With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Miss Vivy Wong wrote to me on my Live Journal Blog, she asks:
Subject: A small questionAre you sure that Buddha taught we should walk, approach a home, and simply stand with our bowls? No offense, I just wanna figure out this point. I am from China. In my country, we all believed that Buddha approached a home and stood with his bowl just because he wanted to ask for a meal, of course without any meat.You know, Buddha lived a hard life, and he had little income. So he had to ask kind-hearted people to offer him some food. Therefore I think Buddha doing that is not a kind of practice.
This story and tradition comes from the Diamond Sutra, section one. According to one commentator, Chiang Wei-nung (1871-1938), "The purpose of begging is to conquer egotism and arrogance, to overcome attachment to flavor and taste, to concentrate the mind on cultivating the Way, and to cause others to be embarrassed." (please refer to the Red Pine translation with extensive commentary).
In the culture of India at the time, and still today, beggers (bhikkus) simply stand or sit with a bowl. It is commonly understood that the bowl is to receive offerings. Buddha made this a practice by remaining silent, understanding a higher purpose was involved, a teaching to both giver and receiver, if you will.
The giver was offered an opportunity to practice generosity, the monk practiced patience, standing or sitting meditation, diligence, and wisdom. Moreover, wrapped in the buddha robe, they practiced morality. Thus, in this practice all six of the Buddhist paramitas are at work.
In Zen we call this practice tokuhatsu. It is part of engaged Zen practice.
Be well.
Great question and answer.
ReplyDeleteThe most unforgettable passages, for me, in Roshi Glassman's book, "Bearing Witness," had to do with begging as practiced in his early street retreats.
To be stripped of one's purchasing power and have to ask strangers for help proved to be an interesting and challenging practice for them, as is shown in several anecdotes. I imagine this experience cutting to the bone, compared to a place where perhaps tokohatsu is a familiar (and therefore socially acceptable) ritual.