The Most Delicious Smoothie in the world

Below you’ll find a recipe for the one of the most delicious and healthiest smoothies you’ve ever had.

But first, I want to explain just why you would want the smoothie in the first place.

We’ll begin with a simple anatomy lesson. Here is a picture of your body:

Now if you’re thinking, “Zach, that looks magnificent. However, that is a beautiful Iranian mosque, certainly not my body,” you’d be about half right.

Your body is also a house of the divine. It is also a vehicle for spiritual awakening, also a piece of the sacred and just as deserving of reverence, attention, protection and care.

To truly understand this, we must come to our beginner’s mind.

Coming to a beginner’s mind means seeing the world in a fresh new way, unclouded by old assumptions and rigid beliefs.

We’ve all spent so much of our lives identifying with our physical being it’s hard to imagine anything else. As Shunryū Suzuki put it, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.”

The spiritual path is coming to an understanding that you are not a body; you simply have body.

As we get older our mind becomes so rigid, it is like a full cup that can no longer accept any more drink. To come to any new understanding, we must first empty our cup.

This time, we’ll fill the cup with a delicious smoothie. But why?

Well, what do you do before stepping into a temple?

You take off your shoes!

You wouldn’t track dirt into a house of God would you? Of course not.

So why fill your body with the all sorts of dirt in the form of junk food, fast food, fried food and heavily processed food?

Eating well and taking care of your body is one of the most loving things you can do for yourself. Self-love is a recognition not only of your own divinely unique place in the universe, but also a sign of reverence and appreciation for this gift of life.

So without further adieu, here you go:

Ingredients:
2 bananas
1 apple
1 cup raspberries
1 cup plain yogurt
1.5 cups spinach
Handful of parsley
Half-inch of Ginger
Juice of half a lime
Ice

Optional Additions:
1/2 Beet
1 celery stalk
Your favorite powder (protein, green, or maca)
Half an avocado, coconut or hemp oil (fats help with nutrient absorption)
Ground flaxseed
Use tea, coconut water, or nut milk as a base
1 Orange instead of lime

I could tell you about all the amazing health benefits of each ingredient. Instead, I’ll finish with the words of the Buddha, ehipassiko, which means come and see for yourself.

Don’t take my or anybody else’s word for it. Search for the answer to what it means to you to treat your body as a temple; see what works for you, discard what doesn’t, and carve out your own unique path.

Namaste.

– Zach