The Teachings of Venerable Ajahn Lee

The Teachings of Venerable Ajahn Lee

"So whether these categories apply directly to us in the way we practice as monks, or whether they apply only indirectly to us as laypeople— in terms of the things we prepare to give to monks— we have to be clean." (Ajaan Lee)

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The fourth requisite is gilāna-bhesajja: medicine for curing disease. In the Vinaya, this is divided into four sorts, all of which come under our phrase, “medicine for curing disease.” For the monks, the Vinaya sets rules that don’t apply to laypeople. It divides medicine into four types that are important to know, so I’d like to go into some detail here. 

The things that we eat and swallow come under these four headings: 

1. Yāva-kālika, to be eaten in the right time; 

2. Yāma-kālika, to be eaten that day; 

3. Sattāha-kālika, to be eaten within seven days; and 

4. Yāva-jīvika, to be eaten as long as one’s life.

The food that comes under yāva-kālika: Starting with the eight precepts, you can’t eat that food after noon at all. You can eat it only from the dawn of that day until noon. 

This is the lifespan of food for people who observe these precepts. In simple terms, it covers the food that we (i.e. the monks) eat.

The second type, yāma-kālika, is what you can drink only for the span of that day. This covers juice drinks. 

When fresh juice is made in the morning, you can drink it only until dawn of the next day. You can drink it from this morning through this night. When the sky lightens again, you can’t drink it any more. When a monk has received it to his hand, he can drink it only for this period. 

Once it’s made from the fruit and has come to his hand—even if it hasn’t come to his hand on that day, he can’t eat it the next day, because it tends to spoil. It’ll make him sick. 

This is called yāma-kālika, the juice drinks that are appropriate for contemplatives.

Sattāha-kālika, seven-day medicine: This covers ghee, butter, oil, honey, and sugar. 

Once a monk has received any of these, he has to eat them within seven days. Past seven days, he has to throw them away, or if he doesn’t throw them away, he has to give them to a layperson…

Yāva-jīvika: Medicine that comes under this category, once it’s been handed to a monk, is something he should store well, and he can keep on taking it until it’s gone—no matter how many days it takes. Once there’s no more left, that’s the end of its lifespan. If there’s still some left, you can keep on taking it. For example, things like quinine, aspirin, root medicines that are not mixed with any food.

Foods and medicines, taken together, all fall under these four categories, because they’re all things to be consumed.

So whether these categories apply directly to us in the way we practice as monks, or whether they apply only indirectly to us as laypeople—in terms of the things we prepare to give to monks—we have to be clean. If we’re not clean, it carries a blemish—a blemish for those who prepare it, a blemish for those who consume it. All of this comes under the area of higher conduct.

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From Starting Out Small: A Collection of Talks for Beginning Meditators, by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo. Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. 

https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#StartingOutSmall

Photo credit: Disciples of Than Phaw Lee Dhammadharo, Wat Asokaram.

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28 October 2023