PRISONER EXPRESS

When one thinks of food, the image conjured up is usually of cheeseburgers, pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, French fries, chicken wings painted with BBQ sauce and maybe some fruits. Being human we constantly crave food, our mouths salivating at the slightest whiff of bacon and eggs on the frying pan. We'll eat just about anything to satisfy our body's hunger: fish, birds, bugs, land animals from big buffalos to pigs; even other fellow humans when our survival depends on it. We are omnivores by nature, evolutionarily programmed to eat whatever our bodies are able to digest and convert into energy. So primarily, food served as the physical nutrients for our physical bodies, the source of fuel that perpetuates our physical being.

But there are other, equally important foods that transcend the physical nourishment of the body, and that we so often neglect: Food that nurtures the human spirit and mind; spiritual food and mental food. The human spirit, as the human physical body, needs nutrients to grow and stay healthy in order for it to overcome the obstacle courses of life. We constantly need spiritual food to keep our spirits strong to keep playing the game of life. How do I know when my spirit is hungry? When you feel depressed, discouraged, dejected, gloomy, sad, lonely, powerless, despondent, angry, and hollow inside yourself, these are signs of a malnourished spirit. A weak spirit will crumble under the weight of the world's strife, leaving a void inside you. A void that slowly fills up with mundane vices that offer only ephemeral happiness. So where does one find this spiritual food? In the ancient religious texts that past civilizations left behind for humanity's spiritual need. The Holy Bible, Romans 8:2,6 "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death." "The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirits is life and peace." The Torah, Deuteronomy 11:18 "therefore, take these words of mine into your heart and soul." From the Koran, Surah 86:4 "There is no soul but has a protector over it." Surah 89:27, 28, 30 "The righteous soul will be said: 'O (you) soul, in complete rest and satisfaction!' 'you come back to your Lord well please and well' pleasing unto him!' 'Yes, you enter my heaven!'"

These words can comfort and uplift one's spirit when it's weakened by life's persistent problems and dilemmas. You don't have to be a spiritualist or religious-minded person nor attend Church every Sunday to grasp the meaning of the above scriptures. All you have to believe is than an invisible entity exists within you, the essence of yourself enshrouded by your physical, visible self. With spiritual food, the spirit absorbs it through meditation, fasting, praying and existential contemplation converting it into spiritual energy for daily living. And just as physical food strengthens our physical bodies, so too does spiritual nourishment make stronger our spirits.

Buddha understood the importance to feed and nurture our spiritual being in his notion that suffering occurs because of too great an attachment to one's desires; the body's physical desires. Neglect to feed your spiritual hunger and your seemingly healthy physical being can be vulnerable to suffering.

Now we come to mental food mentioned earlier. If you have ever meditated, read a book or newspaper then you've fed your mind with mental food. The mind is what the brain does, by stimulating your brain with mental food and activities, you are nourishing the mind. Mental food is reading, writing, studying, drawing, problem-solving mathematics, puzzle-solving, etc. When it comes to mind food, Prisoner Express News is the premier restaurant, serving up mental treats such as Theme writing, History lessons, Math, Creative writing, art, and poetry, the candy for the mind. The old adage, "a mind is a terrible thing to waste," is true, when you think about the people who suffer from neurological diseases as Alzheimer's disease, whose mind has lost all of life's memories that they can't remember who they are nor recognize family members, their mentality has deteriorated. So feed your mind, don't ever let it hunger, because the mind is what gives you the awareness that you exist.

Next time you are eating a cheeseburger for your physical body, after you're done open up the Bible, Koran, or any religious text you are more comfortable with and read a couple of verses, letting your spirit feed itself. Afterwards, take out a pen and paper and write down your thoughts. Then mail your writings to PEN and sit back to do a sudoku puzzle and savor the feeling of being full. Mind, spirit and body, they all complement the human being. Feed all three and life will be much easier. Chow time!!