Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

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sentinel
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Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

Post by sentinel »

It was said Buddha had to eat horse wheat due to karma ? And Buddha got headaches for 3 days . Anyone got clue ?
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Volo
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Re: Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

Post by Volo »

The first is probably referring to Vinaya:
Bu-Pj.1.2.1 MS.19 At that time Verañjā56 was short of food57 and stricken by hunger, with crops blighted and turned to straw. It was not easy to keep oneself going58 by collecting alms. Just then some horse-dealers from Uttarāpathaka59 entered BD.1.12 the rains residence at Verañjā with five hundred horses. In the horse-pen60 they prepared pattha measure after pattha measure of steamed grain 61 for the monks. The monks, having dressed in the morning, took their bowls and robes and entered Verañjā for alms. Being unable to obtain anything, they went to the horse-pen. Having brought the pattha measures of steamed grain back to the monastery, they pounded them and ate them. Venerable Ānanda, having crushed a pattha measure of the steamed grain on a stone, took it to the Master, and the Master ate it.
About headache I'm not sure. Maybe it's about a commentarial story:
DPPN wrote:After Pasenadi's death, which was brought about by the treachery of Dīghakārāyana in making Vidūdabha king (for details see Pasenadi), Vidūdabha remembered his oath, and set out with a large army for Kapilavatthu. The Buddha, aware of this, stood under a tree, with scanty shade, just within the boundaries of the Sākiyan kingdom. On the boundary was a banyan which gave deep shade. Vidūdabha, seeing the Buddha, asked him to sit under the banyan. "Be not worried," said the Buddha, "the shade of my kinsmen keeps me cool.” Vidūdabha understood and returned home with his army. This exposure to the sun gave the Buddha a headache which lasted through out his life (UdA.265; Ap.i.300).
sentinel
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Re: Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

Post by sentinel »

Volo wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 7:46 am The first is probably referring to Vinaya:
Bu-Pj.1.2.1 MS.19 At that time Verañjā56 was short of food57 and stricken by hunger, with crops blighted and turned to straw. It was not easy to keep oneself going58 by collecting alms. Just then some horse-dealers from Uttarāpathaka59 entered BD.1.12 the rains residence at Verañjā with five hundred horses. In the horse-pen60 they prepared pattha measure after pattha measure of steamed grain 61 for the monks. The monks, having dressed in the morning, took their bowls and robes and entered Verañjā for alms. Being unable to obtain anything, they went to the horse-pen. Having brought the pattha measures of steamed grain back to the monastery, they pounded them and ate them. Venerable Ānanda, having crushed a pattha measure of the steamed grain on a stone, took it to the Master, and the Master ate it.
About headache I'm not sure. Maybe it's about a commentarial story:
DPPN wrote:After Pasenadi's death, which was brought about by the treachery of Dīghakārāyana in making Vidūdabha king (for details see Pasenadi), Vidūdabha remembered his oath, and set out with a large army for Kapilavatthu. The Buddha, aware of this, stood under a tree, with scanty shade, just within the boundaries of the Sākiyan kingdom. On the boundary was a banyan which gave deep shade. Vidūdabha, seeing the Buddha, asked him to sit under the banyan. "Be not worried," said the Buddha, "the shade of my kinsmen keeps me cool.” Vidūdabha understood and returned home with his army. This exposure to the sun gave the Buddha a headache which lasted through out his life (UdA.265; Ap.i.300).
Thanks volo , but do you find anything about it was the previous life karma of the Buddha why he ate horse wheat ? Something about slandering of previous Buddha !

And also about Buddha's having headaches also because ripening of the karma of previous life ?

https://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/ ... adache.htm

Thanks
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Volo
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Re: Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

Post by Volo »

I think assignment of each problem in the Buddha's life to a certain bad deed he committed in the past is coming from commentaries, maybe even from later sources.
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Aloka
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Re: Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

Post by Aloka »

sentinel wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 8:18 am Thanks volo , but do you find anything about it was the previous life karma of the Buddha why he ate horse wheat ? Something about slandering of previous Buddha !

And also about Buddha's having headaches also because ripening of the karma of previous life ?

https://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/ ... adache.htm
Hi sentinel,

What is "horse wheat" ?....do you mean horse meat?

Regarding kamma, I think its worth remembering what the Buddha said in sutta SN 36.21:

Once the Blessed One dwelled at Rajagaha in the Bamboo-Grove Monastery, at the Squirrel's Feeding Place. There a wandering ascetic, Moliya Sivaka by name, called on the Blessed One, and after an exchange of courteous and friendly words, sat down at one side. Thus seated, he said:

There are, revered Gotama, some ascetics and brahmans who have this doctrine and view: 'Whatever a person experiences, be it pleasure, pain or neither-pain-nor-pleasure, all that is caused by previous action.' Now, what does the revered Gotama say about this?"

"Produced by (disorders of the) bile, there arise, Sivaka, certain kinds of feelings. That this happens, can be known by oneself; also in the world it is accepted as true. Produced by (disorders of the) phlegm... of wind... of (the three) combined... by change of climate... by adverse behavior... by injuries... by the results of Kamma — (through all that), Sivaka, there arise certain kinds of feelings. That this happens can be known by oneself; also in the world it is accepted as true.

"Now when these ascetics and brahmans have such a doctrine and view that 'whatever a person experiences, be it pleasure, pain, or neither-pain-nor-pleasure, all that is caused by previous action,' then they go beyond what they know by themselves and what is accepted as true by the world. Therefore, I say that this is wrong on the part of these ascetics and brahmans."

When this was spoken, Moliya Sivaka, the wandering ascetic, said: "It is excellent, revered Gotama, it is excellent indeed!...May the revered Gotama regard me as a lay follower who, from today, has taken refuge in him as long as life lasts."

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .nypo.html

The sections on superstition, karma, and the Buddha's teachings on causality in this little booklet by Ajahn Amaro, are also definately worth reading.

https://cdn.amaravati.org/wp-content/up ... -Amaro.pdf

:anjali:
sentinel
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Re: Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

Post by sentinel »

Volo wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 8:57 am I think assignment of each problem in the Buddha's life to a certain bad deed he committed in the past is coming from commentaries, maybe even from later sources.
:anjali:
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sentinel
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Re: Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

Post by sentinel »

Aloka wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 9:14 am
Hi sentinel,

What is "horse wheat" ?....do you mean horse meat?

Regarding kamma, I think its worth remembering what the Buddha said in sutta SN 36.21:

......

https://cdn.amaravati.org/wp-content/up ... -Amaro.pdf

:anjali:
Greetings Aloka ,


I managed to find out actually the grain mentioned should be a kind of coarse barley .

And thanks for the references .
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samsarictravelling
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Re: Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

Post by samsarictravelling »

sentinel wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 7:24 am It was said Buddha had to eat horse wheat due to karma ? And Buddha got headaches for 3 days . Anyone got clue ?
I can't believe no one who answered this (including Volo), didn't get it, for the eating horse food (grains?), for not just one meal, but an extended period of time at a certain location, I think I read. (maybe even a whole Rains?!!?)

I read somewhere in the past, that the Buddha had to eat horse food or something else, as paying for past kamma in a previous life where he forgot to feed a (royal?) horse or (royal?) horses. Even though he was now the Buddha, he had to eat the horse food (grains?), I think I might have read!

I could be wrong I read all that. Just try googling for it.

Bhikkhu Dhammanando or some other Bhikkhu or some other person may even know I'm right -- if I am right.

(Or could it been he was the bodhisatta in a Jataka eating those horse grains, and not yet a Buddha -- unlike what sentinel says (and also I myself just said)???)

samsarictravelling

EDIT: LOL!!! LOL!!!

****** I did some googling and THINK I JUST FOUND OUT I WAS WRONG in my reading of the past ABOUT THE REASON FOR IT BEING FORGETTING TO FEED THE ROYAL HORSE(S) (sometimes in the past, I just read without much care sometimes; OR MAYBE THAT WAS ACTUALLY SOMETHING I READ?! (ABOUT FORGETTING TO FEED THE HORSE(S) WELL, THE DIFFERENT VERSION BELOW SEEMS TO BE AUTHORITATIVE ENOUGH). ******

But Volo is still maybe wrong, because I just checked his answer above, and it does not correspond to the answer I found from my google search, shown below.

These are the two correct answers for both the horse food AND headache (separate stories), I think!!:

FROM:

Why the Buddha Suffered: Apadana Translation by Anandajoti Bhikkhu

https://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/ ... ffered.pdf

****** "Horse food", page 55 ******:

[10. Eating Barley]

In the tenth enquiry, called eating barley, we hear about eating husked
barley.89

In the past, it seems, the Buddha-to-be was reborn in a certain family,
and because of his high birth and being blinded by foolishness, having
seen the disciples of the Gracious One Phussa enjoying sweet drinks
and food and the finest rice and so on, he scolded them saying: “Hey,
you shaveling ascetics should eat barley, you shouldn't enjoy the finest
rice!”

Through that unwholesome deed and its result, after undergoing
suffering in the four lower realms for countless thousands of years, in
this his last state of existence, he by and by attained Buddhahood.
Having sympathy for the world he walked in the villages, towns and
royal cities, and at one time, while in the vicinity of the brahminical
village of Verañjā, he arrived at the root of a Margosa tree endowed
with spreading90 branches.

...

Therefore it is said:

I blamed the teachings and disciples of Buddha Phussa saying:
“You should eat and enjoy barley, you should not enjoy this fine
rice;”

Through that deed and its result for three months I ate only barley
When invited by the brahmin to dwell three months in Verañjā.

****** Headache, page 54 ******:

[9. A Headache]

In the ninth enquiry, called a headache, we hear about how he had a
pain in the head, or painful feeling in the head.

In the past, it seems, the Buddha-to-be was reborn as a fisherman in a
fisherman's village. One day, together with the fishermen he went to
the place where they murder fish, and seeing fish being murdered,
happiness arose right there, and also right there and then happiness
arose for those he was with.

Through that unwholesome deed, after undergoing suffering in the
four lower realms, in this his last state of existence, together with those
men he was born in the Royal Sakya family, and by and by having
attained to Buddhahood he suffered from pain in the head.

And about the Sakyan Royalty and their fate it is recorded in the
discussion in the commentary to the Dhammapada: in the battle with
Viḍūḍabha they all came to destruction.88

Therefore it is said:

Before I was a fisherman's son in a fisherman's village,
Having seen fish being killed it produced a little happiness;

88 In the commentary to verse 47, entitled The Story of Viḍūḍabha
(Viḍūḍabhavatthu).

Through that deed and through its result I had a great pain in my
head,
And all the Sakyans were killed when they were slain by Viḍūḍabha.

Samsarictravelling
chownah
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Re: Which text says Buddha had to eat horse wheat ?

Post by chownah »

Just so people know, barley is and was commonly eaten by humans....it is a perfectly nutritious grain and it sustains and has sustained millions upon millions of people.

Eating barley is a mark of a certain degree of poverty....it is not as palatable as rice (for instance) and so in most cultures people who can afford to eat rice don't eat barley.....it is somewhat of a class distinction. In some places, farmers grow rice and then they sell it (they don't eat it) and buy barley which is much cheaper thereby they have sustenance for their family and some cash which is used to buy things like sugar,cooking oil, tea, etc.

People should not think that eating barley is a hardship.....it is just not what is preferred by most people.

chownah
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