BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

The Food Chapter Chapter 8.4monasteries throughout Theravādin countries, where invitations are usually for thelate-morning meal, and bhikkhus are expected to have an early-morning alms mealbefore that. (If this interpretation does not hold, most village bhikkhus would thenprobably claim a perpetual "time of illness" as their exemption from this rule.)Meals that do not include any of the five staple foods are also exempted from thisrule. Thus if one is invited to a meal and takes a snack of milk, drinking conjey, fruit,etc., beforehand, this would not constitute an offense — although to be in keepingwith the spirit of the rule, one should not take so much as to spoil one's appetite forthe meal.There is no offense if, when invited to more than one meal on the same day, onegoes to them in the order in which one received the invitations (but see Pc 35); ifone puts the food from the various invitations together in one's bowl and eats themat the same time; or, if invited by an entire village, one goes to eat anywhere in thevillage.The Commentary, in discussing this point, mentions a situation that often occurswhere there are very few bhikkhus in proportion to the number of donors: A bhikkhuhas been invited to a meal but, before he leaves the monastery to go to the meal,another group of donors arrives with food to place in his bowl; or after he arrives atthe home of the original donor, another group of donors arrives with still more food.According to the Commentary he may accept the food of these various donors aslong as he is careful — when he finally eats — to take his first mouthful from thefood offered by the original donor.Periodic meals and lottery meals do not count as out-of-turn meals under this rule.The Canon offers no explanation for these last two exemptions, but theCommentary to Cullavagga VI.21 shows that the custom was for many families toprepare such meals on the same day. This exemption would thus seem to providefor the situation where there are fewer bhikkhus than there are families preparingthese meals. One bhikkhu would be allowed to accept more than one meal so thatno family's meal would go without a recipient.Mv.VI.25.7 implies that if the donor of the meal provides a pre-meal snack of thickconjey — or by extension any other staple food — there would be no offense ineating it. And the Commentary notes that if the donor gives explicit permission toeat another meal before the one he/she is providing, there would be no offense indoing so.Summary: Eating a meal before going to another meal to which one was invited, oraccepting an invitation to one meal and eating elsewhere instead, is a pācittiyaoffense except when one is ill or during the time of giving cloth or making robes.315