Lzh Dg Bi Pm Ss 8Receiving Food With Lust
Pāli / Sanskrit:Avassutā avassutassa
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Scripture on Receiving Food Because of Greed
(Avassutā avassutassa — Vinaya Piṭaka)
Context
This scripture is recorded in the Vinaya Piṭaka, especially among the regulations concerning the conduct of bhikkhus and bhikkhunīs when receiving food. The Vinaya Piṭaka is a collection of rules and illustrative stories concerning discipline in the early Buddhist Sangha, compiled to maintain the purity, harmony, and focus of the monastic community.
The words avassutā (inattentive, negligent) and avassutassa (of one who is inattentive) indicate a mental state that is unguarded and careless. This scripture is directly connected with the act of receiving and using food — one of the essential daily activities of a practitioner — but the manner of doing so reflects a deep psychological state. When food is received out of greed (avassutā), that is, with a mind of liking and craving rather than for survival and practice, the monastic has violated the basic principle: to use food as medicine for sustaining life, not to satisfy the desires of the senses.
Main Content
The specific content of this scripture has not been fully translated in this context, but according to the Theravāda Vinaya tradition, the scripture usually concerns concrete situations in which bhikkhus or bhikkhunīs violate discipline by receiving food improperly.
“Receiving food because of greed” refers to the act of receiving food and drink — whether ordinary food or especially delicious things — with a mind of preference, desiring pleasant sensations. This is negligence in guarding the sense faculties (indriya samvara). The Buddha’s teaching says that a monastic should receive food with clear awareness (sampajañña), regarding it as a means of maintaining health so that the process of practice and liberation can continue. Whenever greed arises — whether greed for delicious food, greed to be served, or greed to be respected because one is a monastic receiving offerings — the practitioner’s mind has fallen into a state of “negligence” (avassuta).
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