In this dialogue with Lia Helena Rubinoff, a philosopher and certified nutrition consultant, we consider how craving itself can lead to liberation and healing.

Enlightened craving means our craving itself is enlightened—it’s just encumbered. When we look directly at it, we can bring the medicine of awareness to our craving and liberate it into bone fide wisdom. In particular, craving has to do with the wisdom referred to as the wisdom of discernment, which helps us to know exactly what we need to eat, based on the ecological intelligence of our mind and body in relation with the world.

Similarly, triggers are an encumbered wisdom. We call that wisdom the mirror-like wisdom that reflects things as they are.

Everybody has cravings and triggers, and most people are ruled by them. But they actually provide us with unique opportunities for liberation—to achieve genuine freedom, happiness, and wellbeing.

The Enlightened Craving process teaches us how to liberate the energy of cravings and triggers and restore our body’s and your mind’s innate wisdom about how to live well, including how to eat well and how to maintain holistic wellbeing. The process is based on the best science we have, and it’s also based on the single greatest untapped cultural resource we have for health and wellbeing, namely the wisdom traditions of the world.