Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

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Bread

Bread is, in many cultures, the fundamental food, the symbol of all food. And food is communion. Think of it this way: The food we eat is the most tangible exchange we make with our environment. Our food is what most immediately connects us with the reality we inhabit. When you take in food, you temporarily negate the illusion of separation between your body and the rest of existence. Food is a breach of the boundary where we normally perceive separation to begin.

So it is really true, food is communion. It is an affirmation of interconnection and unity with our environment. What we take in becomes, in a very visceral way, a part of us. And we increasingly become composed of it. Remember the common saying, You are what you eat.

Christians understand this literally when taking the communion wafer. Christ tells his followers that, if they don't eat his flesh in the form of the sanctified bread they have no connection with him, he is saying that his essence must be taken into their being in the way that food is taken into the body. Divine substance must be taken in so that it becomes a part of us, and we a part of it. Our thoughts, feelings, our very cells, our total identity must be built of that divine substance -- until finally no boundary is seen between one's individual being and the eternal Being which sustains us. That is holy communion.

I hope it's obvious that you don't have to be a Catholic or a Christian to commune with the Divine in this way. Similar esoteric principles are found, with greater or lesser emphasis, in all world traditions, such as Hindu traditions of prasad. Food is inherently communion with the physical world. It just requires that you peer a little deeper to recognize the more sublime communion, as well.

Something to chew on...

See also

	Food

Poems with the theme of Bread

	Angelou, Maya Alone
	Eldar Edda (Anonymous) Odin's Shaman Song (from Eldar Edda)
	Francis of Assisi Prayer Inspired by the Our Father
	Holderlin, Friedrich Bread and Wine, Part 7
	ibn Gabirol, Solomon Come to me at dawn, my beloved, and go with me
	John of the Cross Song of the Soul That Delights in Knowing God by Faith
	John of the Cross The Fountain
	Khayyam, Omar [11] Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough
	Levertov, Denise Stepping Westward
	Maharshi, Ramana The Song of the Poppadum
	Merton, Thomas A Practical Program for Monks
	O'Donohue, John A Morning Offering
	Pope, Alexander The Universal Prayer
	Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin What I want is to see your face
	Sinan, Ummi The Rose
	Symeon the New Theologian You, oh Christ, are the Kingdom of Heaven;
	Therese of Lisieux The Divine Dew
	Trungpa, Chogyam A Heart Lost and Discovered
	Underhill, Evelyn Corpus Christi

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Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Bread

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World