Nutriments For A Better Life

                        Happiness (I mean true happiness) is not a common commodity and can really only be achieved by looking inside oneself and being mindful of everything.  Buddhism is all about identifying what suffering is and replacing it with happiness, and a way to do this is by correctly nurturing your body. There are four nutriments that, when properly indulged in, will bring happiness instead of suffering. The four nutriments are edible food, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. Being mindful of these four important nutrients will help use nurture our suffering into that of real happiness.

                        Edible food is the first nutrient. “Much of our suffering comes from not eating mindfully. We have to learn ways to eat that preserve health and well-being of our body and our spirit” (page 32). When we eat healthy foods we bring happiness and when we eat unhealthy we allow poison to enter our bodies which bring us suffering. We must also be mindful of how the food that we eat has arrived to us. For our own well-being we feel better when the food that we have eaten has come to us with as little pain as possible. If we eat eggs from free range chickens as opposed to inhumanely treated and constantly caged chickens then we are decreasing our suffering if we are eating mindfully. What one person eats affects all of the others around them; if a parent in a family smokes then they are not only increasing suffering in themselves but everyone around them by second hand smoke. If that person has children or a job where others depend on them then they are also brining more suffering to them because by not leading a healthy life style and allowing toxins into their body they make themselves less dependable. I try to be mindful when I eat and avoid toxins like smoking and drinking to excuses (never been drunk) but it is hard (food wise). My sister is a vegetarian and has been one for a long time now, and one of the things she is aware of is the cruelties that animals endure. I am aware of this as well because of her so I try to be mindful of where the food is coming from. As for eating healthy, well… I have a very fast metabolism so I can eat any amount of anything basically and it has no effect on my body (I’m tall and skinny and been that way for literally ever, gaining weight is simply not a possibility) so I can get carried away from time to time. I can defiantly tell that when I eat healthy I do feel better though and am still mindful of where it comes from.

                        The next nutriment is sense impressions. We must be mindful of the media that we take in though our six senses. We must be aware of what we take in throughout our daily lives from the internet and TV. If we are not mindful then we will bring pain and suffering upon ourselves. “Advertisements that stimulate our craving for possessions, sex, and food can be toxic,” as well as “unwholesome TV programs, books, magazines, and games” (page 33). If we are not aware that what we are taking in though our ears or eyes is unwholesome and watering the seeds of violence or fear or craving then we will suffer. Everyone knows that spending all day in front of the TV (or now a days the internet) is bad for them, but most will say it’s because they are not getting fresh air or are being unproductive. These are true but what else is true is that those shows and videos are probably not all wholesome and being watched mindfully and therefore will cause suffering in that person. As for me I actually rarely watch TV and I rarely have time to play video games at college. (I’m going to make up for that when I get home tomorrow though…) However, I do spend a decent amount of time on the internet and I am aware that spending too much time on the internet is a bad thing so I mostly hang out with friends in order to break up the time spent on my computer. I do gain happiness from using my computer (for which I expressed my love for in the previous blog post) but I have had my fair share of suffering form it too and that result is from me not being mindful of the things I am doing. Now I do play games, of which most are violent and I am very good at (I’m extremely good, and have an ego) them and they bring me a lot of happiness and it is because I do it mindfully. I don’t have all the time in the world so I can’t play that much at one time and I am completely aware that what I’m killing in games are nothing more than pixels. Media when used correctly can bring happiness but it can bring suffering if not mindfully taken in. or mistreated.

                        The third nutriment is volition and it is the “intention, or will – the desire in us to obtain whatever it is we want” (page 34). Our volition is the driving force behind the things that we do and the goals that we want to achieve to bring us happiness. Our desires are a major source of our pain because if we cannot achieve our goal of being the president of a successful business, we feel pain and suffering for failing at this. We live and breathe our desire to achieve goals every waking moment, and then we dream about them. If we do become the president of a successful business, we want more and keep on going and acquiring more and more. “We always try to accumulate more and more,” and this is where the suffering comes from (page 34).  One’s volition must be deeply looked upon in order to identify if it is bringing the person peace of mind or suffering. In academics I strive for high grades and there are times when I am really happy and relieved when I succeed, but there have been plenty of times where I fall short of my goal or I achieve it and it didn’t make me as happy as I thought it would. When my goals are not met it brings me suffering and sometimes when they are earned, I take a step back and wonder if the sacrifices made were worth it, did I really need to study for that long or could I have studied less and hung out with friends and achieved the same goal (grade in this case). The sacrifices that are made to achieve my goal (it’s even worse if I don’t achieve them) sometimes undermine the goal itself and brings pain to me.

                        The last nutriment is consciousness, “every day our thoughts, words, and actions flow into the sea of our consciousness and create our body, mind, and world” (page 36). It is “composed of all the seeds sown by our past actions and the past actions of our family and society” (page 36). Everyone and everything we do affects our consciousness and by practicing the “four immeasurable minds of love, compassion, joy, and equanimity” we can avoid suffering (page 36). Suffering comes from when we give in to our greed or pride, or hatred as we are not being mindful when we do so. Our consciousness is always on even when we are asleep and is always feeding, and what we give it to feed on will determine if we will bring suffering or happiness upon ourselves. The consciousness is affected by everyone around us so if those around us are giving into their greed or hatred then we will suffer as well. In high school it was all (and I do mean all) about the drama. Where everyone was getting mad about very minute problems and getting into petty little arguments left and right. Now I wasn’t involved (we’ll just say for the most part here) in that stuff much and so I had great fun in high school but college is sooooo much better than high school ever was. Now it’s fun for a lot of reasons, like being on your own and doing what you want, but the people are great here and it’s a lot of fun because of them. There is a lot less drama at college and you can just feel the difference between high school and college in that regard. College is just simply better in a lot of ways and one of those is because of the people here are far less negative than those in high school.

                        Buddhism is all about identifying suffering and replacing it with happiness and by mindfully indulging in the four nutriments will be a great step toward bringing about happiness to your life. Leaning about it has affected my life and made me aware of what I am doing and even if I can’t (and trust me I don’t by far) follow these guidelines perfectly, I can still lessen my suffering by trying and being aware of what causes happiness and what causes suffering.

Nhá̂t, Hạnh. The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy & Liberation : The Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and Other Basic Buddhist Teachings. New York: Broadway, 1999. Print.