What do monks eat?

RebeccaS

I know they don't eat after noon, so do they just have breakfast and lunch or do they have like, a big brunch?

And what do they eat for it? Is it a super simple diet where they eat the same thing everyday, do they just eat whatever's available? Do they snack?

Also, can they drink water after noon?

It probably differs from temple to temple but if anyone knows what their local monks are up to I'd love to hear it.

Cloud

Most monks I think eat just once a day, food that is offered to them by lay Buddhists. It can really be anything, but depends on the region... there are some monks that will not eat meat, and others that will (also depending).

RebeccaS

That's pretty cool. Cheers.

yamada

i only know the rules in Theravada. In theravada, of course they can drink water after noon. But not for eat,although it is only snack. And yes, they just eat whatever's available but as CLOUD said that depends on the region.

Btw, have you ever tried soap for monks?

seeker242

It depends heavily on the tradition the monk is ordained in. Not all of them observe the only before noon rule. Some of them are vegetarian, some are not. Some eat one meal a day, some eat a normal 3 meals a day at normal times. It depends heavily on the tradition.

RebeccaS

@yamada No, what's that?

RebeccaS

If someone brought them a Burger King would they eat that? Not the vegetarians obviously...

I hear you that it depends on the tradition, I guess I'm most interested in the ones that would eat burger king,

Cloud

I've heard of monks eating a variety of things, but not Burger King. Really Rebecca, the whole point of being a monk is to get away from attachment to desires, to worldly pleasures. Burger King food is a worldly pleasure. Monks eat as if it's medicine for their bodies... not for pleasure. It's supposed to be the simple life with the best conditions to become detached from conditioned phenomena. That type of food would be the last thing they'd want.

If a lay Buddhist even offered a Big Mac to a monk, I'd think there was something wrong with them.

RebeccaS

I didn't know they viewed food like that - I read something where the Buddha said he eats to maintain the health of his body, but I didn't really take it in. It makes sense.

Although I think calling Burger King a pleasure is pushing it a bit

genkaku

Many, if not most, of the monks and nuns I have known were grateful first ... and made distinctions as little as possible.

Sabre

According to the vinaya (monks discipline) practiced in Therevada, as far as I know:

Monks have to eat what is given. (if it's edible of course) If you give a Burger King, they will have to eat it. Also, they can only take what they need for that day. And it has to be in one bowl. For what they can eat, it's about everything as long as it is not from an animal especially killed for them.

The food can vary of course. In poor regions the food will be less.

However, when I was in a monastry I must admit the food was extremely good. It's just a variety of all sorts of things; rice, pasta, potato things, curries, bread, cake. Even pizza once! There was no meat usually, but ocasionally there may be. I've seen fish though, carefully labelled as being a dish with fish.

The food was laid out and the monks could walk past it to get what they want, (after it was offered by one of the cooks, if you help in the kitchen you can do that, if you ever get the chance, I'd advice to do that).

But other times they go on almsround and have no choice really.

In the end, it all depends on the cheff, I guess.

vinlyn

According to the vinaya (monks discipline) practiced in Therevada, as far as I know:

Monks have to eat what is given. (if it's edible of course)

Of course, there is that old Thai story -- often told -- about the leper who handed a bowl of food to a monk, and as he did his thumb fell off and into the food and the monk felt he had to eat it.

Sile

My guys eat a lot of rice and dal. Sherab makes, in fact, the best dal I have ever personally tasted.

Beej

The most compassionate and empathetic cooks always make the best food: LOVE is quite literally the most imortant ingredient in all of our meals- the monk with with most empathy should prepare and cook the food (and the monk with most elbow grease should wash the dishes) - this care is what gives the food its healing attributes, and of what specific type of food, as long as its generally unproccesed and devoid of toxins, it doesnt really matter. Remember this when you next cook a meal and whoever eats it will be the better for it. This is where saying "grace" before a meal got it's legs!

RebeccaS

Of course, there is that old Thai story -- often told -- about the leper who handed a bowl of food to a monk, and as he did his thumb fell off and into the food and the monk felt he had to eat it.

That's horrible!

Thanks for all the great info everyone

Sile

The most compassionate and empathetic cooks always make the best food: LOVE is quite literally the most imortant ingredient in all of our meals- the monk with with most empathy should prepare and cook the food (and the monk with most elbow grease should wash the dishes) - this care is what gives the food its healing attributes, and of what specific type of food, as long as its generally unproccesed and devoid of toxins, it doesnt really matter. Remember this when you next cook a meal and whoever eats it will be the better for it. This is where saying "grace" before a meal got it's legs!

A belief shared also by some Native Americans. The tribe I worked for believed very strongly in the cooks keeping "a good mind" when preparing food, because the people eating would be affected by whatever the cooks were in. My friend and I used to joke, when we were tired and frying up a lot of bread, that we had to be careful not to indulge in feeling ornery and thus ending up with "angry bread!"

RebeccaS

I really like some of the things Native Americans do - the way they thank the animals before eating them and stuff. So interesting.

yamada

@RebeccaS : this is the picture of monk's soap. the soap made from olive oil, without fragrance, very soft. it is recycling soap. i bought it last week at Tzu Chi Organization. Now, i know why monks shouldn't use soaps that contains perfume.

RebeccaS

That's awesome! I bet it's really good for your skin.

Beej

@ Sile- there's all types of modern "science" that can verify that human intention effects living plant life as well as the geometric structuring of water molecules- simply put: LOVE is infectious on so many levels. indigenous peoples all over the world have some degree of this understanding and while I have no "goals" on my path I do have aspirations, and cheif among them is to live as fully as possible from living-kindness. Love your food and it will love you back. Love your neighbor and maybe they will learn to love their neighbor and so on and so forth. Love is the one thing that you can not lose no matter how much of it you give away because thats what you are underneath all of these conditioned layers- you are pure love- it is the natural state of your unobstructed being. I'll eat to that!

RebeccaS

@Sile- there's all types of modern "science" that can verify that human intention effects living plant life as well as the geometric structuring of water molecules- simply put: LOVE is infectious on so many levels.

This is one study that points to that http://www.highexistence.com/water-experiment/ it's really interesting, but note that it hasn't been peer reviewed and is subject to a lot of skepticism. I personally think it's amazing.

Also, the ever amazing "double slit" experiment. Not about love, no, it's about observational intervention, but equally staggering in its implication http://www.highexistence.com/this-will-mindfuck-you-the-double-slit-experiment/

Also, I realize this site isn't the best for scientific study, but it does a reasonable job of explaining things simply. So I'd ignore any conclusions drawn by the author, I'm pretty sure he's not a scientist.

Beej

Science is nothing but perception.- Socrates

Science is the record of dead religions.- Oscar Wilde

Science does not know it's debt to imagination. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let everything be thy teacher.- Zen

RebeccaS

Oh, you wrote "science" up there lol. I missed that.

Well, I find it interesting

Beej

no I mean to say that its ALL good.... I use science as a tool to understand this existence as well as other tools such as experience and stillness... what I don't do is claim science as the end all be all in topical discussion. Science has a narrow view point and really only has value when you attempt to integrate its findings into the larger field. I love the Japanese scientist 's experiment: Its exactly what i was reffering to up there^. Love your food(which inevitably has water in it, as well as 70% of our body and planet) and it will love you back. Sound resonance, geometry, energy fields can all be shown to have positive effects on life forms- this is why beautiful music makes you happy, why art makes you happy and why meditation makes you happy- ALL religions have these factors somewher in thier core, hence the idea of science being the record of dead religions: when science proves it true, the religion dies. That doesnt make any of it less beautiful or profound- Science doesnt contradict religion, it just has a different way of expressing thoughts about this infinite universe. You say TUHMAYTOE i say TUHMAHTOE (TOMATOE)! and it always comes back to loving our food!

RebeccaS

Heh. Well, cool stuff. I thought you meant "science" as in you're not really into it.

No, it's not the be all and end all, but, like you, I find that it aids my understanding and agree that it becomes really interesting when it integrates to a higher field.

The movie "The Quantum Activist" addresses that integration, and that's where I heard about the water crystal experiment. If you're interested in the science/spirituality melding thing I'd highly recommend it.

Beej

thank you kindly for the suggestion, i will take a look! isn't life awesome?!

RebeccaS

You can get it on Netflix.

And yeah, life is pretty cool Enjoy your day!

DairyLama

The most compassionate and empathetic cooks always make the best food:

Though it also helps if people actually know how to cook.

federica

true dat....!

Jason

I know they don't eat after noon, so do they just have breakfast and lunch or do they have like, a big brunch?

In the majority of the Thai Theravada temples I've stayed at, they usually have a small breakfast after morning chanting (around 7am) and before they start their daily chores. It's usually something simple like rice porridge. Then around 11am they have their main meal, which is where they get most of their calories for the day. In some of the more stricter temples, though, they only have the one meal before noon.

And what do they eat for it? Is it a super simple diet where they eat the same thing everyday, do they just eat whatever's available? Do they snack?

They eat whatever is offered by the lay-community. In my experience, Thais generally bring Thai food and Westerners bring things like pizza and sandwiches. There's also a lot of fruit. They're prohibited by monastic rules from eating certain things, however, such anything they've seen, heard, or suspected to have been killed specifically for them, as well as raw meat, and the flesh of elephants, horses, dogs, snakes, lions, tigers, leopards, bears, hyenas or, of course, humans.

Also, can they drink water after noon?

Yes. They can drink water any time of the day. Other beverages after midday are debatable, however, and it depends on how certain teachers interpret (or bend) the rules. For example, from The Bhikkhus' Rules: A Guide for Laypeople:

There is an allowance in the Paali texts that 'medicinal-tonics' can be taken in the afternoon while 'lifetime-medicines' may be consumed any time they are needed. (See Lifetime Medicines.)

There are different interpretations and practices about how ill a bhikkhu has to be for it to be allowable to take such 'medicines.' Some bhikkhus will not take anything other than pure water, while some will over-stretch the Rule to even drinking 'medicinal' food-drinks (e.g., Ovaltine) in the afternoon. Some bhikkhus will consider tea-leaves allowable (as 'herbs') while some will see it as food or as a 'stimulant' (caffeine) and therefore not appropriate. Also, the ordinary rural villagers of South East Asia (until very recently) would have had no tea or coffee to drink, so such items could be considered quite a luxury. It will depend on local conditions and interpretations, which are allowed for in the Vinaya through the Great Standards. (See also Lifetime Medicines.)

Pretty much all of the places I've stayed at allowed tea, and some even allowed instant coffee.

RebeccaS

Thanks, @Jason! It's so interesting.

vinlyn

The temples I visited in Thailand, while living there, had almost no Westerners present. So I never experienced people bringing Western food.

One temple near where I lived in Bangkok had a slightly different practice than most. When you would bring food (as Jason said, around 11 a.m.), you would select a particular monk to whom to give the food, and then the monk would take you to his kuti (at this particular temple the kutis were more like little, simple apartments; in many temples a monk's kuti was more like a little tiny individual house) and talk with you while he ate, which was rather nice. So, we (my Thai significant other and I) would take a full meal for one particular monk and chat with him. If you didn't know a monk, which we didn't at first, a sort of temple attendant would select a monk for you to team up with...not sure on what he based the decision...perhaps the monk who most needed the food.

Brian

One of my favorites from when I used to hang out with Theravada monks in the mornings was what I call the "Monk Sandwich". They used to have one nearly every day. It was a fried egg sandwich on toast with peanut butter and soy sauce.

I loved those things.

federica

@Brian, How do you manage to make something sound so gross and so healthy at the same time....?

(Damn, I hate you Brian... you know what a foodie I am - you just KNOW I'm going to have to try this now, don't you....?
What type of bread....?)

vinlyn

Please don't even mention soy sauce. I've had to give up many of my Asian favorites because of the extremely high sodium in soy sauce, and the substitute I found, in some dishes isn't even close.

RebeccaS

I would feel guilty about picking a monk! Like, they're in a line and you walk back and forth eyeing them up and then you just pick one... I know it doesn't happen like that but that's how I pictured it in my head, like a drill sargeant looking for dirty boots or something

The monk sandiwch sounds horrible, but also like it has the potential to be really good, like cheese and chocolate or bacon cupcakes.

Zero

you just KNOW I'm going to have to try this now, don't you....? What type of bread....?)

I tried it with wholegrain medium sliced... chunky peanut butter, regular soy sauce and one mahoosive egg... surprisingly very good... didnt think the egg would go with peanut... probably put less soy sauce next time... it sort of got away from me as soy sauce often does... thanks for the idea...

WilliamHobbs

I went to a Christian Monastery in Beaulieu, England and there were oysters scattered everywhere, they eat them a lot.

Invincible_summer

I've heard of monks eating a variety of things, but not Burger King. Really Rebecca, the whole point of being a monk is to get away from attachment to desires, to worldly pleasures. Burger King food is a worldly pleasure. Monks eat as if it's medicine for their bodies... not for pleasure. It's supposed to be the simple life with the best conditions to become detached from conditioned phenomena. That type of food would be the last thing they'd want.

If a lay Buddhist even offered a Big Mac to a monk, I'd think there was something wrong with them.

On Youtube, Yuttadhammo mentioned once about how in Sri Lanka, they sometimes get cookies/biscuits/crackers during their alms rounds, and he sort of complained (mindfully, of course) about how they weren't getting much nutrition from their alms rounds because people in that area didn't seem to give much more than those treats.

And it really depends on your perspective - a Whopper from BK could either be an "indulgence" or just "food."

Cloud

You're right @Invincible_summer. It's just there aren't a lot of people that could eat good food and still be detached from it. Maybe if they all had good food they wouldn't think about practicing so much, they'd think it was the good life.

how

There is the ideal....and the actual.
I have trained in monasteries where there were definite issues around food.

I have seen a lot of food attachment with Monks and laypeople where they've acted as if it was one of the last sensual indulgences left to them. I am talking about consistently eating volumes way beyond body maintenance levels. Lots of conversations about the food that they'd be looking for the next time they were outside of the monastery. Abbots who have had to shut down obsessive dessert baking in monastic kitchens.

These were places where there was certainly a great variety of vegetarian cooking going on, so I don't think anyone was food deprived. It just looked like a bunch of practitioners penned within monastic walls without entertainment, TV's, radio's, sex, stimulants, who responded to eating as an allowable escape from the pressures of renunciation.

Shouldn't have been that way but it was.

Cloud

That's what I think too @how. You give 'em an inch, they want a mile. I think the best forms of monastic practice are the most strict, but that's just me. I'd probably hate it myself, but know that it was for my own good.

DairyLama

I'd miss fish and chips though

Cloud

@PedanticPorpoise (boy that name is harder to type), Yes, yes you would. And that would be very evident, you'd be craving for all sorts of things you couldn't have, and then a lightbulb would go off that your mind is constantly craving. Booyah.

OneLifeForm

Just commenting on the Burger King tip..

All of that type of fast food and really most other foods that are in and stem from USA are full of drugs and addictive chemicals.

It is horrible that the stuff is even created let alone hypothetically given to a monk or anyone else to EAT!

I used to be a fast food junkie and Burger King was my drug of choice out of all of the different fast food places.

I quit eating it a long time ago and a couple years back I was working out at the gym and a Burger King commercial came on the TV and my mind instantly went back to exactly what that was like eating the stuff.. cravings after years of not even thinking about it!
Another time I was in a driveway at the place where my father was staying and I saw a Burger King wrapper on the ground and my mind did that same thing.. it was quite disturbing.

I used to snort coke and smoke crack.. a different time at the gym while working out, with a couple years clean from that as well.. a documentary came on the TV and was showing people use cocaine.
It did nothing to my mind.. nothing whatsoever compared to the Burger King Kravings that I experienced after years of being away from the junk.

Grateful to be an eater of food today.

Beej

@OneLifeForm-

I can relate to that Burger King thing. I had it bad for that place when I was at my most careless in life. Everything about my life was dis-harmonious, and the BK was close to the center of that dis harmony. I just shuttered now thinking of it, actually.

OneLifeForm

@OneLifeForm-

I can relate to that Burger King thing. I had it bad for that place when I was at my most careless in life. Everything about my life was dis-harmonious, and the BK was close to the center of that dis harmony. I just shuttered now thinking of it, actually.

It is an extremely frightening thing how their "food" can have such an effect on the mind and body.

WilliamHobbs

I had McDonald's for just two days and I was violently sick :shake: , my body isn't used to such impurities and chemicals. I believe that we all have a certain immunity to food and drink.

RebeccaS

I had a sausage mcmuffin for breakfast yesterday and it was delicious. It's my favourite breakfast food Cheeseburgers are also great when you're on the run. I like to be able to buy food from the comfort of my car, too. It's almost magical.

Bunks

@ Sile- there's all types of modern "science" that can verify that human intention effects living plant life as well as the geometric structuring of water molecules- simply put: LOVE is infectious on so many levels. indigenous peoples all over the world have some degree of this understanding and while I have no "goals" on my path I do have aspirations, and cheif among them is to live as fully as possible from living-kindness. Love your food and it will love you back. Love your neighbor and maybe they will learn to love their neighbor and so on and so forth. Love is the one thing that you can not lose no matter how much of it you give away because thats what you are underneath all of these conditioned layers- you are pure love- it is the natural state of your unobstructed being. I'll eat to that!

:thumbsup:

Beej

@Bunks - :thumbsup: backatcha!
(and I meant 'loving-kindness' not 'living-kindness', but i'm guessing they both will work)