I Want More, More Than I Can Stomach!!!

The idea of Eat-All-You-Can is guaranteed to light up the faces of many. People pay good money to patronise buffet outlets in exchange for variety, choice and limitless gorging. From my experience, buffets quite often just brings out the worst in individuals. 

The typical mindset of a buffet patron:

1) I already paid x amount of money, so I need to eat the equivalent or more of x worth of food

2) I am not going to eat breakfast and lunch so that I can eat more than x worth of food

3) I am going to eat more than I actually can stomach so I don't have to eat breakfast tomorrow

4) I am going to stuff my face with all the expensive food (e.g. sashimi, oysters, scallops) even if I don't really like them because I already paid good money for it

5) I love the expensive food (e.g. sashimi, oysters, scallops) and will continue eating them even to the point that I feel like vomiting because I must eat more than the x amount that I am going to pay

6) I am allowed to indulge in as much expensive food (e.g. sashimi, oysters, scallops) as I can even though I only eat oats and banana on a normal day due to my chart topping cholesterol and blood pressure levels because I don't do this all the time 

7) I will pile as much sashimi as I can fit on the plate even though I probably can't finish it because it tends to run out in minutes and you never know when the platter will be replenished 

If you are a sashimi lover, you would really appreciate that deliciously creamy texture of fresh raw salmon slices that literally melt in your mouth.

Slices #1-3 - Blissful Enjoyment
Slices #4-6 - Slightly less Blissful Enjoyment
Slices #6-8 - Indifference
Slices #9-11 - Diminishing Enjoyment
Slices #12-15 - Disgust and Nausea 
Slices #16????? - And still some will go on despite alarm bells ringing in the head. 

Why? Because you have committed to pay a hefty RM89.90++ for the buffet and you had better make it worth every penny. So what do we achieve ultimately. In the end, not only does the pocket suffer, but so does the liver, the stomach, the heart, etc... What is left are feelings of deep regret and false declarations of future abstinence from such ridiculously hazardous gluttony.

**              **              ** 

A personal experience 2 weeks ago inspired me to write this post. After a relatively long stint avoiding buffets and suffering from the lack of dining-out choices, having just turned vegetarian, I was thrilled to hear about the All-You-Can-Eat and Pay-As-You-Wish meals at Annalakshmi Restaurant, in Brickfields. The spread they had at the buffet line was amazing and the quality of food, simply incontestable. And I was told that RM10 was more than the average donation. 

So here I was, in buffet-eater mode, momentarily detached from yogi-like etiquette and mindlessly over-gratifying my senses when i noticed from the corner of my eye, a father together with his teenage daughter humbly walking in. From their appearance, I guessed that they were not very well off. It flashed across my mind that this would be the perfect place to dine especially for less privileged people. A wonderfully cooked meal  (almost vegetarian fine-dining) for the amount you can afford to pay. I immediately assumed that they must have not had a good meal in a long time and would probably be happily filling up their plates with all the assortment of dishes displayed. 

But I was humbled beyond words as both father and daughter each barely took more than a palm-sized portion. And they didn't even go for a second round! At one point, the  father even poured his remaining dhall on the daughter's rice. That stopped me dead in my tracks, of chomping down on the 7th papadom. Suddenly I realised and became aware of how far I was from practising what I had just learned that week, the concept of Santosha or Contentment.

To apply a recently read article regarding Santosha in this context...

"We should not be obsessed by the object of desire (delicious free-flowing food) and seek superficial gratification (mindless enjoyment) with no regard for its consequences on ourselves (repulsive feeling of having over-eaten) or the world. We become attached to things (delicious free-flowing food) and people to avoid our personal discomfort (hunger). We are led to believe that satisfaction of our cravings (illusion of hunger) as well as our egos (not eating less than we pay) will bring happiness (calculated satisfaction). To the contrary, ignorance (no foresight of consequences), egoism (kiasu-syndrome), attachment (greed), aversion (thinking the stomach is inadequately filled) and clinging to the sensual (tantalizing the tastebuds) are actually obstacles to our contentment (eating only what we need) and our prospects for liberation (nurturing the body). These five obstacles (called kleshas in the yoga texts) are the causes of all suffering (negative effects of over-eating)."

What Maketh A True Practitioner

Just the practice of yoga asanas itself does not do the four letter word real justice. Yes, one might be able to perform the most difficult pose, bending into the perfect form of a king pigeon or jumping through so fluidly as if defying gravity but do you call that person a true yogi?

Being a true yoga practitioner goes beyond mere form. The physical aspect of it is just one part of the whole equation as it seeks to condition the body and tame the mind for greater things ahead. 

Right from the beginning of my TTC, Guru M had already encouraged us to incorporate awareness in our daily lives. At first it was quite tough but after 2 weeks of constantly reminding myself to be aware of any mundane task at hand (e.g. brushing teeth, drinking water, walking to the car) it became a lot easier. Also, I started to understand that this practice itself was to prepare us for the first of the eight limbs of yoga, which is yama, or code of conduct. 

Yama refers to how we conduct ourselves in relation to the world around us. There are altogether five Yamas - Ahimsa(Non-violence), Satya(Truthfulness), Asteya(Non-stealing), Bramacharya(Non-lust) and Aparigraha(Non-possessiveness). 

Anyway, to cut the story short, I came to the realisation that for the entire time I have read the philosophy of yoga and other spiritual matters, I had never really put what I had learned into conscious practice. Take Ahimsa for example. The act of non-violence does not only extend to obvious scenarios such as not resolving to road rage, not killing the back-stabbing colleague of yours or not throwing stones at a defenseless stray dog. Even verbal speech that cause emotional damage to the receiver constitutes as violence in the yogic context.

I am usually quick to display my emotions of displeasure whenever slightly ticked the wrong way. Most of the time, towards the unfortunate people who are closest to me. I have started to observe myself in such circumstances over the past week. It is crucial to catch yourself at the time just before reacting to an emotion as once externalised, it it irreversible and will not benefit both parties. By empathizing with the other, by respecting the other person's viewpoint, by speaking words of kindness, by hesitating just for a brief moment and analysing if the words about to come out of your mouth will improve the situation - all of these which are not practised enough in the world today.

Nobody is perfect but being aware and bringing it to practice whenever possible will definitely make a positive impact on yourself and the people around you.

The Ugly Truth

Two weeks ago I started my Yoga Teacher Training course. That was the start to 3 whole months of a regimented routine of diet, practice and study. At first, I was unfazed by the suggested daily program. Waking up at 6am, asana practice twice a day, vegetarian diet, abstinence from alcohol, hitting the sack at 10pm seemed like a breeze, especially after having experienced ashram life in India. But I could not be more wrong!

 

The main challenge that I face now is discipline. At the ashram, everyone was following the same routine, delicious vegetarian meals were prepared by the  in-house chef, we were ushered into the hall for asana and meditation practice at fixed times, all of us were living together and there was this collective energy that drove us constantly. But back in the world of internet, blackberrys and entertainment, a different reality starts to materialise. 

 

Last Saturday, I was invited to join some friends for a Halloween open mic session at one of those groovy nightspots. Everyone was having a jolly time drinking and enjoying the booming music. I was the only one  with nothing alcoholic to drink and had to be contented with a glass of lousy cranberry juice. To my surprise, I still had a great time partying into the night but as more alcohol was consumed and as social masks melted away I became a quiet observer to this altered dimension.

 

People were swaying to the tempo of the live music, singing and dancing uninhibitedly along to acoustic blues renditions. On a usually intoxicated night, i would have been a eager participant in this familiar scene. However, now having maintained a pure form of composure and mind state, I realised how  much stimulants can affect an individual. Suddenly it became clear to me that the mindless chatter, the binge drinking and the interplay of inflated egos were temporary and artificial highs that we feed off constantly to avoid facing the deeper issues we harbour inside.

 

I woke up with an awful taste of the 8 pints of beer I had consumed the night before. As consciousness dawned upon me, i started to dread an entire weekend of nursing my hangover. A couple of minutes later, while replaying the memories from the previous night, I realised that I hadn't had a single drop of alcohol!

 

Who said you can't have fun being sober!