How did the Forest Ajaans eat?

Monks who have gone into secluded areas and forests: how did they eat if there was no place to receive alms?

The many cases in the suttas seem to indicate that they still walked pindapata every morning.

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So, not too secluded if they were in walking distance of people?

an10.11

ā€¦And how does a lodging have five factors? Itā€™s when a lodging is neither too far nor too near, but convenient for coming and going. Itā€™s not bothered by people by day, and at night itā€™s quiet and still. Thereā€™s little disturbance from flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and reptiles. While staying in that lodging the necessities of lifeā€”robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sickā€”are easy to come by. ā€¦

See dwellings (senāsana) in the CIPS.

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Even though walking distance would mean something else back then than it does now, they would have had a lot of available wilderness to walk into.

You donā€™t have to walk that far into a proper forest to be secluded afaik. Most of the land would have been wild and uncultivated, unlike many places today.

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In Italy, the walk is about 1.5hrs to town for alms from the forest monastery (by monastery I mean a tent with a bunch of trees, fields, and an abandoned building, basically). If on cārika, then sometimes the journey may be several hours from the camp spot to the next village for alms.

And yeah, you might just get some bread. Or nothing at all. But bread and fruit, and usually cheese, are pretty reliable. Often thereā€™s quite a lot :slight_smile:

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Wow! That just sounds amazing. In my mind I was thinking ā€œwow, how luxuriousā€ but of course thatā€™s not luxury for most people. I hope I get to live like that at some point in my life :pray:

Edit: For clarity, I mean itā€™s like a luxury to have the opportunity live a renunciate lifestyle to that extent.

Thereā€™s something about getting enough food overall but yet not being sure if youā€™ll have food on any single day that seems really powerful to me.

Like you wonā€™t die but also youā€™re kind of forced to let go :nerd_face:

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From our forest monastery, on the edge of the national park, itā€™s a 50 minute walk to town.
We get traditional Australian pindapat of coffee and bakery goods, sometimes salad/fruit.

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Thatā€™s typical.

Sometimes monks in Thailand will intentionally strike out into the forest for a few days without food.

Sometimes a dedicated lay supporter will be inspired to support such a monkā€™s remote practice and will go meet the monk at a prearranged spot to offer something. Sometimes a layman will even accompany a monk into the forest to practice with him and the layman can carry a few days worth of food for their camping trip. There are many styles of practice in Thailand, if by ā€œAjaansā€ you were specifically asking about Thai practices.

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