Before eating breakfast, lunch or dinner, remember to feel, ‘‘I am responsible for the happiness of all sentient beings; this is the purpose of my life. In order to fulfill this purpose, I need to be healthy and live long. Therefore, I’m going to eat this food.’’ In this way, every time you eat or drink, it becomes service for all sentient beings.
When you eat and drink with bodhicitta, it becomes the cause of happiness for all sentient beings. At the beginning, when you generate bodhicitta, you collect skies of good luck, merit, good karma, and after that, every single mouthful of food and drink you take also becomes the cause of your enlightenment and the happiness of all sentient beings.
If you eat with the thought of benefiting all sentient beings, the more food there is on your plate, the bigger the pile of food you eat, the more good karma you collect. With every mouthful, you collect skies of merit. The more hours you eat, that much richer, more meaningful, your life becomes.