one who observes the craving.

The real source of pleasure is not the object we desire. It's the one who feels the pleasure. How can I say that with confidence? Because in deep meditative states comes a profound contentment in which all craving desists and pleasure rests. It's an ecstatic state but it's not a physical or emotional or mental type of ecstasy. It's pure spirit relishing its own nature. It's at this level of our being that the bliss we experience sipping a mocha frappuccino actually arises.

There may not be a Starbucks in heaven, but there is a fountain of bliss in that deathless state. And we can reach it if we control our cravings long enough to focus inward, tracing the sense of pleasure and satisfaction back to their root in self-existent awareness.

In ancient times yogis used to drink a sweet, milky beverage called soma. You can taste it even today, but not with your tongue. It drips from the soma chakra at the top of your head, and the taste of it is pure bliss. It's served in the cafe called meditation. Not even Starbucks can compare.

Linda Johnsen, M.S. is a regular contributor to "Transformation" and the co-author of Kirtan! Chanting as a Spiritual Path (currently available at the AMI bookstore).

 

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Tell a Friend about AMI

If you know someone who might benefit from our American Meditation class, let them know about the AMI program or call us with their name and address and we'll send them a brochure with our current class schedule.

Karma Yoga --- the practice of selfless and skillful action

If, as part of your practice, you have a few extra hours during the week and are interested in helping grow the American Meditation Institute, we need your dedicated, volunteer energy. As a student of yoga science, you are already familiar with the kinds of practical services the Institute provides. Each month we write, edit and publish this newsletter, teach an average of thirty new meditation students and present stress-reduction seminars to various businesses and organizations. We also invite visiting speakers of interest to our area, organize seminars on yoga science and do continuing personal counseling.

Our immediate needs include press relations, seminar management, clerical assistance and general delivery work. Remember, whatever time or talents you possess will be put to meaningful, productive use.

If you have the time, please call the Institute at (518) 674-8714.

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