Toshihiro: Now we want to lead you through a Mindfulness Eating exercise. We have invited Toryo Ito of Ryosoku-in Temple to act as the facilitator for this meditation. He also leads a plant meditation that utilizes the olive tree itself.
Tadakatsu: We were pleasantly surprised the first time we participated in this meditation, and we hope you will try it as well.
[Olive Candy Experience]
Ito: Hello, I am Toryo Ito, the acting deputy head priest of Ryosoku-in Temple and the facilitator for ON THE TRIP’s sister app, the Zen Meditation app IN TRIP.
We would like you to take the next seven minutes to participate in our Olive Candy Experience, in which you will slowly focus on the experience of eating candy.
This candy is made using Shodoshima Olive Oil. You may think of meditation as something that you have to sit quietly and cross-legged for, but it's actually something that can be done anywhere, at any time. For example, when you are cleaning the house, or when you are walking, turning all of your focus toward that one action is actually a practice of mindfulness.
Let's take a moment now to focus on eating this piece of candy and nothing else.
You aren’t just eating the candy.
We want you to imagine you have just discovered, for the first time in your life, the existence of this candy.
Before you eat the candy, take a moment to observe it, as if it was some foreign object you are observing for the very first time. What does it feel like to touch?
What color is the candy? How does it feel against your fingers?
Let's take a few seconds to observe the visual aspects.
Once you’re done observing the candy, it’s time to place the candy in your mouth. As you remove it from its packaging, you might notice your mouth begin to salivate.
As you place the candy in your mouth, ask yourself the following questions:
How large is the candy?
How does it smell?
As you place the candy against your tongue, what observations can you make about how it feels?
We will give you seven minutes to focus your attention on this piece of candy and observe how it feels.
How did that experience make you feel? This is probably the first time many of you have turned all of your attention towards eating a piece of candy. Eating is something we normally do without thinking, but if you take your time and pay attention to the experience, you get a new perspective and make new discoveries.
Noticing the small things in life helps us to feel happier in our day-to-day lives. Use this as an opportunity to make time for practicing mindfulness eating in your own life as well.
