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Great Assembly 1 - Southern Tradition No. 18
The four words “the joy of meditation is food” invite us to take the joy of meditation as nourishment and the fullness of dharma happiness as our source of life, not only nurturing body and mind but also healing all wounds. Every daily activity—eating rice, drinking tea, washing dishes, walking meditation, sitting meditation—becomes meditation practice when performed with peace and happiness in the heart. That joy has two main effects:
- nurturing body and mind with pure energy, mindfulness, and peace
- transforming suffering and illness through contemplation of impermanence and non-self
The Buddha warned that reverence and material gain can erode virtue; when receiving offerings and homage, the practitioner must immediately collect the mind and maintain solid mindfulness. Through contemplation of the six sense organs—form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and objects of mind—and the eighteen elements, we recognize three wrong views about self:
- believing this body is me
- believing this body belongs to me
-
believing this body and I exist together
Overcoming these three wrong views with insight leads to letting go of self-clinging and to liberation.