A Buddhist Prayer for Food
2010 June 30
I got this prayer from one of my best friends, David, who had it passed to him from a friend. I think it is particularly poignant for those of us who strive daily to find value in what we eat.
Innumerable labors have brought us this food; we should know how it comes to us.
As we receive this offering, we should consider whether our virtue and practice deserve it. As we desire the natural condition of the mind, to be free from clinging, we must be free from greed.
To support our life we take this food; to attain the Buddha way we take this food.
We offer this food to benefit all beings, to save all beings that are sentient, and to attain the Buddha way.
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I’m thinking this probably isn’t said over a nice heaping of meat, eh? Oy! The conflict. But it is a lovely sentiment. I have always liked that in my religious tradition, we honor the land and the people who grew the food, in addition to giving thanks to the divine. But then again, what’s more divine than the earth and those who tend it?
Really lovely.. especially the “we offer this food to benefit all beings”….