Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Mindfulness allows us to ask why we’re reaching out so much to consume—to open the fridge, switch on a streaming channel, or pick up our phone. It’s only human to cover up painful feelings of loneliness, fear, and despair with a bit of distraction and stimulation. But as practitioners, we know that covering up our suffering with consumption may only make the situation worse. When we do that, we lose the chance to take care of the feelings that are there, and we may introduce even more negativity into our lives.

Consuming mindfully is an art, not a strict regimen. It’s up to each one of us to discern what’s healthy and what’s not, guided by our own insight of interbeing and compassion. For each person it’s different: there are no hard-and-fast rules for mindful consuming. It’s up to us to identify, with the energy of mindfulness, whether what we’re consuming feeds our compassion, hope, and action, or whether it waters seeds of fear and despair. Each of us has to come up with our own strategy to take our consuming in a better direction.’ (from Lion’s Roar)