Diversity Q & A

Does your culture or religion influence the way you feel about food?

Sujato

The Buddha said that everyone has to eat.  Sounds obvious, but how often do you stop to think about it?  Every day, we put food in our mouths.  That food came from somewhere – the kitchen, right?  Before that, from a shop and it was taken to the shop by a truck.  The truck brought the food from a farm, where originally it was a plant.  That plant grew in the ground, where it depended on the rain, the soil, the sun, and the air – and also on the hard work of the farmers to plant, nurture, and harvest it.  So food connects us with all these people: shop-owners, truck-drivers, cooks, farmers – and it connects us with nature.  Each time we eat we reflect on this, and have gratitude for all these things that have come together just so we can have something to eat.