How Eating a Tangerine Can Support Mindfulness

By: Dr. Denise Renye

There are many kinds of meditation – sitting, walking, free form body movement, Authentic Movement, Daoist, Buddhist, Tantric, Jewish, etc. that each have different, yet connected, goals, whether that’s to calm the mind, connect with the body, or get in touch with a power greater than yourself. A particularly strong memory that I have around meditation involves a tangerine.

In about 2002, I took a Greyhound up to Rhode Island to attend a retreat by the renowned Thich Nhat Hanh. He led us in a “tangerine meditation” that was profound and not only connected my mind and body but did so while eating. This is counter to the way many people regularly eat. So often eating happens mindlessly. It’s in front of a screen, wolfed down in the car, or eaten even while standing up. Sometimes people eat as quickly as possible without truly tasting the food they’re ingesting. Eating can be something that’s a hassle, something to do just for fuel, and can lack pleasure.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s tangerine meditation isn’t like that at all. It is about eating mindfully. He asserts to be here, you have to really be here, in your body, not in your mind thinking about what so-and-so said or how much work you have to do. He says living without mindfulness is like living in a dream but to be alive is a miracle. During the retreat, he gave us a tangerine, asked us to focus on it, and invited us to see it as a wonder and a miracle. He encouraged us to recognize everything that had to happen to create this tangerine.

Focusing on the tangerine he asked us to think back to the tree it grew on, the tangerine blossom, the rain, the sun, and the pollinators that all coalesced to make this tangerine. We imagined the tangerine beginning as a tiny green sphere continuing to grow. We recognized the miracle it was for this fruit to end up in our hands. We noticed what it felt like to hold the tangerine, to feel its weight in our hands. We felt the texture of the tangerine’s skin and took in the deep orange hue visually. We took our time with the tangerine. Being with the tangerine is what we were doing. We peeled the tangerine, smelled its skin, and felt the roughness and texture of the outside on our fingertips, and explored the softness of the pith as well

Brother Thay, as he was known, asked us to use all our senses when eating the tangerine, to let each bite hit the tongue and to notice the juice washing over it – the acidity, the sweetness, the tinge of sourness. He said, “Each time you look at a tangerine, you can see deeply into it. You can see everything in the universe in one tangerine. When you peel it and smell it, it’s wonderful. You can take your time eating a tangerine and be very happy.” There is true and pure happiness in each and every tangerine if you just be with it.

I have done something similar with a raisin, which has a few more steps than a tangerine because in addition to imagining a grapevine, the sunshine, rain, and pollinators, someone has to pick the grape, dehydrate it, and package it. There are a multitude of steps for food to hit your mouth and by meditating on each of them, along with involving the senses, each bite becomes a miracle, a wonder. The first time I did the raisin meditation was with Jack Kornfield.

At Whole Person Integration and Psychology, we like to recommend these food meditations to everyone but they are especially helpful for folx with anxiety, eating disorders and concerns, PTSD, and depression. Oftentimes, someone with disordered eating or anxiety isn’t present or mindful while eating. They are disembodied, or dissociated. They are using food to anesthetize themselves (or the lack thereof) to manage their emotions. They may become disconnected from the joy of eating and doing so in a slow, mindful manner. After all, the culture encourages this. It’s why we’ve created a meditation to support mindful eating. It can be hard to eat mindfully without any guidance, to feel the wonder Thay evoked when he led us through the tangerine meditation. Sometimes you need someone else, even in the form of recorded audio, to help you along. If you’d like, we can do that for you. You just might find that your relationship with food, mind, and body are transformed.  

Journal prompts

·      What is my relationship with food and eating?

·      How can I bring in more of my senses as I’m eating?

·      What is my current meditation practice and can I involve food?

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Reference

Hanh, Thich Nhat. “Clips: Tangerine Meditation.” Plum Village. April 1, 2012. https://plumvillage.org/library/clips/tangerine-meditation/

Popova, Maria. “Tangerine Meditation: Thich Nhat Hanh’s Simple, Profound Mindfulness Practice to Magnify Your Capacity for Joy.” The Marginalian. April 7, 2021. https://www.themarginalian.org/2021/04/07/tangerine-meditation-thich-nhat-hanh/