Daily Dharma

Reflection at the Moment of Using

Properly considering
    alms food I use it:
Not playfully, not for
    intoxication,
Nor for fattening, nor
    for beautification,
Only for the continuation
    and nourishment
Of this body, for
    keeping it unharmed,
For helping with the
    brahmacariya
    (virtue),
(Thinking) I shall
    destroy old feeling
    (of hunger)
And not produce new
    feeling (of overeating, etc.)
Thus there will be for me
    freedom from
    (bodily) troubles
    and living at ease.

...from Chapter 4, The Anthropology of Place in Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun, page 82