Mitra
04-03-2006, 06:04 AM
There's an Indian story (in the Taittiriya Upanishad) about a boy who asks his father to teach him about the source of life. His father tells him to go away and meditate on what produces and supports the body, life, sight, hearing, mind and speech and what they return to after death.
The boy comes back and reports that having done his meditation he has discovered that food is the source of life. We eat food to grow and develop, we need it to sustain us, and when we die we become food for other creatures.
I sometimes feel that's where we are - we've had problems, looked into how our bodies work, discovered that they need the right fuel to run properly, and generally spent a lot of time meditating on food!
In the story, though, the son isn't quite satisfied with this answer, so he comes back to his father and is sent off to meditate again on the same question. The next time, he comes back and says that the answer is that breath is the source of life. In the same way that food stands for the physical body, breath stands for the activities of the body. Our boy's discovered the benefits of exercise!
But he's still not quite satisfied, so they go round the cycle again. This time he comes up with the mind: intellectual activity. And that's the starting point here in the Other 20% section. Yes, there is life beyond diet and exercise :D.
Actually, the intellect doesn't satisfy this young Indian boy, either. He goes through the process twice more, finding "heart" at the fourth time, and "joy" or spirit on his fifth and final attempt.
With rather more brevity than I've achieved, the Eadeses say, "A lifestyle program that maximises physical health, but ignores mental, spiritual and emotional health is half a program."
When your diet is well-established, and you're exercising regularly, I don't think it's conducive to greater happiness or fulfilment to continue fretting about every detail of your menu, or worrying about whether you need to lose another 1/2% of body fat. I love food, and I love to cook. It will always occupy a good chunk of my time and attention, but I've reached a point where I don't need to devote much time and energy to how to improve my health through food. I've achieved the major returns, and reached the point where large amounts of additional effort will only produce a tiny benefit. The same with exercise - I'm doing it, and getting the major returns. Those things just need a low level of effort to keep them on track.
If you still have big problems sticking with your food and exercise goals, then that's probably where you need to focus your efforts, but if they're more or less under control, what's next?
I want to work on some mental things - reading, learning languages; music I think bridges the gap - it's partly mental and partly about the heart, poetry could come in here, too. And I want to devote more time to meditation, which I've rather neglected in my yoga practice in my efforts to build up the exercise part.
Bearing in mind Gaelen's posts on habits, I'm not going to try to do all of this at once, but it's all there in the queue. This month I'm starting by establishing the habit of setting aside time for reading and music. When that's settled, I'll look at how to develop it.
Does this make any sense to anybody else? Is there enough interest that we can help one another along in these areas?
The boy comes back and reports that having done his meditation he has discovered that food is the source of life. We eat food to grow and develop, we need it to sustain us, and when we die we become food for other creatures.
I sometimes feel that's where we are - we've had problems, looked into how our bodies work, discovered that they need the right fuel to run properly, and generally spent a lot of time meditating on food!
In the story, though, the son isn't quite satisfied with this answer, so he comes back to his father and is sent off to meditate again on the same question. The next time, he comes back and says that the answer is that breath is the source of life. In the same way that food stands for the physical body, breath stands for the activities of the body. Our boy's discovered the benefits of exercise!
But he's still not quite satisfied, so they go round the cycle again. This time he comes up with the mind: intellectual activity. And that's the starting point here in the Other 20% section. Yes, there is life beyond diet and exercise :D.
Actually, the intellect doesn't satisfy this young Indian boy, either. He goes through the process twice more, finding "heart" at the fourth time, and "joy" or spirit on his fifth and final attempt.
With rather more brevity than I've achieved, the Eadeses say, "A lifestyle program that maximises physical health, but ignores mental, spiritual and emotional health is half a program."
When your diet is well-established, and you're exercising regularly, I don't think it's conducive to greater happiness or fulfilment to continue fretting about every detail of your menu, or worrying about whether you need to lose another 1/2% of body fat. I love food, and I love to cook. It will always occupy a good chunk of my time and attention, but I've reached a point where I don't need to devote much time and energy to how to improve my health through food. I've achieved the major returns, and reached the point where large amounts of additional effort will only produce a tiny benefit. The same with exercise - I'm doing it, and getting the major returns. Those things just need a low level of effort to keep them on track.
If you still have big problems sticking with your food and exercise goals, then that's probably where you need to focus your efforts, but if they're more or less under control, what's next?
I want to work on some mental things - reading, learning languages; music I think bridges the gap - it's partly mental and partly about the heart, poetry could come in here, too. And I want to devote more time to meditation, which I've rather neglected in my yoga practice in my efforts to build up the exercise part.
Bearing in mind Gaelen's posts on habits, I'm not going to try to do all of this at once, but it's all there in the queue. This month I'm starting by establishing the habit of setting aside time for reading and music. When that's settled, I'll look at how to develop it.
Does this make any sense to anybody else? Is there enough interest that we can help one another along in these areas?