[Buddha-l] Non attached & mindful culinary triumphalism?

[Randall Jones]

I don't know about the "permissibility" of sharing alms either, 
though in Thailand (in Phitsanuloke) I was asked to accompany the 
monks on their alms rounds and to share the meal afterward. There was 
however more to eat than the offerings placed in the bowls as women 
came into the temple kitchen to prepare food too - though this  seems 
to me also to be a form of alms.

Randall


At 11:27 AM 7/10/2011, you wrote:
>Comment on part of this helpful contribution:
>
>Just what occurred to me as well:  these descriptions do sound
>like reactions to beggars no doubt haunting the alms rounds. My
>surmise would be that, rather than hoping for donations from the
>monks, beggars would use the situation to extract donations from
>the householders.
>When I was in Luang Prabang (Laos), during the alms round an
>obviously very poor woman (skinny, ill-dressed) was squatting on
>the pavement next to a toddler, holding open a plastic bag,
>obviously seeking donations. She was sitting right down with the
>alms donors who were on their knees on the pavement. Someone (a
>foreigner like me) muttered, "the monks aren't supposed to offer
>the alms they gather," but I saw one drop something in her bag.
>In this instance, the almsrounders were sramanas, led by a senior
>monk. They were all young boys.  I don't know if the comment
>about monks sharing alms being impermissible
>is factual. Must be a vinaya rule on it.
>
>Joanna
>---------------------
>
>Dan wrote:
>[........] Wouldn't be able to 'hear' the dhamma, which in the
>preliterate period would have been crucial), but "deformed, lame
>or cripple" *could* be disqualifying, depending on the nature of
>the deformities, etc. Lack of food, drink, etc. would be largely
>irrelevant.
>
>What this sounds like -- and thus probably reflects the authorial
>experiences, as you suggest -- is "beggars", suggesting that the
>extent of the exposure by the composers of this pericope to these
>downtrodden people would be the beggars who cross their path.
>Since sramanas were also beggars of a sort, at least early on,
>and probably also raggedy looking (lots of stories of monks
>sowing up their raggedy robes, cautions against accepting
>clothing that is too fancy or expensive, etc.), one would not
>imagine the early Buddhist community complaining about fellow
>beggars in that manner, unless the competition for food became
>intense.
>
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