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Dear Still Water Friends,

One of the most bracing ideas I have received from Thich Nhat Hanh, and from other mindfulness teachers, is that everything matters. Every thought, word, and behavior affects my future and the future of the world. As Pema Chodron puts it in Comfortable with Uncertainty:

Every act counts. Every thought and emotion counts too. This moment is all the path we have. This moment is where we apply the teachings.

This is not how I was raised. As a child I learned that I could justify almost unwholesome behavior with a good rationalization - some self-serving way of thinking that made it possible for me to do what at some level I knew I shouldn't be doing.  In my family it came up a lot around food: "I shouldn't be eating this, but …" The degree to which we can twist ourselves into self-serving rationalizations has been comically presented in various lists of food rules, such as:

Of course, in terms of food, it is easy for us to see the folly of rationalization. No matter how we explain it, if there are more calories coming in than going out, we gain weight.

It is harder to see the folly of our ways in terms of the intangibles, such as our indulgence in unwholesome mental states, such as impatience, restlessness, self-centeredness, procrastination, and especially our craving for "psychic candy" that temporarily satisfies some emotional need which we may not even be aware of. Each time we indulge, we introduce unwholesome karmic energies into our life continuum. Inevitably there will be consequences. (And also, each moment filled with wholesome mental energies, such as mindfulness, compassion, stability, or love, introduces wholesome karmic energies.)

According to the tradition of mindfulness, this is just the way it is. It is a law of nature. Every act counts.

This Thursday Evening (Oct. 12, 2006), after our meditation period, we will recite together the Five Mindfulness Trainings and focus our discussion on the fifth training, Right Consumption. Our discussion will begin with the questions: In what ways did you learn as a child to rationalize unmindful consumption? In what ways do you continue to rationalize unmindful consumption?

I hope you can join us. 

The text of the five mindfulness trainings is available on our website under "Articles and Resources" and then "Still Water Ceremonies." There is also a commentary below on the Fifth Mindfulness Trainings by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Warm Wishes,

Mitchell Ratner
Senior Teacher
"Right Consumption," from a Dharma Talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh on August 2, 1998, in Plum Village, France.

The Fifth Mindfulness Training is about consumption. We have to be mindful when we consume. We have to know there are foods for our bodies, and for our souls, which are wholesome and healthy. When we eat them we will feel light, we will feel relieved, and we will be nourished in our bodies and our minds. But there are also things which, when we eat them, will destroy our bodies and our minds. There are books, there are newspapers, and there are television programs, which contain many poisons. We look at a newspaper, we look at a film, and so much violence, so much hatred, so much misunderstanding, so much fear, enters our bodies and our minds. When we stuff ourselves with this kind of thing every day, how can we avoid being sick? When we get angry, we just want to find an axe, or a knife, or a gun to shoot the other person. We don't know how to use loving speech. We don't know how to listen deeply, because we have ingested so much violence through the television programs. Every day we nourish ourselves with these kinds of poisons, violence, fear, and despair. Books, images, these things contain so many poisons, including craving and desire. Advertisements tell us, "You have to buy this to be happy." And if we buy this, we receive all the bad consequences. 

Happiness does not come from consuming. Happiness comes from removing the suffering in us all, and then happiness will appear. This is something very wonderful. Many of us think that happiness comes from consuming something, from bringing something from outside into us, but in fact, happiness comes from inside. When we can remove the materials of anger, violence, hatred, and despair from our souls, then happiness will open like a lotus flower, or like a rose. The happiness of a flower does not come from outside, the happiness of a flower comes from inside the flower, and our happiness is the same. Because we have negative material in our bodies and minds, we are not happy. If we can take these things out of our bodies, if we can drink a lot of source water, and urinate, then our bodies will feel happiness.

It's not because we eat a lot that we feel happy, especially when we eat poisonous things that make our body heavier and heavier every day. Our souls are the same: it's not because we digest many films, many books, many magazines that we feel happy, it's because we are able to remove the poisons from our souls. That is what listening to a Dharma talk is for. Listening to a Dharma talk is to take the misunderstanding out of us, to take the ignorance out of us, to take the craving out of us, to take the anger and hatred out of us. The more we take out of us, the more our hearts will feel light and free, and happiness will be possible. Happiness grows from inside out. You must remember that. You do not need to look for happiness outside of you. Therefore, the Fifth Mindfulness Training is about consuming in mindfulness. Every day, what we eat, what we drink, what we consume in the way of books and relationships is very important, because when we consume like that we can bring so many toxins into our bodies.