RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
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Sensual misconduct is
unhealthy. Refraining from sensual misconduct is healthy. (MN 9)
Abandoning sensual misconduct, one abstains from misbehaving among
sensual pleasures. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may engage in
sensual misconduct, but I will abstain from sensual misconduct.” (MN 8)
Food is of two kinds: to be cultivated and not to be cultivated. Such
food as causes, in one who cultivates it, unhealthy states to increase
and healthy states to diminish, such food is not to be cultivated. But
such food as causes, in one who cultivates it, unhealthy states to
diminish and healthy states to increase, such food is to be cultivated.
(MN 114)
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Here is an
approach to food we are probably unfamiliar with. The issue is not what
kind of nutrients the food provides but what kind of emotional states
the consumption of it evokes. What is unhealthy here is greed, not sugar
or cholesterol. If eating kale—to randomly pick a healthy food—were to
provoke greed and lust for more, that would be encouraging sensual
misconduct. Even if the food is healthy, greed is unhealthy and bad for
you.
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Practice
mindful eating by cultivating an attitude of equanimity when you eat.
Some things taste good, some things taste bad. You are not forced to
relish one and detest the other. Take your attention off the object of
taste itself and place it instead on the experience of eating it. The
problem with pleasure and displeasure is that they provoke craving,
either for or against the object. Try remaining attentive but
unattached.
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Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication
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