Dhamma Talks of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo
Mattaññutā ca bhattasmiṁ: Have a sense of moderation in the food you eat. Here I’ll talk about physical food. People eat in three ways, and the first is eating greedily. Even though the stomach is full, the mind isn’t full. The mouth is full, you can’t swallow what you‘ve got, the stomach is full, and yet the mind still wants to eat more. This is called eating greedily. Don’t let this greed take charge of the heart.
The second type is eating contentedly. You’re content with what you have in your alms bowl, and don’t eat anything outside your bowl. Or you’re content with the food within reach. You don’t ask for anything out of reach. You don’t give any sign with your hand, your eyes, or your expression that you’d like more to eat. You eat only what’s on your plate, what’s in your bowl.
This is called eating contentedly.
The third type is eating modestly. This type of eating is very good, both in terms of the world and of the Dhamma. Take Ven. Sīvali as an example. He ate modestly. How did he eat modestly? All that most of us know about Ven. Sīvali is that he was wealthy in terms of the donations he received. But where did that wealth come from? It comes from eating modestly.
Eating modestly is the source that gives rise to wealth.
What Ven. Sīvali did was this: Whenever he received cloth, if he didn’t then give a gift of cloth, he wouldn’t wear what he had received. When he received food in his bowl, he wouldn’t eat until he had given some of it as a gift to someone else. No matter which of the four requisites he received—food, clothing, shelter, or medicine, no matter how much or how little—once it was in his possession, he wouldn’t use it until he had shared some of it with those around him.
When he received a lot, he would make a large gift to benefit many people. When he received just a little, he’d still try to benefit others. This gave rise to all sorts of good things. His friends loved him, his community loved him, and they were kind to him. This is why being generous is said to tie the knot of friendship and to wipe out your enemies.
So that’s what Ven. Sīvali did. When he passed away from that lifetime and was reborn in his last lifetime, he gained all kinds of wealth and never had to go hungry. Even when he went to live in places where food should have been scarce, he never suffered from scarcity, never had to do without….
What this means for us is that, whatever we get, we eat only a third and give the other two thirds away.
The parts appropriate for animals, we give to animals. The parts appropriate for human beings, we give to human beings. The parts we should share with our fellows in the holy life, we give with a clear heart. This is what it means to be modest in our consumption. We feel ease of heart and ease of body. When we die, we won’t be poor.
This principle is something very good not only in terms of the religion, but also in terms of the modern world at large. It’s a great means for subduing terrorism. How does it subdue terrorism? When people aren’t poor, they don’t get stirred up. Where does terrorism come from? It comes from people having nowhere to live, nothing to eat, no one to look after them.
When they’re poor and starving like this, they think, “As long as I’m suffering, let’s have everyone else suffer all the same. Don’t let there be any private property. Let everything be owned in common.” This kind of thinking comes from poverty and deprivation. And why is there poverty? Because some people eat all alone. They don’t share with people at large. Then when people at large suffer and feel revenge, they turn into communists and terrorists.
So terrorism comes from greed and selfishness, from not sharing what we’ve got. If we get ten baht, we can give away nine and eat what we can get for the one baht remaining. That way we’ll have lots of friends. There will be love and affection, peace and prosperity. How can that come about? When people have places to live and food to eat, when they can eat their fill and can sleep when they lie down, why would they want to bother their heads with the confusion of politics?
This is why the Buddha taught us that modesty in our consumption is something good, something noble and outstanding. When we practice in this way, we’re in line with the phrase, mattaññutā ca bhattasmiṁ.
We’ll be practicing right, practicing properly, for the benefit of ourselves and others.
~~~
From The Heightened Mind:
Dhamma Talks of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/HeightenedMind/Contents.html
PDF: https://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/Ebooks/TheHeightenedMind_181215.pdf
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