This is somewhat analogous to those unfortunate people who suffer from anorexia nervosa or bulimia. In their minds they have an image of how they'd like their bodies to be -- one that may bear no relation to their current reality or even to any idea of genuine health, or that exists within the (admittedly often negative or unachievable) contemporary, Western norms of beauty. The anorexic and bulimic then starve themselves or manipulate their food intake in a way that makes them feel both disgusted and pleased with themselves. This gives them a false sense o control over their lives even as they become more and more controlled by their addiction.
The Buddha saw that the path to enlightenment didn't lie in extreme asceticism, just as it couldn't be found in self-indulgence and thoughtless luxury. Instead, it lay in recognizing that we have basic needs -- to be fed and sheltered -- and that this moderate, Middle Way needs to be satisfied. You can see how our body understands its needs when those who haven't eaten for a long time find it hard to hold down their food because their stomachs have shrunk. Our bodies have to be fed regularly, even if the amount we consume is small. Food cannot be denied to us, we need to eat. Yet we cannot eat too much, since obesity and its consequences -- glaucoma, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and other conditions -- can also be deadly for us.
Once the Buddha realized he couldn't starve himself to enlightenment, he washed himself in the river and accepted an offering of goat's milk. Can you imagine how delicious that first drink must have tasted? Can you imagine how much the Buddha valued that offering and how grateful he must have been to the woman who gave him the goat's milk? Even if we can't express that level of gratitude for each bite or sip we take, if we could capture just a fraction of that thankfulness and pleasure in our daily life when it comes to food, then we'd no doubt open ourselves up to the enormous riches that are found in recognition and appreciation, and have a healthier attitude toward food.
One way I try to encourage my students to think sensibly about food is by making them concentrate on something that's perhaps undertaken with even less thought than the eating of food and the drinking of liquid; and that's the eliminating of both. I call it "the philosophy of the toilet". I suggest to my students that, when they get up each morning and go to sit on the toilet, they take a moment to feel grateful for their body. It is our body that works every second of every minute of every hour of a day, processing what we ingest and attempting to compensate for our abuse. And all without our telling it to do anything. It is our body that allows us to get rid of the waste and create more space so we ca put more food ad drink into it. When we'are every sick and we lose out appetite, we feel wretched; we don't want food and our bowel movements become irregular. Many cancer patients cannot eat, not because they're not able to take in food, but because they cannot eliminate the waste.
Thus, what we consider the cycle of ingestion and elimination is also a balance: between what we need and what we n longer need; between what is about to be good for us and what is no longer good for us. This is why we should be foll of forethought and care about what we put in our bodies.
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