The Food of Meditation
F. Garrett
Asian Medicine September 2, 2019 DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341435 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that Tibetan Buddhist contemplative dietary teachings, which instruct meditators to abstain from material food and subsist on the "essence" of breath through visualization and yogic movement, also function as medical texts: they reframe hunger as an illness and reconstruct its pathology so that hunger becomes a tool for enlightenment. The author further suggests that such dietary abstinence is ultimately oriented toward self-perfection. |
Abstract
Beginning with stories of hunger and food magic in Tibetan biographies, I explore a dietary practice of total abstinence from material foods. Buddhist meditators are said to enjoy “the food of meditation” or “the food of the sky.” Texts teach meditators how to use visualization and yogic movement to “extract the essence” of breath and use it as food. When discussing illnesses that may be experienced by retreatants, these texts identify hunger as illness. Examining how dietary teachings for Buddhist contemplatives are also medical textbooks, I propose that these food practices reconstruct the pathology of hunger, turning hunger into a tool for enlightenment. After a quick look at dietary asceticism in Indic and other traditions, I suggest that in these Tibetan examples, dietary abstinence is ultimately about self-perfection.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |