Monday, October 27, we will meet online.
Dear friends,
This week, we will meet Monday evening, October 27th, from 7-8:30PM ET online; Wednesday morning, October 29th, from 7-8AM ET in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW); and Friday, October 31th, 12-1PM ET online.
On Monday, Magda will guide us in exploring the Fifth Mindfulness Training, inviting us to reflect on the foods we eat and how they nourish our bodies, connect us to our roots, and support our healing. Please bring a simple food to share as we eat together mindfully, with gratitude, and in the spirit of community.
Magda shares:
During a season in which we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and Native American Heritage Month, including the many food traditions that sustain our cultures, I offer gratitude to my ancestors from Puerto Rico for the nourishment they passed down through generations. Their simple meals—roots like yautía (malanga), ñame (true yam), and yuca (cassava), as well as a great variety of beans, curative herbs, and homemade creams—were expressions of love, care, and harmony with the Earth.
I was not always appreciative of this legacy of mindful nourishment. Today I see that the more accustomed we become to processed foods and eating unmindfully, the more we lose touch with our ancestors’ intimate relationship with life’s rhythms.
Roots: Colonialism and Disconnection
Magda in Old San Juan standing by the roots of the iconic Ceiba tree.
When I lived in Puerto Rico, I attended a Catholic school run primarily by Spanish nuns who hardly ever taught us to appreciate the treasures of Puerto Rico. Their role, perhaps unintentionally, was to colonize our minds—to turn us away from what was native to the land, from the island’s medicinal plants to the jíbaros, the country people whose lives were deeply rooted in it.
Growing up, we were indoctrinated to feel superior to those who dressed simply or lived in the countryside. The word jíbaro, once suggesting dignity, was used as a condescending label. Today I often reflect on how little I knew of Puerto Rico’s natural and cultural richness.
At school, we were taught to love Christ and God, but not to love those of our neighbors who were most deeply connected to the land, or to appreciate their profound earth ethic. The island’s economic policies forced many jíbaros to migrate to the continental United States out of necessity, imposing further alienation from the land that had once sustained them.
Two Grandmothers, Two Legacies
I am surprised that my Puerto Rican grandmother, whose lineage was fully Spanish and Basque, never encouraged the appreciation of the land that my Venezuelan grandmother did. Perhaps, as part of the colonial legacy, we were taught to admire our Spanish heritage while feeling shame about our jíbaro ancestry. The wisdom of the land was buried beneath layers of self-hatred.
My Venezuelan grandmother, who had Spanish and German roots, was profoundly nationalistic and made sure I learned to appreciate the beauty of Venezuela’s countryside. She also carried a deep knowledge of herbs. She even wrote a book filled with recipes and remedies that honored the healing power of plants. For someone who only received a third-grade education, she possessed immense wisdom, creativity, and intuitive intelligence. Her stories connected me to the Earth and to our ancestors. I inherited my love of painting nature from her. My favorite of her paintings depicts an Indigenous woman sitting by her adobe home, gazing at the mountains.
In contrast, I grew up indoctrinated into a complex of superiority. I remember working once in a poor country village, collecting trash, and the people in my working group immediately assumed I was the leader because of my lighter skin. I dated a kind young man from another social class, but it was “understood” that I should not continue seeing him. And yet, in the countryside, the jíbaros—so often scorned by society—would welcome strangers into their homes, offering food, drink, and a bed to rest.
Remembering the Earth Keepers
In ¡Hasta los baños te curan! (Even the Baths Cure You!) by Puerto Rican author María Benedetti, and in research published by Jansikwe Medina-Tayac, daughter of Dr. Gabrielle Tayac (Mama Ceiba Project), women of Taíno ancestry in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic share their ancestral wisdom. Despite often being illiterate or having only completed elementary school, they are profoundly educadas—gracious, respectful, and spiritually wise. In their words, one finds the Christianity instilled through colonization interwoven with Indigenous reverence for nature and humility. Their teaching is simple yet profound: Be humble, and treat your neighbors and strangers as yourself. BE HUMBLE.
At my Catholic school, we were taught to look upward when we prayed, as if God were distant and exalted. But the wisdom of these women suggests that the divine is not above us—it dwells within the Earth, beneath our feet, in our food, in the healing we offer to each other, and in our very breath.
Healing: The Fifth Mindfulness Training
Colonialism in Puerto Rico, much like in Vietnam under French and later U.S.-sponsored rule, disempowered people from within. Spiritual and cultural colonization replaced gratitude to the Earth with devotion to a distant God, ungrounding entire communities. The farmers—the jíbaros—descendants of the Taíno who had once been honored for their labor and wisdom, were now scorned and forgotten.
In losing respect for them, we lost respect for the Earth and for ourselves. Our economic system taught us to consume without awareness, to forget the sanctity of what we take in. The Fifth Mindfulness Training reminds us to wake up from this forgetfulness—to heal from unmindful consumption and return to gratitude for the nourishment that sustains all life.
Thich Nhat Hanh understood this deeply. When he was ill at Phương Bối, he planted tea fields with his own hands—a gesture of healing through interbeing with the Earth. He also remained closely connected to his paternal temple, situated on fertile land that I describe in my latest book, Vietnam, Where the Lotus Blooms. His monasteries across the world reflect this same insight: to live in harmony with nature is to heal.
Interbeing: Healing Through Simplicity
The jíbaros and their Taíno ancestors held profound herbal and spiritual knowledge. Their approach to healing was both physical and spiritual—rooted in prayer, water, herbs, roots, and gratitude. They tracked the moon and the seasons, planted and moved with the natural rhythms of the Earth, and embodied a humility born from closeness to the soil.
The word humble comes from humus, or earth. The jíbaros’ humility allowed them to stay grounded, understanding that their healing gifts were sacred callings, not possessions. Jane Goodall once remarked, “Someday we shall look back on this dark era of agriculture and shake our heads. How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons?” Her question echoes the same wisdom: to harm the soil is to harm ourselves.
At Plum Village retreats, we often recite the Five Contemplations before our meals together. Our food returns to simplicity—plant-based, healing, and unprocessed. Each seed, grain, and nut becomes a teacher of mindfulness and gratitude. Eating simply is not an act of deprivation but of liberation—a practice of love for ourselves, for the planet, for all those whose labor makes our nourishment possible, and for all beings. Eating is a sacred act.
Humility and Collective Healing
A jíbaro healer quoted in ¡Hasta los baños te curan! said, “No soy doctora, pero soy alivio para la gente.” (“I am not a doctor, but I bring relief to the people.”)
In her words lives the spirit of collective healing—healing that comes from community, from shared nourishment. When we gather to eat simple foods, to tell stories of our roots and of the Earth, we are living out the Fifth Mindfulness Training. We are transforming consumption into communion.
Reclaiming Our Roots
Even in today’s world, where popular culture often distracts us from our true calling, we can see glimpses of awakening. Bad Bunny, through his music and media presence, has reminded many Puerto Ricans of their roots and the dignity of their land. In a way, he has created room for a form of collective healing, inviting people to remember who they are, to reconnect with the Earth beneath their feet, despite centuries of colonialism.
To practice the Fifth Mindfulness Training, then, is to remember.
To remember our ancestors’ hands planting seeds
To remember the Taínos, who healed through water, soil, herbs, roots, prayer, and song.
To remember that nourishment is sacred, and those who provide it are healers.
And to remember that by eating mindfully, we participate in the great circle of life—where Earth nourishes and heals us–and we, in gratitude, vow to protect her in return.
Fifth Mindfulness Training: Nourishment and Healing
Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will practice looking deeply into how I consume the Four Kinds of Nutriments, namely edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. I am determined not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations. I will practice coming back to the present moment to be in touch with the refreshing, healing and nourishing elements in me and around me, not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past nor letting anxieties, fear, or craving pull me out of the present moment. I am determined not to try to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering by losing myself in consumption. I will contemplate interbeing and consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society, and the Earth.
Five Contemplations
This food is a gift from the entire universe, the earth, the sky, and the hard work of many beings;
May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude to be worthy of this food;
May we transform our unskillful states of mind, especially greed;
May we keep our compassion alive by eating in a way that reduces suffering and preserves our planet, and
We accept this food in a spirit of understanding and love.
Mindful solidarity for those who are suffering in the Latinx community
Here are some ways to contribute to those in need:
La Clínica del Pueblo & La Casa Community Center: https://www.lcdp.org/
Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid: https://www.dcmigrantmutualaid.org/
Accompaniment/Transportation for ICE Court Appointments: DAN (DMV Accompaniment Network) organized by CAN (Congregation Action Network).
Contact: Susaanti Follingstad at sfolling@verizon.net and Andrew Batcher at abatcher@cedarlane.org. You may use Magda Cabrero (magdacabrero@yahoo.com) as a reference.