The permissible food & drinks for the Bhikkus (Gilanpasa)
From TheBuddhism.Net
According to our Great Buddha’s disciplinary rules for the Buddhist monks and nuns, they can only have proper meals from sunrise to noon. It usually is limited to breakfast and lunch (eaten before noon).
From noon to the following morning, they can have only permissible food & drink called ‘Gilanpasa‘
The ‘eight types of drink’ (‘Ashta pana‘) are the main permissible drinks. Apart from those ‘eight types of drink’, juices from small fruits such as lime, orange & tamarind are also permissible. They have to be made using water and sugar/ jaggery (solidified treacle or honey). They cannot be cooked and given the syrup since cooking makes them impermissible.
The permissible food & drinks for the Bhikkus
The eight types of drinks:
Drinks made from Mangoes, Drinks made from rose apple, Drinks made from seeded bananas, Drinks made from seedless bananas, Drinks made from grapes, Drinks made from raisins, Drinks made from fruit of water lilies, Drinks made from fruits of spiny trees like Indian plum (Uguressa in Sri Lanka) and Indian date/ jujube (Masan in Sri Lanka).
Apart from the above drinks, the following are permissible too.
Butter, ghee, sugar, sugar candy, sweets & toffees, treacle, jaggery, gingelly oil, bees’ honey and all types of medicinal herbs and concoctions.
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While money is an important commodity in the world greed and selfishness are the actual ‘root of evil’ bhikkhus should not be concerned with it. Therefore this again offers an essential role for lay people. The bhikkhu stores no food but receives help from lay people who do; the bhikkhu stores no money but receives support from lay people who do. In fact this relationship is shown in this next allowance from the Buddha’s time when bhikkhus were journeying along a difficult way.
Buddha was so precise with his instructions to the monks. the drinks are natural and provide the necessary nutrients for a healthy person.
Sir, these permissible foods and drinks are almost all extremely high in sugar and refined carbs, and lacking in protein, fibers, etc. This looks looks like a fast-track to diabetes and other health problems. In addition, the high carb/low protein diet is traditionally used to bring about mind control by coercive religious groups (e.g. ISKCON); as it lowers your overall energy level and critical thinking abilities.
I’m a lay follower of Theravada. But before ever following Buddhism I quit alcohol completely, quit all junk food (except about once a year when I’m stuck in an airport at night and only McDonalds is open); quit fatty snacks, and drastically curbed all refined sugar. I still eat red meat about 5 times a year, but am moving away from it; staying with chicken and fish instead. I also exercise regularly (shito-ryu karate and Muay Thai).
I’ve been finding that a scientifically verifiable healthy diet, combined with exercise, is highly conducive to right-mindfulness and overall well being. I respect the sages of old who gave various dietary injunctions. Yet I also believe that religious beliefs (which are non-verifiable) must always give way to genuine, verifiable scientific discoveries. If not, we’re living in delusion.
Very interesting post, Buddha Shakyamuni’s disciplinary rules was set proximally 2500 years ago. These rules was set for us to practice to lessen our attachment and easier for us to focus on our spiritual practice.
This is the first step for us to train our mind to be focus and we will not easily disturb by our attachment. But the most important thing about these rules is not about follow 100% of what it stated but the real meaning behind it. Ex: If one follow about this rules for food and drinks taking but deep inside he actually still have craving for chicken, and he/she continue to focus on the taste, smell, texture of the meat, he/she is still consider not completed about the rules, because he/she still let the attachment control over his/her mind.
Personally I think in this modern day, some of the rules already can’t be follow only based on words, or how it written, but we should follow the real meaning behind. Ex: one of the 5 heinous sins is drawing blood of a Buddha. In Vajrayana, we treat our teacher as one as Buddha, so do we bring our teacher to do blood test when he’s not feeling well?
Well this is just my personal understanding, please forgive me if I offended anyone.
Bryan
This is fascinating part of the Vinaya rules and I think the Buddha imposed such ethics upon their food and drink intake because it is meant to curb greed and attachment to food. I am not a scholar of the Vinaya but that’s what it seems.
I am not sure if it is really a necessary vow that is practices in all Buddhist traditions because the emphasis seems to be on outer physical practice as some Mahayana traditions placed greater emphasis on the cultivation of inner qualities instead and vows that had been correspond to this. Nevertheless, even our meals can be a spiritual practice. In Tantra, we are feeding the yidam when we offer the food to collect merits or to feed the body so that it is able to do lots of Dharma work to benefit others.
Yes David I find it is so amazing that in Tantra that every thing is a potential collection of merit even from just consuming food! I remembered Rinpoche once explained that if the motivation is right it becomes positive as it is not about just nourishing the body but why we nourish the body… and if it is for negative activities such as to please our senses, then it becomes negative… that is the same as the Vinaya code of conduct to eliminate greed/desires.
And one of the best and quickest way to collect enormous amounts of merits, it is to cook for the Lama. Since we view the Lama as the Buddha… the merit we collect is equal to serving the Buddha. Also when one nourishes the body and hence health of a Buddha, we collect the positive causes for a healthy good body ourselves and also to have long life as good health leads to that. I like the Vajrayana teachings so much because there is so much connection and meaning behind every single action we do. It makes us think deeper and at the same time do the act simultaneously to gain quicker realisations through experiences.