Theravāda Collection on Monastic Law

The Great Analysis

The chapter on offenses entailing confession

The subchapter on eating

37. The training rule on eating at the wrong time

Origin story

At one time when the Buddha was staying at Rājagaha in the Bamboo Grove,

there was a hilltop fair in Rājagaha,

which the monks from the group of seventeen went to see.

When people saw the monks, they bathed them, anointed them, fed them cooked food, and gave them fresh food.

They took that food and brought it back to the monastery. And they said to the monks from the group of six,

“Help yourselves!”

“But where did you get this food?”

And they told them what had happened.

“So, do you eat at the wrong time?”

“Yes.”

The monks from the group of six complained and criticized them,

“How can those monks from the group of seventeen eat at the wrong time?”

They told the monks,

and the monks of few desires complained and criticized them,

“How can the monks from the group of seventeen eat at the wrong time?” …

“Is it true, monks, that you do this?”

“It’s true, sir.”

The Buddha rebuked them …

“Foolish men, how can you do this?

This will affect people’s confidence …” …

“And, monks, this training rule should be recited like this:

Final ruling

‘If a monk eats fresh or cooked food at the wrong time, he commits an offense entailing confession.’”

Definitions

A:

whoever …

Monk:

… The monk who has been given the full ordination by a unanimous Sangha through a legal procedure consisting of one motion and three announcements that is irreversible and fit to stand—this sort of monk is meant in this case.

At the wrong time:

when the middle of the day has passed, until dawn.

Fresh food:

apart from the five cooked foods, the post-midday tonics, the seven-day tonics, and the lifetime tonics—the rest is called “fresh food”.

Cooked food:

there are five kinds of cooked food: cooked grain, porridge, flour products, fish, and meat.

If he receives fresh or cooked food with the intention of eating it, he commits an offense of wrong conduct.

For every mouthful swallowed, he commits an offense entailing confession.

Permutations

If it is the wrong time, and he perceives it as such, and he eats fresh or cooked food, he commits an offense entailing confession.

If it is the wrong time, but he is unsure of it, and he eats fresh or cooked food, he commits an offense entailing confession.

If it is the wrong time, but he perceives it as the right time, and he eats fresh or cooked food, he commits an offense entailing confession.

If he receives post-midday tonics, seven-day tonics, or lifetime tonics for the purpose of food, he commits an offense of wrong conduct.

For every mouthful swallowed, he commits an offense of wrong conduct.

If it is the right time, but he perceives it as the wrong time, he commits an offense of wrong conduct.

If it is the right time, but he is unsure of it, he commits an offense of wrong conduct.

If it is the right time, and he perceives it as such, there is no offense.

Non-offenses

There is no offense:

if, when there is a reason, he uses post-midday tonics, seven-day tonics, or lifetime tonics;

if he is insane;

if he is the first offender.

The training rule on eating at the wrong time, the seventh, is finished.