San Lo Bi Vb Sk 38Licking the Bowl
Pāli / Sanskrit:Pattanillehaka
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Pattanillehaka Sutta — Licking the Bowl
From the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Theravāda tradition
Background
The Pattanillehaka Sutta appears in the Vinaya Piṭaka, specifically in the Bhikkhu Vibhanga, the discipline for bhikkhus. These are prohibitions and training rules established by the Buddha in order to correct the body and mind of those gone forth. The Vinaya Piṭaka is not merely a dry set of laws, but an expression of the cultivation of character, restraint of the senses, and nourishment of virtue.
This sutta concerns an action that seems ordinary but carries deep meaning: licking the eating bowl. In the context of ancient Buddhist monasteries, when a bhikkhu finished eating from the bowl, licking clean what remained was regarded as unsuitable to the ethics of one gone forth. The Buddha established this prohibition not because of selfishness concerning food, but because it reflects an attitude of greed, lack of self-control, and disrespect toward the Dharma.
Main Content
According to the regulation in the Vinaya, a bhikkhu should not lick the bowl after finishing the meal. This action is prohibited for many profound reasons. First, it expresses excessive craving for food — an attitude opposed to the spirit of renunciation, in which bhikkhus should regard food only as a means to maintain life, not as a way to satisfy taste.
Second, licking the bowl is an act lacking self-control and failing to guard the senses. In Theravāda Buddhist thought, “guarding the sense faculties” (indriya samvara) is one of the foundations of practice. When we allow the senses to operate freely according to desire, we are drawn far away from the path of liberation.
Third, this action violates the principle of proper conduct. Practitioners should maintain their actions with dignity, wakefulness, and respect. Licking the bowl is not only undisciplined conduct, but also a sign of a mind that is not well tended.
Practical Meaning
The Pattanillehaka Sutta teaches us an important lesson about self-monitoring. This is not harshness or distance from life, but wakefulness in every moment.
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