THE BUDDHA did not advocate harsh ascetic practices; in fact, he prohibited them. As a bodhisattva, he had engaged in ascetic practices for six years while meditating with his five companions on the banks of the Nairanjana River near Bodhgaya, India. He became so thin that when he touched his navel he could feel his spine. When the body is emaciated, the clarity of the mind is adversely affected. From his own experience, he learned that torturing the body does not subdue attachment to it. Relinquishing these severe austerities, he began to eat again. He crossed the river, sat under the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, and overcoming all remaining afflictions, he attained full awakening.
The Buddha advocated some form of discipline when eating. For example, monastics and anagarikas (eight-precept holders) have the precept not to eat in the time between midday of one day and dawn of the next. Some monastics follow this precept quite strictly; others observe the meaning of the precept, which entails understanding the circumstances around which the Buddha established it.
According to the Mulasarvastivadin Vinaya followed by the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya followed in China, Taiwan, Korea, and most of Vietnam, there are exceptions to the rule of not eating solid food after midday. Eating is allowed in circumstances when monastics are ill, traveling, doing manual labor, or caught in inclement weather. These exceptions are practical and emphasize the importance of not letting our health suffer by abstaining from taking food after noon. This is especially important since many monastics in India fall ill due to poor sanitation. Good health is a big aid to Dharma practice, so we should do our best to maintain it.
As mentioned earlier, at the Buddha’s time all renunciates, including the Buddha’s Sangha, were alms mendicants. They entered a village, going from house to house, standing silently. If a family offered food, it was gratefully accepted. If not, they went to the next house. Gathering alms differs from begging in that renunciates do not ask for food or cajole people to give them food.
Being dependent on alms, monastics had to be attentive to their practice as well as considerate of the lay people. If they were to go into the village on alms round three times a day, much of the day would be spent on this, leaving little time to meditate. If they were to eat a large or rich meal in the evening, their bodies and minds would become dull, impeding meditation in the evening and the next morning. In addition, the lay people would be inconvenienced, because they would cook multiple meals for the monastics.
Going into a village in the evening also involved some danger, as one monk unfortunately discovered. Villages at that time lacked proper toilets; people usually did their business in a field. There were no streetlights at that time, so this monk couldn’t see where he was going and slipped and fell in a pit of excrement. In another incident, when monastics arrived at the door of a family after dark, the family members were frightened by strange figures appearing out of nowhere at their house, and they sometimes mistook monastics for ghosts.
With these considerations in mind, it made sense for the Buddha to establish a precept restricting the time during which monastics could eat. This worked quite well at the time, as the local food was very nourishing and the climate was moderate, so not eating after midday did not adversely affect people’s health or energy level.
The Buddha allowed monastics to eat meat in most situations; this is part of the practice of accepting whatever was offered without being picky or demanding. But monastics are not permitted to eat meat in situations such as when they have killed the animal themselves, they have asked someone else to kill it, or they know that it has been killed specifically for their consumption.
When Buddhism spread to new locales, with their different climates, cultures, food, and living situations, the way food was regulated was modified. For example, when Buddhism spread to China in the first century C.E., people misunderstood the practice of going on alms round and thought the monastics were begging. This caused the Chinese to disparage Buddhism, which hindered their receptivity to the Dharma. In addition, the Mahayana tradition, which emphasizes love and compassion for all sentient beings, became prominent in China, and all monastics became vegetarian. Some people felt weak in the evening and began to have “medicine meal” in order to maintain their health and not be distracted by hunger in the evening. In Chinese temples, they usually do not chant the food offering verses before medicine meal because the food is regarded as medicine to sustain their bodies and health so that they can practice.
At the Buddha’s time, monastics were not allowed to farm, because that was very time-consuming and led to their involvement in buying and selling. In addition, there was danger of killing insects. In China, monastics who resided near towns and cities were often drawn into local politics and governmental issues. Since this impeded their Dharma practice, many monastics, especially from the Chan (Zen) tradition, moved to the mountains to practice in a more secluded, peaceful ambience. Living too far from towns for people to consistently bring food to the monasteries, they began to grow their own food as part of their Dharma practice, and the precept arose, “One day without work is one day without food.”
Because of the altitude and climate in Tibet, fruits and vegetables were not readily available. The Tibetan diet consisted mostly of dried meat, dairy products, and tsampa (ground barley flour). Since 1959, after thousands of Tibetan monastics became refugees in India, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and others have strongly encouraged reduction in the amount of meat consumed in monasteries, in favor of serving fruits and vegetables. Currently monastics don’t eat meat in the large monasteries, yet many do when they eat outside. His Holiness has also advised that meat not be served during potluck meals and lunches during Dharma functions in the West.
Today in Western countries, most monastics no longer go on alms round, although some of our Theravadin friends do that from time to time. To ensure that they receive food, they sometimes tell their supporters the day and route they will take in the town. I know a small group of Theravada monks who have cultivated a warm relationship with the townspeople, most of whom are not Buddhist. These people regularly offer food when the monks go on alms round in their small town.
Some of our Zen friends who are monastics and observe the precept of celibacy do that, too. They distribute a flyer so that businesses and householders in the area know that they will go on alms round on a certain day. They ring a bell as they walk so that people who want to offer know they are there. I once went with them on alms round in Portland, Oregon. The focus was not to receive food to eat that day but to gather groceries in general. Some people came out with cooked food, but most offered groceries. The temple’s lay followers walked behind us, and when our alms bowls became full, they put the offerings in large plastic bags to take back to the monastery.
Alms round is a nice tradition to keep, although nowadays it requires some planning. If we actually collected alms as they did in ancient India, we wouldn’t ring a bell or notify supporters beforehand—we would simply walk quietly through town. But if we did that here, it’s likely that we would go hungry, and business owners might not like monastics blocking the sidewalk.
It is up to each individual to assess the amount of food his or her body needs, and based on that decide how they will keep the precepts regarding food. When a person first ordains, it is good to keep the precepts as strictly as possible and to have only liquids after noon. If at some point you have health difficulties, then consult with your teacher about making adjustments so that you can keep the purpose and spirit of the precept, although you may not be able to keep it literally.
In any case, we must cultivate awareness of what is hunger and what is eating out of habit — either a physical or mental habit of eating. We must observe: When are we nourishing the body in order to practice the Dharma, and when are we indulging with attachment? We must also watch our mind for signs of arrogance — for instance, feeling superior because we don’t eat in the evening — or signs of entitlement — such as thinking that because we don’t eat after noon, we should receive large quantities of especially good food at lunchtime. One purpose of this precept is to develop within us the feeling of contentment.
The Vinaya contains many other precepts regarding food and eating. Some regard etiquette, such as not chewing with our mouth open, smacking our lips, or speaking with our mouth full. We are also to avoid looking around the room while eating to see what others are doing and to avoid looking in others’ bowls to see how much food they have. Although literally this precept concerns good manners, it actually is an injunction against being a busybody who wants to know what everyone else is doing and what they have. We don’t just look in their bowls but we eavesdrop in their conversations and track all the gossip about people in the various groups we belong to. This precept is an instruction to pay attention to our own bowl — our own thoughts, words, and deeds — instead of distracting ourselves by judging and having opinions about others’ lives and activities.
In general we wash our own bowl afterward, although juniors often wash the bowls of those senior to them. We are also instructed to treat our alms bowl respectfully and to care for it so that it is not broken.
As mentioned in chapter 1, for lay practitioners, there is the practice of taking eight precepts for one day. In the Theravada tradition this is a type of pratimoksha ordination, taken with the aspiration to be free of cyclic existence. The Mahayana tradition has a practice that is similar in consisting of eight precepts, but different in that the precepts are taken with the motivation of bodhicitta that seeks to attain full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings rather than the motivation that seeks our own liberation. In both traditions, the precepts are to avoid killing, stealing, sexual relationships (for one day), lying, taking intoxicants, sitting on high or expensive seats or beds, eating at improper times (after midday), and wearing perfumes, cosmetics, and ornaments, and singing, dancing, and playing music. While monastics may not take the eight pratimoksha precepts because they already have monastic precepts, they may take the eight Mahayana precepts because of their special motivation of bodhicitta.
Sometimes we do the Nyung Ne, or “abiding in the fast,” retreat. Nyung Ne involves taking the eight Mahayana precepts for two consecutive days, eating one meal on the first day, and not eating, drinking, or speaking on the second day. The fast is broken on the morning of the third day. The real fast is abstaining from ignorance, anger, attachment, and self-centeredness. During the two days of the retreat, we meditate on Thousand-Armed Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) by doing many prostrations and mantra recitations, as well as practicing serenity (shamatha) and meditating on emptiness.
Some Buddhists choose to go on a juice fast or another type of fast, but that is something they do as individuals that is aside from Buddhist practice. The emphasis of Buddhist practice is on transforming our mind by overcoming afflictive mental states and the self-centered attitude.