160-The food in the temple - Buddhism in daily life

The food in the temple

The food in the Shaolin Temple is traditionally very modest, naturally vegetarian and very healthy. The main dish (filling side dish) is rice, topped off with tofu and vegetables, fruits and berries.

Buddha and his followers were mendicant monks, the food came (mainly) from the alms walks he took with his followers mostly in the morning. Those on vacation in Southeast Asia can still see the monks performing their daily ritual.

The begging of food is supposed to make the monks more satisfied, since they have to be content with what is given, and do not have any wishes regarding their food.

The donors of the food acquire "good" karma by giving, which, by the way, was so common in India long before Buddha's lifetime, a rule that was apparently adopted. As a balance, the community was and is formally dependent on the interaction between monks and lay people, from weddings to funerals, everything takes place in Asia in the temples.

The theme of "discipline" and also "asceticism" runs like a thread through the life of Buddha. According to his philosophy, no monk should possess more (not even food) than he needs today. Well, this rule is quite possible in a warm country, in Europe it requires wise storage for the hard winters.

In today's Buddhist temples strict attention is paid to nutrition, the subject is important in Buddhism, food is considered the most important means of maintaining a healthy body, gluttony and gluttony are, according to the rules of the great teacher, a possible cause of suffering of people. If you look around on the street today, this aspect of the philosophy of the Indian prince is gaining more and more "weight".

The worldview of Buddha lets the practitioners limit life to "the most necessary", also and especially when it comes to eating.

Buddha usually ate only one meal a day, which corresponds to today's interval fasting. This was to avoid distracting the body from meditation and the process of awakening (enlightenment) with useless activities. In most Buddhist temples in this world, there are only one or two meals a day, usually coming to their end around noon. In Shaolin Temple China, a huge pot of rice bubbles all day for the monks to help themselves to, the leftovers with vegetables are also on the stove. Unlike other Buddhist temples, Shaolin monks move a lot and also strain, so their bodies have different requirements for food.

It has become common, especially in Thailand and Southeast Asia, for monks to eat fruit juices or soups in the evening, often donated by patrons.

Read more here in the next few days.

The way is the goal!

Those who live on right food, who do not bind themselves to any property, who find in the incomprehensible emptiness

in the incomprehensible emptiness, whose way is difficult to fathom like a bird's path in the air.

- Buddha - honorary name of Siddharta Gautama - 560 to 480 before the year zero

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