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Nutriments of Mind: Mindful Healing, Dharma Doors, and Anger’s Transformation
If illness or depression arise, look deeply into its “nutriments” — the ways you’ve been living, the stress, the fears and worries you’ve fed yourself. Identify and cut off those sources, then practice
- total relaxation of body and mind (even a few minutes alone daily),
- mindful breathing, walking and sitting,
- occasional fasting (under medical advice),
- body‐scanning with loving-kindness.
In a few weeks you’ll notice healing, and by living the Five Mindfulness Trainings you protect body and consciousness from toxic “foods.”
Buddhism offers 84 000 “Dharma doors” — among them:
• the door of devotion, where you may pray to an external “you” (ancestors, Buddha statue, God) that awakens the Buddha or divine energy within,
• the door of knowledge, where you look deeply into reality.
Use rituals and symbols wisely to touch the inner peace, then go beyond form.
Anger is a seed in the garden of your consciousness. Don’t fight or suppress it, but embrace it with the energy of mindfulness (śamatha), calm it through breathing and walking, then look deeply (vipaśyanā) into its roots so it transforms into compassion. True love follows four ingredients:
- maitrī – the capacity to bring happiness,
- karuṇā – the capacity to remove suffering,
- joy,
- equanimity.