Feed Everyone

The goodness we do is food for the mind. The Buddha talks about the food of intentions. When we intend to do something good, that nourishes the mind well. If you go through the day acting simply on selfish or narrow-minded intentions, the mind begins to starve. You can see the need for intentions in order to feed and gain strength. If all your intentions are thwarted, you get into severe depression. But when you realize that you can have an intention, act on it, and it does make a change for the better, both inside and outside, that gives you energy to do even more good.

This is one of the reasons why we meditate. We’re feeding the mind as we meditate. We feed the mind through generosity. We feed the mind through virtue. But the really good food is the food of the meditation. We can focus directly on the mind’s needs. It needs a place to settle down. It needs a place where it can gather its strength and be at peace.

As the Buddha said, “There is no happiness other than peace.” Sometimes that’s translated, “There’s no happiness higher than peace.” But no, he says, There’s no happiness other than peace. Whatever happiness we have in other things when the mind is not peaceful, it’s because there are just little moments of peace in those pleasures.

But we can give the mind the pleasure of generosity. It’s something you can feed on for a long time. Before you give a gift, you can think about how good it’s going to be. As you’re giving it, you’re also happy. When you reflect back on it afterwards, you’re also glad that you were able to be generous. That’s feeding the mind for the long term.

The same with virtue: You realize there are things that you could do and probably get away with it, but you realize you’re above that. When you see that you really can say No to your unskillful intentions, that gives you energy.

And particularly with meditation: When the mind begins to wander off, you can say, No and bring it right back. Say No again, bring it right back. It may take a while for the mind to settle down. But when it does, there’s a sense that you’ve cleansed the mind, lifted the value of the mind. That gives you energy as well. This is how you feed the mind well, in ways that don’t depend too much on things outside.

There are people who say we have to work for the good outside, and we do, in terms of our generosity and our virtue. But we also have to look after our needs inside because nobody else can look after them for us. And this is something we can all do: No matter how poor you are, no matter how rich you are, no matter how stupid or intelligent you are—you can do good. This is an energy; this is a food for all people, all beings.

So feed yourself well in this way, because the more you feed yourself, the less you’re taking things away from anyone else. You’re bringing more goodness to yourself and to the world as a whole.

Ajaan Suwat was once asked why we don’t have a God in Buddhism. If you had a God, then you could feel that the God would look after you when you couldn’t look after yourself. His reply: “If there were a God who could ordain that I take one mouthful of food and it feeds the whole world, I’d bow down to that God.”

That’s feeding the body. You can’t feed the body in that way, but you can feed the mind in that way—through acts of generosity, through acts of virtue, acts of meditation. You’re feeding yourself, and you’re feeding everyone else at the same time.

So. Feed yourself well in this way, and it’s a gift not only to yourself but also to all people around you.