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萬佛聖城太極拳總教練，潘柔世老居士曾見過一位長壽健康的日本和尚，這位和尚並無特殊的養生之道，只是在吃飯時，每口飯要咀嚼兩百下。
潘老居士極富實驗精神，他也試著每口飯咀嚼兩百下，不過他只嚼到第一百下，便吞入腹中。啊！這下子不但嘴裡充滿甜味，根本不需佐菜，而且感覺這口飯的營養，充份被腸胃吸收。
潘老居士說，一般人吃飯時，匆匆忙忙的，即使吃得再營養美味，也未必充份品嚐吸收，反而造成內臟的負擔。慢慢吃，不但吃得出好滋味，而且可以減少食量，身體更輕鬆。
我覺得很有道理，便也仔細咀嚼每一口飯。因為耐性不足，我的一口飯頂多嚼三十下，但是已經體會其中不少好處。
為了數清咀嚼的次數，心思因而集中、不打妄想，自然感到氣定神閒，跟打坐的數息，有異曲同工之妙。此中滋味無窮，難怪前人說「心定菜根香」，原來真有體會，不是自我安慰。專心做好當下該做的事，真是再簡單不過的道理。只是聰明的人，往往缺乏這股傻勁，因而品嚐不出平淡生活的真味。
其實，在有飯吃的人當中，真有幾個仔細嚐過一口飯的滋味？
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Elder Upasaka Pan Rou-shr, the head teacher of tai ji chuan, shadow boxing, at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas had met a Japanese monk who was healthy and long-lived. He had no special formula for healthy living; but when eating he always chewed each mouthful of rice two hundred times.
Upasaka Pan specializes in experiments and also tried to chew the rice two hundred times. However, he would swallow it after chewing only a hundred times. Ah! He not only experienced the taste in his mouth as sweet, but needed no food to go with the rice, and also felt that the nutrition in the rice was completely absorbed by the intestines.
According to elder Upasaka Pan, most people eat in a hurry. Even though the food is nutritious and delicious, under such circumstances the food has not been tasted and absorbed fully. To the contrary, it causes a burden to our organs. By eating slowly, one not only enjoys the wonderful flavor but also can reduce the amount of the food intake, which makes the body more relaxed.
I think it does make sense to try to attentively chew every mouthful. Lacking sufficient in patience, I can only manage to chew thirty times. However, that already provides me with great benefit.
In order to count the number of times I chew, I concentrate my mind and have no false thoughts. Naturally I feel the energy calm down and my spirits at ease which serves a wonderful function similar to counting breaths in sitting meditation. The taste is simply wonderful and endless. No wonder people in the past said, "With a calm mind, even vegetable roots are delicious." It is a real experience and you’re not fooling yourself.
Single-mindedly performing one's actions is the simplest principle. However, intelligent people seldom have this honest and stupid attitude and thus fail to taste the true flavor of the simple life.
Actually, among people who eat, how many of us have really carefully tasted the flavor of a mouthful of rice?
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