Why one meal a day?
Re: Eating after midday.
The monastic rule is part of the tradition and symbology of the (Theravada) monk. It is also something that unifies. It is a template, which can be used skilfully, to train body, speech and mind. It can work as a brake to our personal opinions and wants. It is allows for harmonious community living and as protocol for relationships. It acts as a point of reference.
Re: Eating after midday.
Being reborn a Thai would be a very fortunate rebirth.Indrajala wrote:Good thing I'm not Thai and never will be.
David wrote: Never? Haven't you taken a [Mahayana] bodhisattva vow? How about rebirth?
Re: Eating after midday.
Actually the precepts not only makes the monk but also directly contribute to the survival of the Dhamma itself:Indrajala wrote:Robes don't make the monk. I would argue precepts don't make the monk either
Then the Venerable Upāli approached the Blessed One, paid homage to him, sat down to one side, and said to him:
“Bhante, on how many grounds has the Tathāgata prescribed the training rules for his disciples and recited the Pātimokkha?”
“It is, Upāli, on ten grounds that the Tathāgata has prescribed the training rules for his disciples and recited the Pātimokkha. What ten?
(1) For the well-being of the Saṅgha;
(2) for the ease of the Saṅgha;
(3) for keeping recalcitrant persons in check; ...
(4) so that well-behaved bhikkhus can dwell at ease;
(5) for the restraint of taints pertaining to this present life;
(6) for the dispelling of taints pertaining to future lives;
(7) so that those without confidence might gain confidence; and
(8) for increasing [the confidence] of those with confidence;
(9) for the continuation of the good Dhamma; and ....
(10) for promoting discipline.
“It is on these ten grounds that the Tathāgata has prescribed the training rules for his disciples and recited the Pātimokkha.” ~~ http://palicanon.org/index.php/sutta-pi ... y-iv-upali ~~
Re: Eating after midday.
That sounds like a convenient narrative to justify institutionalized rules and regulations.
I'm fine with rules. We just need to update accordingly and, as rational free-willed people, make strategic decisions in our behaviour.
I think being dogmatic and attached to scriptural precepts are cause for the Dhamma's decline, not its increase.
I'm fine with rules. We just need to update accordingly and, as rational free-willed people, make strategic decisions in our behaviour.
I think being dogmatic and attached to scriptural precepts are cause for the Dhamma's decline, not its increase.
- equilibrium
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Re: Eating after midday.
The above is the most amazing reading in this website so far for me.....Indrajala wrote:Robes don't make the monk. I would argue precepts don't make the monk either. Renunciation of saṃsāra is what does.
It is not on the surface.....it is not what you follow.....it is whether you have crossed the line!.....the main point of it all!
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Re: Eating after midday.
all those who are practicing determined to reach Nibbana are renouncing samsara....but that doesn't make them monks.....in fact there are probably more lay people aiming for release than monks since most monks do not practice.equilibrium wrote:The above is the most amazing reading in this website so far for me.....Indrajala wrote:Robes don't make the monk. I would argue precepts don't make the monk either. Renunciation of saṃsāra is what does.
It is not on the surface.....it is not what you follow.....it is whether you have crossed the line!.....the main point of it all!
Re: Eating after midday.
Simply put, I don't think precepts really have the intended effect.
In an institutionalized setting, you go through the motions of "receiving precepts" and this somehow makes you into a field of merit. The laity then feel happy to bow down and make offerings, maybe getting some kind of religious high from the act of piety. However, once you know how monasticism really works and what goes on when laypeople are not around, then you see how efficacious precepts really are.
I'm well aware people are emotionally invested in a system that doesn't work as well as they believe it does, so my views are fringe and ultimately won't matter so much. In any case, as Buddhism develops in the west, I sincerely hope people exercise critical thinking and don't try to recreate failing Asian paradigms in the new cultures.
Also, if you look at things from an objective perspective, there are often curious historical examples of deviation from prescription. While Theravada has presumably always had precepts, for the longest time China and Japan got by in their monasticism with minimal and/or absolutely no Indian Vinaya system. I wrote something about this:
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2013/06/ ... inaya.html
That means you can have vibrant and sustained Buddhism without strict adherence to scriptural precepts.
In an institutionalized setting, you go through the motions of "receiving precepts" and this somehow makes you into a field of merit. The laity then feel happy to bow down and make offerings, maybe getting some kind of religious high from the act of piety. However, once you know how monasticism really works and what goes on when laypeople are not around, then you see how efficacious precepts really are.
I'm well aware people are emotionally invested in a system that doesn't work as well as they believe it does, so my views are fringe and ultimately won't matter so much. In any case, as Buddhism develops in the west, I sincerely hope people exercise critical thinking and don't try to recreate failing Asian paradigms in the new cultures.
Also, if you look at things from an objective perspective, there are often curious historical examples of deviation from prescription. While Theravada has presumably always had precepts, for the longest time China and Japan got by in their monasticism with minimal and/or absolutely no Indian Vinaya system. I wrote something about this:
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2013/06/ ... inaya.html
That means you can have vibrant and sustained Buddhism without strict adherence to scriptural precepts.
Re: Eating after midday.
Hi Indrajala
I am just trying to understand what your message is.
Are you suggesting that I can realise Nirvana without following Eight Noble Path and not knowing Four Noble Truths?
I am just trying to understand what your message is.
Are you suggesting that I can realise Nirvana without following Eight Noble Path and not knowing Four Noble Truths?
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Re: Eating after midday.
Indrajala, If you are as it seems a Mahayana buddhist, what are you doing on a Therevada forum putting down our scriptures and traditions, I think the Dharma wheel might be more receptive to this. Buddhism is built on a foundation of moral behaviour as exemplified by the precepts, further progress beyond the basics is not really possible without the ground work of the precepts and moral behaviour, If you think you have a better way perhaps you should start your own order.
18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community, sincerely former monk John
http://trickleupeconomictheory.blogspot.com/
http://trickleupeconomictheory.blogspot.com/
Re: Eating after midday.
I'm suggesting it doesn't require refraining from dinner.SarathW wrote: Are you suggesting that I can realise Nirvana without following Eight Noble Path and not knowing Four Noble Truths?
Re: Eating after midday.
You've clearly misunderstood what I've been saying.lyndon taylor wrote:Indrajala, If you are as it seems a Mahayana buddhist, what are you doing on a Therevada forum putting down our scriptures and traditions, I think the Dharma wheel might be more receptive to this. Buddhism is built on a foundation of moral behaviour as exemplified by the precepts, further progress beyond the basics is not really possible without the ground work of the precepts and moral behaviour, If you think you have a better way perhaps you should start your own order.
I'm not putting down anything. I'm proposing critical thought and strategic reforms rather than dogmatic attachment to rules and forms. Where have I said that we can do away without morality? Morality is about not harming others. Dietary regulations are another matter.
I'm simply saying that refraining from dinner, at least out in public in front of laypeople, isn't really relevant in today's world, at least outside Theravada countries where people maybe become emotionally compromised seeing a monk eat past noon (meanwhile they're testing out their new amulets on chickens).
We don't need that kind of neurosis in western countries.
- lyndon taylor
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Re: Eating after midday.
So your saying we need monks with less discipline, not more???? If being a monk was supposed to be easy, there would be eating after 12pm, sleeping with converts, jewelry and loud music playing at temples, some how I think things are just fine in Therevada traditions, maybe you should take your ideas to the mahayana community, they are much more likely to eat after 12 etc.
18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community, sincerely former monk John
http://trickleupeconomictheory.blogspot.com/
http://trickleupeconomictheory.blogspot.com/
Re: Eating after midday.
So what you are saying is refraining from dinner is just an ethical requirement and not a virtue (Sila)?
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
Re: Eating after midday.
So what you are saying is refraining from dinner is just an ethical requirement and not a virtue (Sila)?
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
Re: Eating after midday.
Not eating after noon is a social convention.