Many people wonder the significance of The Buddha's acceptance of food just before His Supreme Enlightenment.
The Buddha went through 6 years of strict, extreme ascetism with very little food to the point of near starvation.
What made Him finally choose/made the decision to eat?
The answer is very simple -
It's the mind, NOT the body. ( Read "Nibbana is......" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2009/12/nibbana-is.html )
The Buddha realised that starving himself is not the answer/way to Full Enlightenment/ Purification/Transcension/Nibbana
Cos you do need this body/physical form to do/continue your practice, BUT without over-indulgence, or sensual passion/indulgence/clinging.
Nowadays, there are some people who advocates/teach/say that not to eat certain foods/groups of food, as that would take/result in us going to the lower realms, and/or attract negative beings etc. due to the smell of such foods.
For goodness sake!
If by eating/consuming certain foods, we would end up in a lower/Hell realm etc, The Great Compassionate Buddha would have told/taught/expounded that.
Why didn't He?
Why did He instead teach us the Law of Kamma, and tells us to "Avoid ALL evil, Cultivate good, and to Purify our minds"?
The reason you end up in a lower realm is because of your own wrong doing and evil ways -
Kamma ( Read "Kamma Kamma Part 4 - What Happens When" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2010/05/kamma-kamma-part-4-what-happens-when.html) -
It has got absolutely nothing to do with the kinds of food, pungent or not, that you eat/consume.
Likewise, you attract negative forces/beings is because your heart/mind is negative/defiled itself.
What do you expect?
Birds of a feather flock together.
The reason your mouth stinks, is because,
Apart from the physical ailments of digestive/excretive or dental issues,
You lie, you cheat, you bad mouth, gossip, carry tales, backstab, spread malicious gossip, speak untruths and use harsh angry speech.
It has got nothing to do with the food.
Likewise, the reason your body smell, is, apart from the fact that it's dirty, smelly and filthy in the first place, ( Read "The Body" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2010/03/body.html)
Because of your unskillful, unwholesome, unvirtuous and immoral ways, deeds, and actions.
The fault lies in us, NOT in the food.
STOP deceiving, deluding and fooling yourself and blaming on the food ( Read " The Blame Game" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2008/07/blame-game.html ) when you should be looking and examining your own thoughts, speech and actions.
Just as it's not that something is wrong with the world, but something is wrong with us, (Read "What Do We Expect? - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-do-we-expect.html)
Likewise, it's not that something is wrong with the food, but that something is wrong with us.
You don't have to believe me.
Try doing the 13 Dhutanga ( Purification ) practices allowed by The Buddha and see the results for yourself.
There are many untruths/fallacies that had been, and are going, passing and spreading around.
Stop blindly believing and following.
Start asking and investigating.
Think! Think! Think!
Reflect! Reflect! Reflect!
See! See! See!
Investigate! Investigate! Investigate!
Kalama Sutta! Kalama Sutta! KALAMA SUTTA!
"Man's mind is given to so much self-deceit ( and conceit ) that he does not want to admit his own weaknesses.
He will try to find some excuse to justify his action and to create an illusion that he is blameless.
If a man really wants to be free,
He must have the courage ( and humility ) to admit his own weaknesses."
- Venerable Dr K Sri Dhammananda
"There are the scents of sandalwood, tagara, lotus and jasmine;
But the scent of virtue surpasses ALL scents."
- The Buddha, Dhammapada verse 55
"Humans have brains, but we have no sense."
"Easy to do are things that are evil and NOT beneficial to oneself;
But very difficult indeed, to do is that which is beneficial and good."
- The Buddha, Dhammapada verse 163
"In the unessential they imagine the essential;
In the essential they see the unessential -
They who entertain such wrong thoughts NEVER realise the essence."
- The Buddha, Dhammapada verse 11
"And how is striving fruitful, how is exertion fruitful?
There is the case where a monk, when not loaded down, does not load himself down with pain, nor does he reject pleasure that accords with the Dhamma, although he is not fixated/infatuated with that pleasure.
He discerns that
'When I live according to my pleasure, unskillful mental qualities increase in me & skillful qualities decline.
When I exert myself with stress & pain, though, unskillful qualities decline in me & skillful qualities increase.
Why don't I exert myself with stress & pain?'
So he exerts himself with stress & pain, and while he is exerting himself with stress & pain, unskillful qualities decline in him, & skillful qualities increase.
Then at a later time he would no longer exert himself with stress & pain.
Why is that?
Because he has attained the goal for which he was exerting himself with stress & pain.
That is why, at a later time, he would no longer exert himself with stress & pain.
MN 101: Devadaha Sutta — To Devadaha
- The Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya 101
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"The foolish man, who on account of false views,
Scorns the teaching of the Arahants, the Noble Ones, and the Righteous,
Produces fruit like the bamboo -
Only for self-destruction."
- The Buddha, Dhammapada verse 164
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"For a person of wrong view, there is one of Two destinations, I tell you :
Hell, or The Animal womb."
- The Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya 57.
ajjhima Nikaya 101
The 13 Dhutanga ( Purification ) Practices / The Ascetic Practices ( Dhutanga )
These are the ascetic practices as listed in the standard text books.
It must be understood that their purpose in every case is to counteract specific defilements ( kilesa ).
So they are to be applied by each practitioner as and when he finds need for them.
1) Wearing robes that are patched up and mended.
2) Wearing only the 3 robes and no others.
3) Getting one's food by going on the alms round. (Pindapata)
4) Not omitting any house on the alms round.
5) Eating food only once a day, at one sitting.
6) Eating only out of the alms bowl.
7) Having eaten food to one's satisfaction, one refuses any further food.
8) Living in the forest.
9) Living under a tree.
10) Living in the open. Not at the foot of a tree, nor under a roof.
11) Living in a charnel ground.
12) Being satisfied with any bed or resting place that falls to one's lot.
13) The sitters practice. In other words, sitting, standing or walking, but never lying down.
(Taken from "Patipada or The Mode of Practice of Venerable Acharn Mun" by Venerable Acharn Maha Boowa Nanasampanno, page 565)
