Your Relationship with Rice
Dialogue with students at the White Conch retreat in Bali. Rinpoche: So, we have a unique opportunity to quietly sit and observe the direct relationship that Balinese people have with rice. They plant the rice, watch over and weed it, and when it’s time to harvest, they cut it, dry it and eat it. However, your relationship with rice is more complicated, isn’t it? What’s your relationship with rice ? (laughter). You do have a relationship with rice or do you just think the word rice, and rice appears? No, what do you have to do to actually eat the rice? Student: Cook it. R: No. S: Go to a restaurant? R: No. If you go to a restaurant and say “give me rice,” are they just going to give you rice? No. S: Money. R: Money! Okay. So, what's your actual dynamic with rice now? S: It’s an exchange. R: Even before that! You can’t get the exchange without doing something. You are not even prepared to earn exchange. S: You have to work….. R: You have to work, but who cares? You’re no good at ...