If you eat too much there will be pain and there will be vomiting, and the whole body is disturbed. Then the mind says, “Eating is bad, so go on a fast.” And a fast is also dangerous. If you listen to the body it will never overeat, it will never undereat – it will simply follow the Tao.

A few scientists have been working on this problem and they have discovered a very beautiful phenomenon: small children eat whenever they feel hungry, they go to sleep whenever they feel that sleep is coming – they listen to their bodies. But parents disturb them, they go on forcing: it is dinner time, or lunchtime, or this and that, or bedtime – go! They don’t allow their bodies.

So one experimenter tried leaving children on their own. He was working with twenty-five children. They were not forced to go to sleep, they were not forced to get up. They were not forced at all for six months. And a very deep understanding came.

They slept well. They had less dreams, no nightmares, because nightmares were coming through the parents who were forcing them. They ate well, but never too much – never less than necessary, never more than necessary. They enjoyed eating and sometimes they would not eat at all. When the body was not feeling to, they would not eat, and they never fell ill because of eating.

And one more thing which no one ever suspected came to be understood, and that was miraculous. Only Sosan can understand, or Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu, because they are the masters of Tao. This was such a discovery! They came to understand that if a child was ill, then he would not eat particular foods. Then they tried to understand why he was not eating those foods. The foods were analyzed and it was found that for that disease, those foods were dangerous. How did the child decide? – just the body.

And when the child was growing, he would eat more of whatsoever was needed for his growth. Then they analyzed and they found that these ingredients are helpful. And the food would change, because the needs changed. One day a child would eat something and the same child the next day would not eat it. And the scientists felt that there is a body-wisdom.

If you allow the body to have its say, you are moving on the right path, the great way. And this is so not only with food, this is so with the whole life. Your sex goes wrong because of the mind, your stomach goes wrong because of your mind. You interfere with the body. Don’t interfere! Even if you can do it for three months, don’t interfere. And suddenly you will become so healthy, and a well-being will descend on you. Everything feels okay, the shoe fits. But the mind is the problem.

The mind has its own function; that is, how to relate with others, how to move in this world where so many persons are living, how to drive a car, how to follow the rules and regulations of the traffic, how not to create danger for others or for yourself, how to look ahead and plan. The mind is just like a radar, it looks ahead – where to move, how to move – but the base remains the body.