TALKING ABOUT THE ZEN PRACTICE OF MINDFUL EATING, ZEN MASTER THICH NHAT HANH SAID, “WHEN WE ARE MINDFUL, WE RECOGNIZE WHAT WE ARE PICKING UP [A BITE OF FOOD]. WHEN WE PUT IT INTO OUR MOUTH, WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE PUTTING INTO OUR MOUTH. WHEN WE CHEW IT, WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE CHEWING.”

Often eating is better described as gobbling. In Zen, the basic foundations of mindful eating, include:

• Being present with the meal.
• Questioning:  Are you hungry or bored?  How hungry?  How bored?
• What does you body need?  Water?  Protean?  Sugar?
• Considering the farmer who grew the carrot.  Did they profit, suffer, toil, sweat for you?
• Considering the journey the carrot took to get to your plate.
• Look at the texture of the food before you eat it.
• Experience the texture in your mouth.
• Let the taste sit with you.
• What is it like to swallow?
• What does the plate smell like, can you separate the smells coming from each item?

This is not an instruction on mindful eating.  We’re woefully unqualified for that.  But consider moving these principles to the act of shopping.  It’s no wonder both acts are called consuming.

Let’s say you want to by a t-shirt.

• Be present with the transaction.
• Are you cold, bored, under-stylized?  Will the t-shirt make you happy?  It might.
• Who grew the cotton?  Did they profit, sweat or toil?
• Who picked or bailed it?  Did he have a family?  Are they well fed?
• What were the conditions in the factory when it was spun?
• Was anyone injured in the looming process?
• What were the work conditions like?
• What was the carbon footprint of the transportation?
• Are the dyes good for the planet?  Are they poisonous?  Who screen-printed that image?  Were they in danger?  Cared for?
• Feel the texture?  Picture it in 5 and 10 years, where will it be?  Worn, more comfortable?  Discarded?
• Do you need it or want it?

Shopping is an out of body experience.  Mostly, we are reacting to the need to quench a desire.  It is not a very mindful practice.  What would be the impact be if, at the moment of consumption, we stopped and shopped like a Zen Master?