Why one meal a day?

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mikenz66
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by mikenz66 »

Most monks I know eat two meals. As I understand it, the Vinaya specifies a time for eating (dawn to noon). Eating just one meal is an additional ascetic practice, mentioned in some Suttas.

And note that there is no prohibition on fluids, which would make it much more difficult.

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Nori
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by Nori »

Zom wrote:
Also, in the beginning you can practise like that: eat once a day, and then have a tea with cakes or candies or chocolate or cheese in the evening. After some time you will manage to drop cakes & candies ,) Tea is no problem - you can keep it - this is not a food -)
Thanks for your suggestion, and thanks David for feedback.
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by Nori »

I wonder if sleeping on a lower bed really has any significant effect on ones ego or conceit?

Or was this precept in response to the prevalence of Guru's lounging on extravagant 'decked out' seats and beds during that period? Or an ascetic practice of taking away extreme comfort?

I am still baffled that it is one of the eight precepts.. I would figure that it would have to be very significant for it to become one of eight precepts.

Does anyone believe the effect of this precept is significant and why?

I have often considered cutting off the legs from my platform bed, but then I cannot store boxes underneath. I also do not see the reason.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
Last edited by Nori on Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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ground
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by ground »

I am interpreting the precepts beyond the first five to be a refinement of the first five, i.e. with the purpose of enhancing awareness of one's subtle self (grasping) habits and to train to "see through" these habits and thus to establish (more or less) effortless discipline. These precepts are not "an end in themselves". They are "method". To appoach them with a competitive mind or "what do I get from it" actually undermines the purpose of these precepts.


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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by alan »

This is a perfect example of minor rules which should have been abolished.
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by alan »

Sleep on a nice bed, and eat regularly. Don't fall into the stupid belief that following outdated rules will make you any more spiritual, or morally superior. Thinking for yourself is a better example of how to follow the path.
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by jackson »

alan wrote:Sleep on a nice bed, and eat regularly. Don't fall into the stupid belief that following outdated rules will make you any more spiritual, or morally superior. Thinking for yourself is a better example of how to follow the path.
Greetings Alan, everyone,
I don't think that not eating after noon makes one more spiritual, but it's a great way to observe craving. As I see it, the first five precepts are about morality, the rest are means of frustration so we can see where we're attached and learn to let go. Just my opinion of course.
May you be well, happy, and peaceful. :smile:
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"The heart of the path is quite easy. There’s no need to explain anything at length. Let go of love and hate and let things be. That’s all that I do in my own practice." - Ajahn Chah
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by appicchato »

alan wrote:Don't fall into the stupid belief...
Tightly wound it would seem... :popcorn:
Cilla
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by Cilla »

I must say this has just become interesting. Can i have popcorn too. But...

Alan for the most part i agree with you entirely but then I also agree that this is probably accurate too.
but it's a great way to observe craving. As I see it, the first five precepts are about morality, the rest are means of frustration so we can see where we're attached and learn to let go. Just my opinion of course.
But is it the point of the precept. I suspect not really. The reason i say that is because the buddha noticed himself that it was hard to meditate while one was half starved. Secondly, some teachers i have read say you've got to be comfortable if you want to meditate well. (not that you meditate in bed) but comfort is obviously a factor and so is health and being well rested. IN fact i read about the importance of being well rested. Only you don't need a high or low bed for that.

That must be to do with the ego. Or maybe its cultural.

Don't forget that these rules were invented in different times. A lot of modern buddhism has recognised that some adjustments for our cultural context is in order. Tonight i heard one from my own monk. He is a zen monk but has trained in all traditions. He said that its now common to teach meditation with borrowings from all traditions. I figure he takes the best of them all. or what he thinks is the best rather than sticking to the hard and fast rules of centuries ago or times when cultures were the same as centuries ago.

The fact is if you have grown up in a modern culture, following some of the rules of other cultural traditions will be pretty tricky adn you may not get as much out of the whole exercise as you could do if you were either born into an old culture or followed an adjusted method.

That said, are you a monk yourself. If not why are you trying to follow the precepts of a monk.

Another point, in a book i read recently, about this one meal a day thing that the monks were asked to do in buddhas time, they could also eat fruit at any time. I think that is because fruit could be found ripe on the trees or in the forest . I suppose the meal given in the old days in india would have consisted of rice and/or bread and some vegetables or beans/lentils. I figure the buddha thought this amount of food was enough. But today we know how much food we need for good health. For men its about 1800 calories per day minimum if you are about average height. And most men on that calorie intake will lose weight for quite a while anyway. So it might be more like 2300 to sustain a healthy weight. That's actually quite a lot of food. It is not too smart to eat it all in one sitting. And there is no reason that the monks in the buddha's day would have eaten their food in one sitting. They could have made it last longer if they were given a lot of food. The thing is to eat enough food to sustain you in whatever activities you are doing. If you are on a retreat you won't need much food. If you are walking around and teaching people you will need more. Quite a bit more.

That said, it would be interesting to try it for a while but why go overboard. Do the two meals before noon and see how you go. Do'nt try to be too active if you are doing this.
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by Pondera »

[quote="alan"]Sleep on a nice bed, and eat regularly. Don't fall into the stupid belief that following outdated rules will make you any more spiritual, or morally superior. Thinking for yourself is a better example of how to follow the path.[/""quote]

"Sleep on a nice bed"...sure, no problem. But "eat regularly"...isn't going to work for insight. The rules aren't in place as if to say that those who abstain from eating after noon and avoid lofty, comfortable beds are somehow morally superior. The rules are there for a good reason. The path is there for you to follow. But assuming that certain parts of it aren't necessary is just an assumption. Discipline is for the purpose of restraint. Restraint is for the purpose of non-remorse. Non-remorse is for the purpose of gladdening. Gladdening is for the purpose of happiness. Happiness is for the for the purpose of tranquility. Tranquility is for the purpose of bliss, and so on and so forth until we reach; knowledge and vision of deliverance is for the purpose of the complete extinction of craving through not clinging. Yet non of this comes without first practicing restraint.

Read this one...http://tipitaka.wikia.com/wiki/Dhammadayada_Sutta" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I followed the practice of eating one meager meal a day for half a year. I felt the non-remorse which cannot be understood for a person who fails to restrain themselves in the case of over eating. When you overeat you simply miss out on everything that might follow, such as gladdening, happiness and so on. Of course if your life is busy you must eat regularly to stay healthy. If you have the time and desire and lack of interruption to do so, practice eating but once a day. Hunger will strike at 3:00 or 4:00 almost without exception. A person gets used to this. The stomach tightens. When that happens people admit to feeling hungry. The pain is so exceedingly harsh that they simply must eat or they will just roll over and die. But this is not the case. After you feel the pains of hunger tightening your stomach that pain simply vanishes. At the most hunger pains will last an hour. After this they go away. However expect them to come back the following day. Remember to eat as well. Hunger should be the least of anyone's worries.

Restraint leads to non-remorse; non-remorse to gladdening, and so on. But you must have the discipline to restrain your self. Otherwise there are no results.
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by Zom »

Or was this precept in response to the prevalence of Guru's lounging on extravagant 'decked out' seats and beds during that period? Or an ascetic practice of taking away extreme comfort?
Probably yes. The idea is to decrease extreme comfort. And another extreme (as I see it) would be sleeping on a plain floor with no bedding, or even worse than that - like sleeping on a mat with spikes or smth like that.
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by Pondera »

I tried to avoid lofty, comfortable beds. It becomes nearly impossible to sleep well when you do not have a pillow, or you have a pillow made of concrete (for all of the Pearl Jam fans out there). In the absence of a real pillow I have found two ways to make a one out of my arms. Neither way works very well. In both cases, I am unable to sleep more than four hours without waking up. And when I wake up my hips are sore, as are my neck and shoulders. So I don't do it. I sleep on a lofty bed made of baby porcupine dander. Quite expensive, that stuff.

Anyhow. This is the first arm pillow. It's simple. You stretch your right arm out so that your head rests on your shoulder when you lay on your right side. I wake up from this posture with a sore neck and a sore shoulder.

The second arm pillow is a bit more crafty. You assume the sleeping posture on your right side. You move your right arm so that the shoulder is placed under your neck. You then turn your right elbow inward so that the palm of your hand is now right about beneath your ear. Then you take your left arm beneath your head grasping the thumb of your right hand. This forms a steady cradle which you can rest your head on. I wake up from this posture four hours into sleep with sore joints in my hip.

I really like my sleep. Food; I can take it or leave it. But this is the thing about fasting.

The mind is like the intestines in a very literal way. The mind clings to perceptions and feelings in the same way that the stomach clings to food.

Constipation of the mind is similar to constipation of the bowels in the sense that the contents of each organ will not leave the body despite any effort. In the case of the mind, the undesirable contents represent a complicated attachment to feelings built on craving and lust; made possible by consciousness. In the other case, the undesirable contents are too much digested waste, built on the foundations of too consumtion, with the help of a total lack of restraint.

The cure for the constipation felt in ones intestines is simple abstinence from food. This allows the gut to loosen up. Many will advise that a person continues eating as he prefers but adds more fiber to his diet. This addresses the symptoms of the constipation, but not the causes. The cause is over consumption of food.

There is no way to address the attachment one's mind has to perceptions and feelings without also considering the material aspect of nutrition. The two cannot be discussed separately as if the mind were but one thing and the body a whole other made out of something completely different. Consciousness, to be sure, is quite distinct from matter, however; an over consumption of food indirectly helps the cause of a continued attachment to the mental desires, cravings, lusts, and delusions which constitute the fundamental obstructions that exist around a persons desire for happiness.

But if the problem of over eating is resolved by discipline and restraint something beneficial, besides the vanishing of ones bunged up stomach, occurs. The mind gradually allows itself to fall into dispassion. The mind solemnly accepts the irrelevant fight it takes on day after day for the satisfaction of the ego. Beyond this, the mind becomes able to let go of those attachments. This cannot ever be accomplished in the case of a person who does not show restraint with regards to eating. Your karma is bound up with your material existence and your metal formations in a co-dependence of scenarios.

When you appease the torrent of violence created by the over consumption of food the body allows the faculties of the mind to relieve themselves of all perception. The ego accepts the dissolution of its existence, consciousness vanishes like evaporating steam, and this incurs the state of neither perception nor non-perception. Followed by this is the total cessation of perception and feeling.

The mind relaxes only after the body has relaxed and thus we get the reason for why those who are intent and devoted towards an understanding or a life of seclusion and self-denial with regards to the goal of spiritual gnosis show restraint and moderation in their consumption of foods.
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by Jhana4 »

Since graduate school I have preferred sleeping on a mattress on a floor. I recently bought a bed. I'll let you know if it turns me into more of a worldling :)
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
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The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by daverupa »

One of the benefits I experience from sleeping on the floor is a readiness to wake up in the morning and stretch - filling the space left by a disinclination to remain absorbed in drowsiness.

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    "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

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Re: Precepts: Not eating after mid-day / Avoiding lofty beds

Post by befriend »

if you eat less food it also helps curb lust, as well as make the mind light. think of how much energy it takes to digest a dinner in the evening when your already tired. now if you dont eat dinner you have more energy because your not digesting. also i agree with the last poster, when you sleep on the floor you wake up fast, buddha said he didnt want monks to sleep through the morning.
Take care of mindfulness and mindfulness will take care of you.
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