Tantra of Nutrition. That Which Fills
Those who walk the path of nurturing happiness,
not only in this world but also in other worlds,
must pay close attention to
nourishing their brains.
Jie Kong
Tantra of nutrition is a teaching related to the understanding of nutrition, in which food is viewed from the perspective of human transformation and development. Tantra of nutrition is the art of interacting with that which nourishes our body and that which is the source of nourishment that can refine our energy and our brain.
According to the tantra of nutrition, eating should be seen as an offering, as it is in many traditional cultures. The recipient of the offering is our own consciousness and our spirit. And if a person is cultivating their own spiritual qualities, it is important to build their relationship with food from the perspective of nourishing the spirit, and for this, it is important to accept the concept of the energy content of food and its quality. Not only the food itself is important, but also its preparation and even its serving. That is, eating is primarily a mental ritual that shapes attitudes toward food, its ethics, and aesthetics.
Tantra of nutrition teaches proper interaction with healthy food, according to which food is not just a gift that sustains our lives, but also a source of inner effort and concentration, an act of spiritual evolution. The act of eating itself is an experience, and in many cultures, it is placed above the erotic experience in its energetic characteristics.
Extracting energy from food through consciousness is also the alchemical act of obtaining and transforming the essence from the food you are using. By taking food without proper inner effort, we not only limit ourselves in accepting the underlying properties of food, but we also form a reaction to the physical aspect of eating. Therefore, in the process of learning the tantra of nutrition, it is necessary to form an experience of accepting food from the perspective of its real benefits for our development. It is important not to develop a reaction to food, but to form the art of perceiving it independently of the act of eating, which means to understand nutrition as a more complex set of actions.
The most important thing in tantra nutrition is not to consume food excessively and often, otherwise, reactions are formed in the stomach that begin to direct the human mind. The brain begins to depend not on its own activity, but on the activity of the stomach. If this is not achieved, the next step, control over breathing, is also impossible. The mental attitude toward food is also important for understanding the mentality associated with cooking. And in this process, it is not the name of the product that is important, but its energy frequency, which is often determined not by the product itself, but by where and how it is grown or prepared.
By not paying attention, we are not using food on a spiritual level and can even become infected with negative energies that form negative reactions in us. The product, its preparation, and its consumption are a single chain that can be negatively affected by learned habits that are not just the basis for our mental irritation, but also a type of addiction.
Saying that we like this or that food only regulates our habits, many of which do not actually nourish our bodies but destroy them — say, the consumption of sugar, salt, modified foods, or simply chemical substitutes for taste. And in this pattern, we can fall not just into an addiction to food but also form a mental limitation that is easily diagnosed by the behavior of a hungry person. The tantra of nutrition is incompatible with a state of irritation or nervousness. It is a way of harmonizing our relationship with what we call food.
Of course, it is impossible to maintain a contemplative attitude in this matter without proper practical experience (as it is impossible to call for this attitude). The proper experience or act of will is important here. The person who is interested in the state of their consciousness must accept that the brain must be nourished if they are to develop it. It is only possible to nourish the brain if we are not dependent on nourishing the stomach.
The brain can only be nourished by the work of the brain itself and by food of a certain energetic quality, which has its own individuality. The individuality of food is usually related to its energy, taste, and here it is important to practice the mental attunement to it and, of course, to beware of excess, which leads to a loss of benefit even from a useful product.
Any product that is useless or harmful will not go unnoticed by your internal system, and the principle of “something to eat” is as unacceptable as “something to drink”. This is the moment of truth for us: if we cannot refuse food that is of no benefit to our mind, then we are dependent on a reaction called hunger.
The very notion of starvation is unacceptable to Tantra nutrition. Not taking external food is not starvation. The tantra of nutrition points to many sources of nourishment, and the basis of this process is our mentality in a concentrated state, by which we increase the production of energy, the breath. When we harmonize this process, we reduce the burning of available energy. A great help in this matter is the consumption of water. When we understand its quality, we are able to nourish ourselves with the elements we need.
In order to talk about external nutrition as a benefit, a person needs to cleanse themselves of what they have already eaten, nourished, and implanted in themselves. This is the idea behind the Tantric diet: eating not based on “want,” but based on the rationality of the process. By consuming food from a position of desire or out of selfish need, we move away from a spiritual relationship not only to food but also to ourselves. Food is important to us from the perspective of the inner growth and creativity of our inner being. A person’s strength is in their mentality, any other kind of power is animal power, and it must be subordinated to the mind. The energetic essence of food determines its ability to transform and nourish the cell.
Tantra of nutrition not only leads to the formation of a healthy body, but also to an awareness of the experiences associated with the state of consciousness. It is these experiences that shape the quality of the spiritual process, whereas unhealthy eating leads to illness and destruction. The tantra of nutrition is a type of ecstatic experience that comes from raising one’s vitality not so much from eating as from not eating, and where the stimulating food becomes an experience of body purity and sufficiency, which of course must be built up depending on prenatal (existing) and postnatal (acquired) conditions.
For the tantra of nutrition, what is important is the process by which food affects our glands, among which the most important are those associated with the secretions or stimulation of emotions that disrupt our feelings and behavior. This is precisely what characterizes the modern world when people’s sensitivity is reduced, materialistic behavior takes over, and sexual relations become an animal act, even from the perspective of smell, which represents life in a state of dependence on physical satisfaction.
So the tantra of nutrition is not simply a matter of food choices or of influencing the body and mind, but of our relationship with our environment and the development of a more powerful stimulus of vitality.
