Buddhist views on exercise and nutrition

[Jaidyn]

The Buddha, as my impression is, wanted us to keep the body healthy to not hinder the practice. If you eat right and exercise your body will get strong and healthy. What level of maintenance is sufficient from a Buddhist point of view?

The simple answer is: enough to keep you healthy, but with all knowledge today about the body, nutrition and exercise: how do we define what kind and amount of nutrition and exercise will suffice for a buddhist?

An additional question: Have there been situations where you have reflected that the Buddhist life – monastic or not – does or does not support your physical health?

[David2]

how do we define what kind and amount of nutrition and exercise will suffice for a buddhist?

Listen to your body. It will tell you.

Have there been situations where you have reflected that the Buddhist life – monastic or not – does or does not support your physical health?

Meditating is very healthy. Not eating after noon is very healthy.

As a monk, you can't choose what you eat. So you can't do much if people give you unhealthy food (though you can talk to them of course.) I am no monk, but I guess this is rather a minor issue... people probably try to give you healthy food.

[Ben]

Hi Jaidyn,
As laypeople, I don't think we need the Buddha to have a pragmatic, sensible approach to exercise and nutrition. Where exercise and nutrition would be incongruent with Buddhism is when we obsess about exercise or nutrition or its effects.
kind regards,

Ben

[cooran]

Hello Jaidyn,

This sutta gives a little advice:

Donapaka Sutta: King Pasenadi Goes on a Diet

Once when the Buddha was living at Savatthi, King Pasenadi of Kosala ate a whole bucketful of food, and then approached the Buddha, engorged and panting, and sat down to one side. The Buddha, discerning that King Pasenadi was engorged and panting, took the occasion to utter this verse:

When a person is constantly mindful,
And knows when enough food has been taken,
All their afflictions become more slender
— They age more gradually, protecting their lives.
Now at that time the brahman youth Sudassana was standing nearby, and King Pasenadi of Kosala addressed him: "Come now, my dear Sudassana, and having thoroughly mastered this verse in the presence of the Buddha, recite it whenever food is brought to me. And I will set up for you a permanent offering of a hundred kahaapanas every day." "So be it, your majesty," the brahman youth Sudassana replied to the king.

Then King Pasenadi of Kosala gradually settled down to [eating] no more than a cup-full of rice. At a later time, when his body had become quite slim, King Pasenadi stroked his limbs with his hand and took the occasion to utter this utterance:

Indeed the Buddha has shown me
Compassion in two different ways:
For my welfare right here and now,
and also for in the future.
==========================
Translator's note

Who would have thought weight-loss could be so easy! In this brief exchange the Buddha is suggesting that over-eating is the root of obesity, which hastens the aging process and threatens one's life, and that this only occurs when mindfulness is weak or absent. If we eat slowly and with a great deal of attention, it can more easily become apparent (if we are truthful with ourselves) when an adequate amount of food has been consumed. Interestingly, he seems to be saying that wisdom will provide what is needed to refrain from further eating, rather than the modern conventional view that it requires will-power or self restraint.

Always one to play on words, the Buddha says that all our afflictions (literally, all our unpleasant feelings), and not just our bodies, will "become more slender." Perhaps this is what Pasenadi is referring to when he says the Buddha's teaching has not only helped him slim down his body (the immediate benefit), but the general increase of mindfulness and diminishing of greed will help with all aspects of the spiritual life (and thus with his rebirth in the future).

The commentary to this text informs us that the king did not engage Sudassana to utter the verse throughout the entire meal, but only once he had started eating. The idea is not to cultivate an aversion to food, for food itself is not an evil. As with so much else in the Buddha's teaching, it is a matter of understanding cause and effect, and of using food skillfully as a tool for awakening rather than allowing oneself to be caught by the latent tendencies of attachment, aversion and confusion that might be evoked by our relationship to food.

Notice the language of the last line of the Buddha's verse. The word for life (aayu) is the same one as in the Indian medical tradition of Ayurveda (=knowledge of life), and is regarded as something that can be squandered or carefully guarded. When approached with care, the preservation of life also slows down the aging process. The image is not one of conquering illness or death (for this comes only from full awakening), but of treating the precious resource of one's own vitality with wisdom.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .olen.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with metta
Chris

[chownah]

It seems there is a story in the Suttas about how just before the Buddha was enlightened he was not eating solid food as he was trying asceticism to reach release.....and at one point he came up with a promising idea about how to gain release but realized that his body was too weak for him to undertake what was necessary to make the attempt so he ate some solid food to fortify the body..........for me this is a clear indication that maintain the body enough for health and vitality is necessary to the path.

At that time the Buddha's "friends" abandoned him for being so lavish as to eat solid food....these days one's friends are more likely to abandon you as being a bit crazy if you tried to eat only once a day!!!!!!
chownah

[befriend]

ive heard the buddha ran everyday for exercise, i dont doubt it, as modern medicine attests to the benefits of daily aerobic workout. i started lifting weights, and my posture has improved DRAMATICALLY so i can sit straighter in bhavana. this is something to consider.

[Jaidyn]

ive heard the buddha ran everyday for exercise, i dont doubt it, as modern medicine attests to the benefits of daily aerobic workout. i started lifting weights, and my posture has improved DRAMATICALLY so i can sit straighter in bhavana. this is something to consider.

It would be very interesting to know more about the exercising Buddha if it is possible to confirm. It would get me out in the running-track immediately

[DNS]

ive heard the buddha ran everyday for exercise, i dont doubt it, as modern medicine attests to the benefits of daily aerobic workout.

Sutta reference?

I don't recall anything like that any where in the Canon. Running is certainly an excellent aerobic exercise, but there is no indication that the Buddha ran laps or from one point to another for exercise.

[santa100]

Peoples during the Buddha's time were a lot more fit than us. There's no car or motorcycle, so gotta use one's legs to move around. No TV, no radio, video games,... so there're very few couch potatoes. They basically had good workouts just by doing their daily activities. With our modern time's sedentary living style and fast food culture, if one doesn't exercise and eat right, s/he'll run into troubles fairly soon (diabetes, obesity, strokes, heart diseases,...you name it). Now the question is how much exercise is too much. Take weight-lifting for example, as long as you train your muscles to be well developed and toned, that's good. If you train like a maniac, take tons of "supplement" protein shakes and pills of various kinds, eat 5 to 7 meals a day, to get a body like Ronnie Coleman or Jay Cutler, then that's gone a bit too far..

[David2]

The Buddha did lots of walking.
You can keep your body healthy by doing only walking. There's no need to run.
But slow motions are a better support for mindfulness than quick motions.

[mikenz66]

It seems there is a story in the Suttas about how just before the Buddha was enlightened he was not eating solid food as he was trying asceticism to reach release.....and at one point he came up with a promising idea about how to gain release but realized that his body was too weak for him to undertake what was necessary to make the attempt so he ate some solid food to fortify the body..........for me this is a clear indication that maintain the body enough for health and vitality is necessary to the path.

At that time the Buddha's "friends" abandoned him for being so lavish as to eat solid food....these days one's friends are more likely to abandon you as being a bit crazy if you tried to eat only once a day!!!!!!
chownah

See
MN 36 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"I thought: 'I recall once, when my father the Sakyan was working, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, then — quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful mental qualities — I entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. Could that be the path to Awakening?' Then following on that memory came the realization: 'That is the path to Awakening.' I thought: 'So why am I afraid of that pleasure that has nothing to do with sensuality, nothing to do with unskillful mental qualities?' I thought: 'I am no longer afraid of that pleasure that has nothing to do with sensuality, nothing to do with unskillful mental qualities, but that pleasure is not easy to achieve with a body so extremely emaciated. Suppose I were to take some solid food: some rice & porridge.' So I took some solid food: some rice & porridge. Now five monks had been attending on me, thinking, 'If Gotama, our contemplative, achieves some higher state, he will tell us.' But when they saw me taking some solid food — some rice & porridge — they were disgusted and left me, thinking, 'Gotama the contemplative is living luxuriously. He has abandoned his exertion and is backsliding into abundance.'

MN 26 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"When this was said, the group of five monks replied to me, 'By that practice, that conduct, that performance of austerities you did not attain any superior human states, any distinction in knowledge & vision worthy of a noble one. So how can you now — living luxuriously, straying from your exertion, backsliding into abundance — have attained any superior human states, any distinction in knowledge & vision worthy of a noble one?'

and, of course, the "First Discourse" SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .harv.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Bhikkhus, these two extremes should not be followed by one gone forth (into the homeless life). What two? That which is this pursuit of sensual happiness in sense pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of the ordinary person, ignoble, not connected to the goal; and that which is this pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, not connected to the goal. Bhikkhus, without veering towards either of these two extremes, the One Attuned to Reality has awakened to the middle way, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to higher knowledge, to full awakening, to Nibbāna.

Mike

[befriend]

i cant recall where i read it. so many little snippets of buddhist information from all over for years. but even if buddha didnt run daily, im sure he wouldnt mind it. he did eat food. even though he was a buddha he still had to maintain his kaya (body). i dont see why he wouldnt run, if the rest of us have to.

[cooran]

i cant recall where i read it. so many little snippets of buddhist information from all over for years. but even if buddha didnt run daily, im sure he wouldnt mind it. he did eat food. even though he was a buddha he still had to maintain his kaya (body). i dont see why he wouldnt run, if the rest of us have to.

befriend,

The Buddha is not rmentioned anywhere as running daily, or doing set exercises. He received enough exercise simply walking across north east India. He ate one meal a day if a donation of food was received, and nothing if there was no donation.
Food was not stored.
He walked a long way on Alms round, or to the next place he would be staying, he walked from town to town.
http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/M ... -India.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with metta
Chris

[m0rl0ck]

The Buddha, as my impression is, wanted us to keep the body healthy to not hinder the practice. If you eat right and exercise your body will get strong and healthy. What level of maintenance is sufficient from a Buddhist point of view?

The simple answer is: enough to keep you healthy, but with all knowledge today about the body, nutrition and exercise: how do we define what kind and amount of nutrition and exercise will suffice for a buddhist?

An additional question: Have there been situations where you have reflected that the Buddhist life – monastic or not – does or does not support your physical health?

Idk if there is a homogenous buddhist view Eating enough and enough variety to stay healthy and not get fat is a good way to go.
Personally i try to eat in a way that is at least somewhat mindful of planetary resources so that my diet causes as little harm as possible to other humans. So i do think there are limits you have to consider. I walk a bit every day and do some yoga now and then and that works for me. I think one needs to keep oneself in good shape for ones practice and for ones fellow practioners. I dont think there are enough buddhists in the world, so we have to take care of ourselves and each other and stick around as long as possible

[DNS]

The Buddha did plenty of exercise just by his walking around for alms, teachings, and traveling to various cities to propagate the Dhamma.

And of course, he also liked to hike up Vulture Peak regularly for meditation and instruction.

If any of you make pilgrimage to India, don't forget this great site. The Buddhists like to hike up to take the same steps as the Arahants. The non-Buddhists mostly take the motorized lifts up to the top.