Greetings to the members of the Sangha, to lay disciples and to others,
As I’ve been observing Uposatha for a few times now, I wished to know more about the 6th precept.
I tend to eat only one meal and that before noon, yet I may have read in several places that one may eat more than once in the right time (before noon). It seems though that a pāli terms makes me question this as “ekabhattiko” has for definition : " 1. eating only one meal a day; eating only before noon".
Furthermore, in the Bhaddālisuttaṃ it seems the Buddha instructed to bhikkhus to only eating in a single session.
Thus I’d be inclined to know more and would be grateful to be instructed on the proper way on how to envisage the partaking of food on the Uposatha days and during retreats/stays at monasteries.
With mettā.
It’s up to you. The wordings in the suttas have eat once a day, but the Buddha allowed monks to save up the food from their alms round (for that day) and split it into many meals during that right time to eat.
Most place provide breakfast and lunch as it’s closer to 3 meals a day and easier to adjust for those not used to no dinner.
Some places really just have that one offerings of meals per day in the morning, so the monks can choose to split it to two meals or eat at one go. Some monasteries have it during lunch time, so the breakfast is more of an optional thing if monastics wishes to eat, they can enjoy the optional (smaller) breakfast prepared by the novice or lay yogis.
Bhante, would it be possible to have a reference in the suttas or Vinaya on the fact that the Buddha allowed monks to save up the food from their alms round and split it into many meals during the right time to eat please ?
I would appreciate it, thank you for reading me bhante.
Thank you for your answer HSS! I was wondering if there was another sutta explicitly establishing the principle of splitting the meal.
May I ask what RDA stands for ?
@Wheatfield to what I know The Buddha only talks in 3 suttas ie
MN.65 Bhadali Sutta about once a day meal or splitting 1 meal into 2
MN.66 Latukikopama Sutta about wrong time for meal
MN.70 Kitagiri Sutta about about wrong time for meal
RDA means Recommended Daily Allowance in medical … it correlate with Bhadali Sutta, just one meal is enough, if you want to eat twice just split the meal in two but do not exceed the RDA …
skipping dinner doesn’t mean that we eat a lot, instead we always remember our RDA
So, there indeed seems to be a substantial difference between in one hand having one meal of a certain quantity or dividing it into two smaller ones (wherein the food quantity remains the same either way), and in another hand having two distinctly served meals (wherein the quantity of food could be thus quite larger), if I understand correctly.
Thank you for providing such information HSS, it is helpful!
On how much to eat, I think this is something one has to experiment and find out for oneself.
Of course, don’t eat until one spoil’s one’s stomach (bursting with overeating and cannot walk after the meal).
Other than that, it depends heavily on the daily energy usage of the person. Do they exercise? Have natural high metabolism etc? It’s good in the long run to eat the same rate of energy we are burning everyday. One way to keep track of this is to monitor one’s weight. Consistent weight loss over a very long time or consistent weight gain are not healthy.
That said, do allow for a period of a few months or even years for the weight to stabilise, as the weight normally goes down if one reduces the no. of meals one normally has.
Perhaps of some relevance is MN113, which lists some ascetic practices that it seems some monastics chose to take on, e.g. rag robe wearing. One of the practices listed is that of being a “one-session eater” (Bhikkhu Bodhi translation) or one “who eats in one sitting per day” (Bhante Sujato translation). This would tend to indicate a single meal as being an optional additional practice.
Bhante, regarding the food quantity, in your experience is there an absolute or “universal” limit to how much one can eat during the right time? Or is one allowed to eat however much one’s body needs?
I ask because sometimes, during Uposatha, even two meals during the day are not enough for me, and I feel somewhat weak and uncomfortable later. But the only way to counteract this I have found is by eating so much that my stomach is bursting at midday (which is obviously also not conducive to calm).
As per the sixth precept, it is of course not required to eat only one meal per day, but it is still quite meritorioius and healthy if one can keep this mild ascetic practice (dhutaṅga). Where did you take the definition from?
It depends on how one would choose to translate and interpret ekāsanabhojanaṃ. There is nothing explicit to suggest that ekāsana as part of the compound ekāsanabhojanaṁ here means “one session” (or lit.: “one sitting”). Instead of this eka + āsana, one could equally well parse it eka + asana, which would translate into “food at one [time period].” The whole compound ekāsanabhojanaṃ would then mean “the eating of food at one [time period]” (note: the resulting ā is perfectly normal when two short vowels of the same type meet). This would also fit with the Pātimokkha regulation (Pāc 37) about eating during the wrong time (vikāle), which explicitly sets the time frame for monastics to eat during the morning, not one session (see: SuttaCentral). It fits also squarly with how the commentaries unambigiously understand the matter under discussion.
The notion that ekāsanabhojanaṃ refers to one session may also rest on the fact that parts of the underlying Pāḷi text have not been translated, making it hard to impossible to make full sense of the text. If ekāsanabhojanaṃ would really refer to eating during one session or sitting, the Buddha would not have told Ven. Bhaddāli (while potentially eating one portion of food where he has been invited and another after it has been carried off): “Bhaddāli, even while eating in this manner, will you keep yourself going as someone having food at one [time period]” (evampi kho tvaṁ, bhaddāli, bhuñjamāno ekāsano yāpessasi). To translate ekāsano with “as someone having one sitting” or some equivalent doesn’t make good sense since he would eat twice when following the Buddha. This revealing compound is left untranslated in all the translations I have consulted (four in total).
So, all things considered, I would agree with the several explanations you have encountered elsewhere that say that the allowable time to eat for those keeping the eight precepts is before noon (i.e., from dawn until noon).
Thank you so much for your thoughtful answer anāgārika Thanuttamo.
The reason I wonder at this subject is that even in the Bhaddāli sutta, it is very clear in my understanding that the Buddha taught to have/collect only one meal, and that it doesn’t necessarily need to be eaten in one sitting but can be spread in several parts until noon. But it remains (again in my understanding) that only meal is to be eaten nevertheless, as further defined by the term “ekabhattika” which I find to indeed mean “one meal a day”, as also translated by Thanissaro bhikkhu).
With mettā to you.
