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E A T I N G P R A C T I C E S I N B U D D H I S T M O N A S T E R I E S O F M E D I E V A L I N D I A A N D

C H I N A B Y : R I C H A R D M A T H E R

The Bonze’s Begging Bowl

Today’s Class:

�  Author focuses on the 5th century poet Shen Yueh [Shen Yue] (441-513) who had a lot to say about various Buddhist practices.

�  Essay I: “On Keeping the Tradition of the Monk’s Midday Meal” –about monk’s mid-afternoon meal

�  Essay II: “On Keeping the Tradition of the Maigre Feast” –about the religious rule for monks to beg for food

�  Essay III: “On Ultimate Compassion” –about vegetarianism in Buddhism

Essay I: “On Keeping the Tradition of the Monk’s Midday Meal”

“The reason people do not attain enlightenment is because their minds are confused and deluded, and the reason their minds are confused and deluded is because external things disturb them. The three greatest disturbing factors are ambition, sex, and food. Although ambition may occupy the mind daily, the essential thing is to avoid a moment-by-moment enslavement to it. Sex is of course a relatively more serious matter. But food is the worst slavery of them all. These three are the root out of which all other evils grow, like branches and leaves. The Buddha understood that if these three are not eradicated, there is no point from which one may begin to seek enlightenment, so he had to find a method for making the eradication as simple and easy as possible. He could have just said, ‘These three things are the root of all evil and are therefore strictly forbidden.’ But these three are precisely the things about which human feelings are most deluded and hence they are extremely difficult to dismiss by mere conscious thought. Even if the Buddha had wanted to prohibit them, in the end enforcing the prohibition would have been well-nigh impossible. It’s like a raft of lashed boats crossing a river. Not that the boatman would not want to cross directly to the opposite shore. But since the current is swift there is no possibility of crossing directly. So he has no choice but to cross diagonally with the current, and only after a long time finally to reach the other side…For this reason the Buddha moved up the evening meal to before midday. Thus, after midday the monks can be pure and free from distraction. Because of this freedom their conscious thoughts become simpler….”

Essay I (cont.)

�  What is Shen Yue’s main argument here? �  What point is he making with the analogy of the

boatman crossing the river? �  Shen Yue’s argument here is based on the early

Indian rules that were set up for monks before Buddhism came to China. In those rules, the monks were totally dependent on the generosity of others for all of his necessities so that he could focus on enlightenment. Ideal was a homeless monk.

�  Argument is that gluttony is a huge problem for achieving enlightenment (the worst?).

Essay II: “On Keeping the Tradition of the Maigre Feast”

�  Maigre=No meat eaten on this day (pronounced “Meg”). �  Buddhism is the Middle Path, so even if gluttony is terrible,

monks are not expected to starve themselves. �  The homeless ideal of Indian Buddhism could not be

followed in China, particularly as monasteries with permanent settlements were set up for monks.

�  If a monk has a permanent home, some problems pop up: should he go to the same households over and over again? Should he limit the opportunities for others to gain good karma by focusing on one small area? How should the money that is gathered by the monks be divided?

Essay II (cont.)

�  Chinese monastery system in China was a highly developed one: completely independent.

�  Monasteries had their own eating facilities. �  Rulers provided them with tax-free land, and pious

donors gave away their own land for the use of the sangha.

�  Begging in China had really bad connotations: no family.

�  Shen Yue knew this, so he focused on Maigre feasts, and NOT begging.

Essay II (cont.) Maigre Feasts

�  If they can afford it, laypeople feed large groups of monks and Buddhist laypeople on certain commemorative days or on special occasions.

�  Not Buddhist, per se. There were some ancient roots to such a rite: periodic communal feasts held in the countryside, in honor of the god of earth. èinfluence of popular religion on Buddhism.

�  Daoism also utilized such communal feasts (“merit feasts”).

Essay II (cont): Maigre Feasts

“For the cultivation of any religious observance there is always a reason. The modern practice of inviting monks and instead of filling their alms bowls merely preparing one feast for them all probably originated from the time long ago when the Buddha was still in the world and used to accept people’s invitations to meals. People now use this means to create a simulation of that precedent….Those who leave their families to become monks are expected to be supported by their begging rounds….No permission is given for the monks either to set up their own kitchens or to keep servants. But today, since they have amassed an ample store of food within their monasteries, the practice of begging has fallen into disuse. If by some accident a monk were to show up at someone’s gate holding an almsbowl, he would immediately be cursed for being a monk and at the same time doing something so utterly vulgar and degrading. Since it is something everybody despises and is ashamed of, there are no longer any monks who go about begging. Everyone assumes the tradition is no longer workable. But if the Buddha himself possessing as he did the nobility of an all-knowing deity, if even he could carry an alms bowl in his hand and go on his rounds to bring merit to the donors, does not his example apply to common, ordinary monks a thousand years later whose own persons and status are low-class and menial and who are accustomed to providing for their own mouths and bellies?”

Essay II (cont): Maigre Feasts

�  “As far as today’s invitations of monks to a single maigre feast are concerned, since they are at least a simulation of the original begging rounds, whether the monks go begging or accept the invitation really makes no difference. But, in consideration of the fact that today’s monks no longer go begging, if we were to add the possibility that they might no longer be invited to maigre feasts as well, that would mean that the whole tradition of begging would henceforth go into oblivion. If that should happen, the monks would no longer belong to the Buddha lineage and once that is gone the Three Jewels will have fallen to earth…”

�  What is Shen Yue’s take on the maigre feasts? Does he think they are important? How to they influence the sangha?

Essay III: “Discourse on Ultimate Compassion”

�  “Ever since the Nirvana Sutra [which explicitly stated that you can not eat meat because it removes one’s seeds of compassion] came east to this land the “three pure” (forms of meat consumption) have been discontinued. People have wholeheartedly submitted to the sutra’s ultimate teaching and have applied its standards on an ever-widening scale. If this continues then the violent taking of life will come to an end and the growing of vegetables will never slacken…Autumn fowls and summer eggs will become as untouchable as floating clouds, furry creatures of the hills and fish of the sea will become as gross as the decayed rat to a bird…”

�  He focuses on the fact that the fundamental principle of Buddhism is COMPASSION and eating animals is not compassionate.

Conclusions

Shen Yue is calling for a refocus of the Buddhist faith. Monks need to remember the following: �  Only eating once in the afternoon fights gluttony

which prevents enlightenment. �  While begging is not ideal for Chinese monks, they

must instead focus on Maigre meals and accept charity when it comes to them. They must remember that they have vowed a life of poverty.

�  Vegetarianism is extremely important because it is compassionate.