BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

The Food Chapter Chapter 8.47) he says, "All that is enough (in Pali: Alam'etaṃ sabbaṃ)."The Commentary notes under step (3) that X may either offer the food to Y orsimply lift it up, even slightly. It goes on to say that any bhikkhu except Bhikkhu Ymay eat the food formally made leftover in this way.Both of these allowances for leftover food are designed to prevent food's going towaste. The first needs no explanation; the second would be useful for preventingwaste in cases such as these: (a) X has turned down an offer of further food butcannot finish the food in his bowl; after getting Y to make it leftover, X can take thefood back to the monastery and finish it there later. (b) All the bhikkhus except Xhave finished eating after turning down an offer of further food. Friends of thedonors arrive late with large quantities of food they want to present to the bhikkhus;after X receives the food from them and gets Y to make it leftover, all the bhikkhusexcept Y may partake of it.Effort. If a bhikkhu who, having eaten and turned down an offer of further food, ispresented with staple or non-staple food that is not leftover — e.g., a snack of milkor ice cream — he incurs a dukkaṭa if he accepts it with the thought of eating it,and a pācittiya for every mouthful he eats.According to the Vibhaṅga, perception as to whether the food is actually leftover isnot a mitigating factor here (see Pc 4).Non-offenses. There is no offense —if a bhikkhu accepts the food and takes it for the sake of another,if he accepts and eats leftover food, orif, having a reason, he later in the day accepts and consumes juice drinks,any of the five tonics, or medicine. According to the Commentary, having areason means, in the case of juice drinks, being thirsty; and in the case ofthe tonics and medicine, suffering from an illness that they are meant toassuage. (As we have noted under NP 23, these illnesses include hungerand fatigue as well as medical disorders.) In other words, a bhikkhu underthe circumstances covered by this rule may not take these items as food.The Vibhaṅga penalizes him with a dukkaṭa if he accepts them with the ideaof taking them as food, and a further dukkaṭa for every mouthful he eats.According to the Mahāvagga (VI.18.4, VI.19.2, VI.20.4), this rule was relaxed duringtimes of famine so that a bhikkhu who had eaten and turned down an offer offurther food could later in the day consume food that was not leftover:if it was accepted before he went to his meal,if it is brought back from a place where a meal has been offered, orif it has been taken from a wilderness area or a pond. The texts offer noexplanation for this last stipulation. Perhaps, during famines, these wereplaces where people would commonly forage for food.321