Eating Meditation
by Charles MacInerney

Eating Meditations: Try practicing the following two Eating Meditations before your next meal. You will need a small portion of food, like a single raisin or a slice of apple or orange, or a cracker. The following exercises take from 1 to 10 minutes.

Amnesia: Imagine you have never seen a raisin in your life, and examine it the way a baby would examine something newly discovered. Look at the raisin and try to notice something about it that you have never noticed before. This should be easy, as no two raisins are ever identical. Now close your eyes and see if you can smell the raisin. Lick your lips and rub the raisin over your lips, massaging your lips gently. How does it feel? Now lick your lips. Can you taste the trace flavor of the raisin? Hold the raisin in your mouth, and roll it around. How does is feel in your mouth? Nibble a hole in the skin of the raisin and notice the immediate change in the intensity of the flavor. Slowly chew the raisin while resisting the urge to swallow. Sit a little taller and notice if posture affects your appreciation for the raisin. Breath in deeply and let your breath go with a long soft sigh. Does breathing help you enjoy the raisin? Relax your face and smile. Notice how smiling improves the taste of a raisin.

Sincere Appreciation: Eat a second raisin, or your favorite piece of fruit, practicing Sincere Appreciation. Eating just as slowly and following the same instructions from the first raisin, but this time contemplate the many miracles that brought this raisin to your lips. The Farmer who grew the grapes, the truck driver, the architect who designed the store where you bought the grapes, all of the people whose lives helped make this moment possible, including your parents for raising you, the rain and sun and the miracle of life present in a single raisin. Give thanks for the wonderful gift of taste. Students who practice this eating meditation are often amazed at how much better food tastes when they take the time to notice and appreciate the food as they eat it.

You will notice that a single raisin, eaten with sincere appreciation brings more joy and happiness than a whole box of raisins swallowed unconsciously.

Kids take to this exercise readily, and when they realize that they can get more enjoyment out of a piece of candy by practicing mindfulness they are sold on the idea. Even animals can learn mindfulness - see Sincere Appreciation essay.

The final eating meditation is based loosely upon the Tibetan Death Visualization. Take your favorite piece of fruit and as you eat it, imagine that, for whatever reason, this is the last time you will ever taste this fruit. Knowing that this experience will be lost forever, it would make sense to squeeze as much enjoyment out of the experience as possible. Obviously, if you took 8 hours to eat it, you would get bored, and lose interest. Conversely, if you ate it in 8 seconds, you would not get maximum pleasure from the experience. Somewhere between 8 seconds and 8 hours is the perfect speed to eat in order to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure.