Lzh Mi Bi Vb Sk 71Not Get Food by Stretching Arm
Pāli / Sanskrit:Not get food by stretching arm
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THE SUTRA ON NOT RECEIVING FOOD BY FOLDING THE HANDS TO ASK
Background
This sutra belongs to the Vinaya Pitaka in the code of the Early Buddhist tradition. The Vinaya Pitaka is a collection of rules of practice and monastic discipline specially taught by the Buddha, the Blessed One. The regulations in the Vinaya Pitaka are not unreasonable prohibitions, but guidance for monastics to practice the pure holy life, reduce actions that seek and arouse craving, and thereby elevate the spiritual life in independent practice.
This sutra specifically concerns a regulation related to the behavior of bhikkhus when asking for food. In the Early Buddhist tradition, those who have gone forth are not permitted to own money or prepare food with their own hands. They live through the offerings of sentient beings who have faith. However, the manner of asking for rice and receiving food must also follow certain principles in order to avoid actions that are pleading, begging, or expressive of greed.
Main Content
The sutra prescribes that bhikkhus must not fold their two hands outward to ask householders directly for food. This gesture of folding the hands, though in the customs of some lands it may be considered an expression of respect, is in the context of asking for food regarded as an act that expresses pleading, begging, or abusing the privileges of one who has gone forth in order to receive material benefit.
This regulation emphasizes that a bhikkhu must maintain an attitude of independence and self-respect, not submitting or displaying dependence on the favor of others. When going on almsround, the monastic should go in an ordinary and quiet manner, receiving from the compassion of the householder rather than from pleading or begging. The food received should be the natural result of the pure conduct cultivated by the monastic, not of gestures or flattering words.
Furthermore, the sutra reminds us that the requisites or food received in practice should carry a noble meaning: the recognition of sentient beings toward liberation.
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