Master Helped Me Let Go of My Attachment to Food

(Minghui.org) Eating is a basic human need, but it’s also a major source of enjoyment, so it’s easy to get attached. I was born in China in the 1950s. Before I attended college, just having enough to eat was a blessing. After I started working, food and clothing were no longer major concerns, but supporting a family didn’t allow for much indulgence. My favorite food was the fragrant, starchy pumpkin. If I found some I liked, I often bought a lot.

After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I developed a reaction. After eating pumpkin for a few days in a row, my skin turned yellow, especially on my face, hands, and feet. It was so striking that people thought I had liver problems. As a teacher, it didn’t look good. I didn’t want to keep explaining myself, so I was forced to cut back. I didn’t realize that Master was helping me let go of my attachment to eating pumpkin. But since I didn’t enlighten to it, new preferences kept popping up.

Early one winter day, I spent hours handling my husband’s medical reimbursements. By 3 p.m. it was snowing heavily, and I was cold and hungry. I went to get some spicy fish stew, only to find the restaurant was closed for renovation. I proceeded to a nearby eatery I knew, but it had moved. So I went home and made a simple bowl of noodles. I didn’t enlighten to anything—I just felt I was unlucky.

Another time after clarifying the facts to people until past 1 p.m., I walked into a restaurant I'd never been to before and had some dumplings. They were delicious, so I went back twice and even took friends. The next time I went there, the shop was being renovated. The next year even the signboard was gone. Still, I didn’t enlighten. I just regretted losing a restaurant I liked.

My four sisters and I met up and were deciding what to eat for lunch. I said I’d been craving fried dough sticks and soy milk from a specific shop, but it was a breakfast place. One sister said there was a 24-hour branch nearby. We were excited and walked over, only to see a big “relocated” sign. I still didn’t enlighten, and just joked that I had no luck with food.

The following year I planned to visit a certain city. Before the trip I bought some pastries my sister recommended. Because of the persecution I have ID issues so I had to take a long-distance bus instead of the train. As I was boarding, my sisters handed me my things, but forgot the box of pastries. On the four-hour ride, all I could find to eat were frozen bean buns. I gnawed on one but craved the pastries. I laughed with a bitter taste that I really had no luck with food.

Thinking back on these disappointments with food, I suddenly realized that nothing is accidental in cultivation. Wasn’t Master helping me eliminate my attachment to picky eating?

Master said:

“The issue of food does not just involve meat, as one should not be attached to any kind of food. The same is true with other things. Some people say that they just like to eat a particular food—that is also a desire. After reaching a certain level of cultivation, a cultivator will not have this attachment.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)

I could recite this Fa (teaching) yet I never applied it to myself. I feel ashamed for not recognizing Master’s hints and guidance.

Afterwards, I understood that a cultivator should just eat what’s available or convenient, and not get attached to any particular food. I’ve gradually become less picky. Letting go of attachments helps me feel relaxed. I can spend holidays just like any regular day, and I haven’t made dumplings for over a decade.

One New Year’s Eve I simply had a cucumber and a bowl of porridge. Why? First, I’m not craving and don’t care much about food. Second, I don’t want to waste time. That time is better spent studying the Fa, doing the exercises, or even taking a nap. Third, I live alone. If someone else were around I’d cook proper meals. But the attachment to picky eating doesn’t go away overnight, I still like coffee and chocolate. I’ve hoarded 10 boxes of chocolates.

Last year seven siblings met in our hometown. My younger brother treated us to a feast of many dishes. But I didn’t feel like having a second bite of anything, and I showed it. Worse, I told a sister, which led her to blame our brother. That was my fault. My brother is generous, and maybe this was Master’s way of helping me let go of pickiness of food. Nothing in cultivation is trivial. Without sincerity and seriousness, it’s hard to make progress.

Of course, as cultivators, we should treasure food. Self-restraint is necessary, gluttony is a kind of waste. Elderly practitioners may overeat or habitually finish leftovers, resulting in bloated, unsightly appearances. But we also shouldn’t go to the other extreme and starve ourselves. Some practitioners say food doesn’t matter, and that hunger doesn’t affect them anymore. Maybe I’m not at that level yet, but Master said that using cultivation energy to sustain the body is not worthwhile. Not feeling hunger isn’t necessarily a sign of high-level cultivation. We shouldn’t go to extremes because that’s an attachment.

This is my limited understanding at my current level. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.