Meal meditation

Assignment: consciously eat a meal while paying full attention to the food you're eating.

For my meal I chose to snack on some Fig Newtons and a cup of water. When I started to eat the fig newtons I had a similar experience to that of the tangerine party. I though about how many different ingredients had to go into the snack just to create it. This relates back to the idea of inter-being: The Fig Newton cannot be without any of the ingredients that are inside of it.
Drinking the cup of water consciously was especially unique from any other experience I have had while drinking water. I tried to sense the water flow down my throat. It felt unusually smooth and together. Water is composed of many different molecules, however, they can come together to have the sensation as one distinct object. I also noticed as the water seeped down into my chest it seemed to take a few different paths around the area of my stomach. The most obvious observation was how the water tasted. It had no real strong taste, yet I desired to drink it more than the flavorful Fig Newtons. Also as I drank the water I remembered from the Tao Te Ching that water is thought to be in competition with nothing. As I drank the cup of water I agreed with that thought because at that moment it made perfect sense: How could a substance that is necessary for life to many things every be in competition with those same things that desire it? Also, water is rarely at fault since it is the basis for many living things, much like the Tao.