RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
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What is the cessation of
suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving
up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9)
When one knows and understands flavors as they actually are, then one is
not attached to flavors. When one abides unattached, one is not
infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental
troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental
well-being. (MN 149)
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Just as
suffering is constructed moment by moment by attaching to the details of
sensual experience, wanting the flavors we like and not wanting the
flavors we don’t like, so too that very moment of suffering can be
deconstructed by abandoning the wanting and not wanting and replacing it
with equanimity. We still experience the flavor, directly and intently,
but without being entangled with it—only aware of it.
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Practice eating
with equanimity. Simply take a bite, chew it slowly and carefully,
attending fully to every nuance of texture and flavor, and then swallow
when appropriate. All this is done with great awareness but without
favoring or opposing any aspect of the experience. When you experience
flavors “unattached” and “without infatuation,” you are, in that brief
moment at least, entirely free of suffering.
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Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
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