Steven Harper - Meal Chant Stew

A meal is the whole universe that food exists within—a universe that deserves its own type of ritual and honoring before getting into the containers of it.

Chef Sati Invites You to Dinner Chef Sati—a chef and Buddhist teacher—invited us to dinner to introduce us to the art of mindful cooking and eating. He promised that his dishes would enlighten our senses and that the evening would simply be an opportunity to touch the joy of life, but we would all have to take an active part in the meal. He placed

at the empty plates in front of us that we were eager to fill with the scrumptious food that Chef Sati had assembled in the middle of the table. He gently exclaimed, “It’s so wonderful for us to be together, and I am so grateful we can share this dinner because in many other parts of the world, our empty plates might remain empty for a long time. E

Did we actually taste it and chew it and swallow it properly, that one object of beauty, that one spiritual teaching? Or did we merely regard it as a part of our vast and growing collection?

The Five Contemplations 1. This food is the gift of the whole universe: the earth, the sky, numerous living beings, and much hard, loving work. 2. May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude so as to be worthy to receive it. 3. May we recognize and transform our unwholesome mental formations, especially our greed, and learn to eat with moderation. 4.

Over the years, our communal Shabbat practice at Lama has morphed into something only vaguely Jewish. But it draws on the contemplative essence of the ancient ritual and adapts it to meet both the spiritual thirst and the wariness of organized religion that characterize our times.

In Judaism, eating is a spiritual practice, sanctified by benedictions before and after the meal, which are intended to bring mindfulness and intentionality to what might otherwise be a mere gustatory

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