Dinnertime. I'm sitting alone, trying to eat slowly. My Guru is always encouraging us to practice discipline when it comes to eating. She encourages us to eat in moderation and without desperate gulps, to not extinguish the sacred fires of our bodies by dumping too much food into our digestive tracts too fast. (My Guru, I'm fairly certain, has never been to Naples.) When students come to her complaining that they're having trouble meditating, she always asks how their digestion has been lately. It only stands to reason that you'll have trouble gliding lightly into transcendence when your guts are struggling to churn through a sausage calzone, a pound of buffalo wings and half a coconut cream pie. Which is why they don't serve that kind of stuff here. The food at the Ashram is vegetarian, light and healthy. But still delicious. Which is why it's difficult for me not to wolf it down like a starving orphan. Plus, meals are served buffet-style, and it never has been easy for me to resist taking a second or third turn at-bat when beautiful food is just lying out there in the open, smelling good and costing nothing.
晚餐时间。我独自坐着，尝试慢慢吃。我的导师经常鼓励我们用餐的时候实行教规。她鼓励我们吃得适度，不大口大口吃，勿将太多食物迅速扔进消化道中，以免浇熄体内的神圣之火。（我确定，我的导师从没去过那不勒斯。）当学员向她诉说在禅坐时有困难，她总是询问他们近来的消化状况。当然，你在胃肠努力搅拌一个腊肠馅饼、一磅辣鸡翅和半个椰子鲜奶油派的时候，的确很难进入超越自我的状态。因此，这地方不供应这类的食物。道场的食物是清淡健康的素食。尽管如此，却美味可口。因此很难让我不像个挨饿的孤儿般狼吞虎咽。此外，餐点是以自助餐方式供应，使我忍不住要拿第二或第三次，因为香喷喷的美食当前，而且还免费。

So I'm sitting at the dinner table all by myself, making an effort to restrain my fork, when I see a man walk over with his dinner tray, looking for an open chair. I nod to him that he is welcome to join me. I haven't seen this guy around here yet. He must be a new arrival. The stranger's got a cool, ain't-no-big-hurry kind of walk, and he moves with the authority of a border town sheriff, or maybe a lifelong high-rolling poker player. He looks like he's in his fifties, but walks like he's lived a few centuries longer than that. He's got white hair and a white beard and a plaid flannel shirt. Wide shoulders and giant hands that look like they could do some damage, but a totally relaxed face.
于是我独自坐在餐桌前，努力管束我的叉子， 这时我看见一名男人手持餐盘走来，找空椅子。我向他点头，表示欢迎来坐我这桌。我尚未在这儿见过这名男人。他肯定新来不久。这陌生人走起路来不慌不忙，举手投足间带有边城警长或扑克玩家的权威。他看上去五十多岁，走起路来却像多活了好几个世纪。白发、白胡须，穿法兰绒格子衬衫。宽阔的肩膀，巨大的手掌，看上去有能力造成某种破坏，脸孔却完全放松。

He sits down across from me and drawls, "Man, they got mosquitoes 'round this place big enough to rape a chicken."
他在我对面坐下来，慢声慢气地说：“嘿，这里的蚊子真大，能凌虐一只鸡。”

Ladies and Gentlemen, Richard from Texas has arrived.
Eat, Pray, Love
女士先生们，德州的理查到来了。