Lzh Mu Bi Pm Pd 10Asking for Dried Meat

The Sutta on Asking for Dried Meat

Background

This text is found in the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Theravāda Buddhist Dharma, specifically among the rules concerning foods permitted for consumption in the monastic community. The background appears when the Buddha’s disciples were living in practice communities at various stopping places, observing regulations on eating and drinking in accordance with the Sangha discipline.

Throughout the Buddha’s life, when devotees provided food for monastics, specific situations continually arose requiring the Buddha and the elders to issue clear guidance. The Sutta on Asking for Dried Meat concerns whether monastics may request or receive dried meat, such as sukara-maddava or other processed animal flesh, and under what circumstances this accords with a renunciant way of life.

Main Content

This text addresses the question of whether it is appropriate for monastics to ask for or receive dried meat from those who provide daily food. These rules were established to ensure that monastics do not violate the discipline (sīla) concerning the avoidance of craving and excessive desire.

The Buddha taught that monastics should follow a simple and renunciant way of life, and should not actively ask for special foods or luxurious dishes. If devotees voluntarily offer meat or other foods, monastics may receive them, provided they do not harm spiritual life or violate the principles.

However, when it comes to asking (yācati) for specific foods such as dried meat, great care is needed. A monastic should not reveal preference or longing for any food, because that would reflect attachment to pleasure and desire, things contrary to the spirit of renunciation.

Practical Meaning

Beyond the specific rules on food, the text teaches us a profound principle concerning non-attachment (anatta) and renunciation of pleasure (nekkhamma).