[Fcm-News] Mindful Consumption Month

[FCM Updates]

*Mindful Consumption Month -- August 2008***

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

After realizing awakening, the Buddha shared his insight through his 
teaching of the Four Noble Truths, which are the Noble Truths of 
suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the 
path leading to the cessation of suffering. In "The Heart of the 
Buddha's Teaching," Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) discusses the second Noble 
Truth, the origin of suffering, and states:

 

"After we touch our suffering, we need to look deeply into it to see how 
it came to be. We need to recognize and identify the spiritual and 
material foods we have ingested that are causing us to suffer."

 

While we study and practice these teachings throughout the year, many of 
our Sangha members make a special effort each August to diligently 
practice Mindful Consumption. As Thay teaches, we look deeply to 
understand what spiritual and material foods we are ingesting that are 
causing suffering for us, our loved ones, our society, and our planet. 
We make a commitment during this month to seriously study and practice 
the Fifth Mindfulness Training and to "fast" from certain patterns of 
consumption that are not _essential_ for the good health, both physical 
and mental, for ourselves, our family and our society. The commitment is 
personal; some of us may commit to making no discretionary purchases, we 
may stop watching TV or listening to commercial radio, and/or we may 
stop surfing the Internet or constantly checking email, for example.

 

*Looking at Our Patterns of Consumption*

As we look at our consumption habits, we may find that some of our 
unhealthy behaviors -- perhaps overeating, alcohol consumption, or 
shopping -- are obvious, while others --such as listening to gossip, 
excessive emailing, or filling our lives with incessant activity -- may 
be more subtle. Each of us can apply mindfulness to understand what 
patterns of consumption are causing our own personal suffering. In 
Chapter 7 of "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching," Thay provides 
guidance for looking deeply at these patterns so that we can stop 
ingesting the "nutriments" that cause us to suffer.  He tells us that 
looking deeply requires courage, and suggests that we may want to 
journal as we begin to clearly identify symptoms of our suffering. He 
also encourages us to enlist the support of our friends, our family and 
our teacher as we work to identify and stop ingesting the nutriments 
that cause our suffering.

 

*Understanding WHY We May Consume in an Unhealthy Manner*

We may easily recognize certain of our unhealthy consumption patterns, 
but find great difficulty in trying to change these habits. 
Understanding the root cause of our attachment to the items we consume 
is of great benefit in transforming our habits. In his recent Dharma 
talk on Mindful Consumption (available at www.floridamindfulness.org 
<http://www.floridamindfulness.org/>), our teacher Fred Eppsteiner 
discusses how we as human beings relate to the world through our six 
senses (the sixth being our mind). Through these senses we enter the 
world of phenomena and objects. It is in our relationship to objects 
that we move away from our true nature if we're not careful. Seeing 
objects as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral is natural; however, we take 
it one step further, wanting to grab and hold onto the pleasant objects 
or experiences, and push away the unpleasant ones.  Over time, this 
attraction and aversion becomes stronger, and we move away from our 
natural state of being to becoming more and more externally driven by 
the world of objects. This outer world is constantly changing, so we 
stay very busy consuming to try to satisfy our inner needs, a strategy 
bound to leave us unfulfilled.

 

Fred teaches that we need to stop and look at what is going on within us 
that we may be trying (unsuccessfully, in the long run) to cover over or 
run from by external consumption. What uncomfortable feelings may be 
there that we don't want to experience? Boredom, loneliness, 
unhappiness? We need to identify these underlying feelings that may be 
driving unhealthy consumption, and then learn to be with ourselves and 
others in a more healthy and healing way that will produce the joy and 
happiness that we yearn for.

 

*Resources for Our Month of Practice*

There are many wonderful resources for helping us to become more aware 
of our consumption patterns, as well as advice for making changes to 
simplify our lives.  In addition to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and 
our teacher Fred, there are many other good Buddhist teachings that can 
help us better understand the roots of unhealthy consumption, such as 
Pema Chodren's book/CD "Unstuck." Googling, one can find sites such as 
zenhabits.net <http://zenhabits.net/>, with a wealth of ideas and 
articles for simplifying your life. Books by Stephanie Kaza ("Hooked!"), 
John de Graaf ("Affluenza") and Joe Dominguez  ("Your Money or Your 
Life") are just a few of the many excellent resources available.  Of 
course, given that we are practicing Mindful Consumption, those of us 
with a tendency to overindulge in the consumption of information may 
want to be particularly mindful to our activity in this area!

 

Our Sangha brother Wes Cowley has created a forum for us to use to share 
these ideas: http://forum.floridamindfulness.org/. Several members have 
already contributed ideas, including providing Thay's wonderful "Earth 
Peace Treaty Commitment Sheet," which offers many ideas for commitments 
we can make to reduce the impact of our ecological footprint on the 
Earth. Please visit the site to share ideas and provide support for your 
sangha brothers and sisters who are practicing Mindful Consumption with 
you during the month of August.

 

Whether you decide to join this practice for a month, a week, a day, or 
are already firmly on the path of Mindful Consumption, we are grateful 
to all members of our community for their support of each other as we 
continue to apply the wisdom of the Buddha and so many wonderful 
teachers in transforming our lives.

 

With metta,

 

The Florida Community of Mindfulness

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