netlava wrote: ↑Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:02 am
Could you post the discourse where the Buddha recommended sleeping before 10 PM? I don't think I've heard that one before.
dharmacorps wrote: ↑Sun Sep 02, 2018 5:40 pm
I also would like to see the Sutta about going to bed before 10pm. I could see perhaps the inference of that time based on the Suttas however. Obviously they didn't have clocks at this time
This is how I came to this conclusion:
First, Ven. Thanissaro suggests this is so in some of his translations, e.g.: "During the second watch of the night [10 p.m. to 2 a.m.], reclining on his right side, he takes up the lion’s posture, one foot placed on top of the other, mindful, alert, with his mind set on getting up [either as soon as he awakens or at a particular time]." (AN 8:9
https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN8_9.html, etc.)
Second, understanding of when "dawnrise" occurs is important because some Vinaya rules are apparently dependent on that time. This study suggests civil twilight defines "dawnrise" in the morning:
https://archive.org/download/WhenIsDawn ... dition.pdf If morning's civil twilight defines dawnrise & the beginning of the day, then it stands to reason in my mind that evening's civil twilight also defines the beginning of the night.
Finally, since the night is divided into three watches (see also AN 8:9, etc.), if I take the length of an average night (~Sep 21) from evening civil twilight to morning civil twilight and divide it by three equal periods of time, I can then calculate that the beginning of the second watch of the night roughly corresponds to approximately 10p.m (give or take a few minutes depending on the season).