What Do Monks Eat Everyday?

[evZENy]

Both TCM and Ayurveda advise against cold foods and drinks.

Even today, most of the Chinese boil the water that they will drink and use it hot or warm (my Chinese co-workers for sure do).

One can argue, that this had to do with being sure the water is sterile and this is not needed so much today.

But it also goes with the principles of the TCM and Ayurveda, beyond the possible complication of non pure water.

 

And boiling the water today helps get rid of the Chlorine/Fluorine in it, if nothing else, as well as making it softer by depositing the Ca/Mg ions.

[Guest paul walter]

Wow, that is very interesting. What about when it comes to food? to hot, cold or warm? What is the take on food?

 

 

 

It's best to get an overview of Chinese dietetics from an intro to the subject somewhere online. Wiki has some things as a start-'Chinese food therapy' and the like should do it. I'd like to say "it's not rocket science" but unfortunately I'd be lying. Paul

[froggie]

Goji berries and a little flax meal for breakfast, apples for lunch, parsley with sun dried tomatoes, pepitas and balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil for dinner.

 

 

That sounds like quite not much (as in quite little), is it enough for you?

 

And i would use fresh tomatoes and dried apples (and other dried fruits) (or depending on the season

 

[Sunya]

If you're the Dalai Lama you'll be advocating the importance for everyone to be vegetarian one day and chowing down on ham sandwiches (and worse) at a function the next.

 

you've laid out some really good advice in this thread, but about the Dalai Lama, you clearly are not aware of why he eats meat.

 

i've read his autobiography and he advocates vegetarianism, but living in Tibet it was impossible because the land is so barren, a meat diet is the only way to survive there. so, his body is so used to this diet. after leaving Tibet, he tried to go vegetarian but got really sick and doctors told him he has to eat meat to survive.

Edited June 6, 2009 by mikaelz

[froggie]

Why does someone need a high purine diet? I have not heard of that. Thank you

 

"That's not always true-the body requirements of some people need the high purine content in protein which is readily found in animals' tissues BUT you can also find high purine content in bee pollen and chlorella (an algae like spirulina)."

[evZENy]

so, his body is so used to this diet. after leaving Tibet, he tried to go vegetarian but got really sick and doctors told him he has to eat meat to survive.

 

Too bad! I guess the basic concept of Compassion, Suffering of all Living Beings etc. is not fit for everyone, if the Head Master can't follow it.

 

I am vegetarian for the same reasons, without being BUddhist => one doesn't need this religion to be compassionate. And one can be the leader of the religion and still ignore its bases.

 

(and yes, yes - I've read tons of literautre about BUddha himslf said on meat eating etc - don't strat it :-)

[Sunya]

Too bad! I guess the basic concept of Compassion, Suffering of all Living Beings etc. is not fit for everyone, if the Head Master can't follow it.

 

I see someone forgot to take their meds today

 

the Dalai Lama benefits sentient beings much more by being alive and eating meat, than sick by trying to change to a diet his body isn't used to.

[Ramon25]

vegatarianism/veganism is a religon, I dont think its about meds!

[Guest paul walter]

you've laid out some really good advice in this thread, but about the Dalai Lama, you clearly are not aware of why he eats meat.

 

i've read his autobiography and he advocates vegetarianism, but living in Tibet it was impossible because the land is so barren, a meat diet is the only way to survive there. so, his body is so used to this diet. after leaving Tibet, he tried to go vegetarian but got really sick and doctors told him he has to eat meat to survive.

 

 

 

OK, for me the Dalai Lama is just an ordinary guy susceptible to human foibles. I think he knows little about diet (and from some accounts I came across that guy eats A LOT sometimes!). And he doesn't/hasn't even excercised enough over the years so his health has suffered from that too (he's been sedentary way too much and doesn't like to walk much let alone excercise). On one occasion he became seriously ill from taking the advice of a person too far by eating a large amount of blueberries (for failing eyesight) and developed a 'damp' condition. I understand his fluctuation on the issue of meat but have really no way of knowing if he NEEDS meat or not. When he was here in Sydney last year he didn't shy away from the issue of vegetarianism at the retreat I went to, on the contrary he was pushing it for all he was worth and said he was one. I know he lapses for reasons of personal taste (and isn't that why white people love him, because he is so human like them AND a saint in their eyes?!) BTW I was impressed with his explication of the 'Stages of Meditation' text-i thought he might just parrot a commentary but he knows from experience (sorry to sound cynical!) Now, onto what I really want to convey...

 

I read a book earlier in the year called 'In Secret Tibet' by a German calling himself Theodore Illion. So impressed I read it again. He went undercover to Tibet in the early thirties, disguised as a pilgrim (he learnt basic Tibetan) and travelling alone for fear of being discovered since the Tibetans, especially the lama's, did not trust foreigners at all, and for good reason. In his account he is scathing about the Lamaism he finds and provides witty and critical accounts of the role of religion in Tibet and its very real exploitation of the people. Himself a long-time vego and travelling through Tibet on foot and sleeping outdoors on the same diet ( a lot of raw food since fires would attract the risk of brigands), he describes the monks/lamas diets as being mostly cured meat and butter tea with barley paste (tsamba) and cheese (same for the people). This is our usual perception of the natural/needed diet of Tibet as outlined in your comments above and it seems logical. But- he meets some of what he calls the real "holy men" of Tibet, who he relates are mostly all vegetarian. Not only that but they live outside the monastic structures and alone, mostly in caves (this is all on the plateau where it's freezing cold sometimes, even if its hot during a summers day). They wear light cloth whereas the lamas wear heavier materials and insulation. The holy men of course think the lamas are not so good (but don't really say that cause they are really good guys!). The people of Tibet view these men with awe (which the holy men find sad) and the lamas with reverance/fear (which the lamas exploit for all its worth). Now Illion describes the overcoming of the cold and the building of endurence in terms of breathing that heats the body and gives it power- simply by being totally relaxed and, in a beautiful sentiment, he sums up the practice of right breathing as the state where 'we voluntarily draw a limit to our egotism and only take from life as much as we need to maintain life and not more'. He stresses this is not a state that you can force or 'practice' in any way as you'll probably go mad, as many Tibetans have he says (chi aberration). This has rather profound implications for the notion of diet and the 'need' for qualities in food that are warming/insulating. The conclusions for the coddled existence of lamas as against the totally self-regulated lives of the 'real' wise guys are implied and explicitly drawn out in the book also.

 

I was reminded of my years in a frequently very cold place and how I was never affected as others were by the cold yet I was vegan and ate a lot of lightly cooked/raw foods, rarely had heating and felt fantastic-always walked around in the cold days and nights and felt first hand the effects of right-breathing/total relaxation, had great circulation and abundent energy. So, yes I resonate with the food/cold thing in the book very much. SOOOOOOOOOOO...I recommend the book to all, it's actually full of deep reverance for true 'spirituality'-it's very different from a lot of these sorts of accounts as it gives a p.o.v. of Tibetan Buddhism we probably have censored out of our psyches. I know some may comment that the non-lamas had special tantric techniques for dealing with cold and vego diet so they become special cases, but I don't think so, unless being in touch with emptiness/wu qi is a special practice (which I know it isn't). Paul

[nac]

Taoist monks are vegetarian?

[DalTheJigsaw123]

Taoist monks are vegetarian?

 

 

I think they are! Or maybe they are both.

[Guest paul walter]

After writing my comments on Tibetans and the cold/diet I went to bed picked out a favourite book ('Conscious Eating' by Gabriel Cousens) and the first page I opened it to had this (thankyou synchronicity/tao, saves time looking up indexes! The book is 830 pages too!):

 

'As the body becomes healthier, [on a vego diet] the arteries become less clogged and circulation improves. With better circulation, vitality and health, the body then begins, in the long term, to become warmer on a vegetarian and live-food [raw food] diet, even in a climate as harsh as Alaska.....My body [Cousens'] is more tolerant of cold now than when I was on a flesh-centered diet or when I initially became a vegetarian. Earlier, I mentioned a preliminary retrospective survey that I conducted with vegetarians and live-fooders that I conducted in chilly Anchorage, Alaska. It was carried out at my own suggestion by the owners of Enzyme Express, a wonderful live food restaurant in Anchorage. We found that one hundred percent of the vegetarian customers who filled oout the questionairre had no difficulty with the cold Alaskan weather.... All reported increasesd health and vitality on this diet even in the Alaskan climate. About half of these people in the Alaskan study used warming herbs and one-third used excercise to keep themselves warm during the winter. Most were long-term vegetarians.' paul

 

I think they are! Or maybe they are both.

 

 

Some are /some aren't. Some live on chi. If you want more info (and to be even more confused perhaps) go to the ' Chinese diet...' thread currently up. Paul.

[Guest paul walter]

Why does someone need a high purine diet? I have not heard of that. Thank you

 

 

 

 

Purines are particulary good for what they call 'fast-oxidisers' (those whose metabolism is burning glucose quickly and who therefore have an imbalance in the way fat and protein is metabolised). Because of this (I'm simplifying the science) they need to eat more protein and fat to produce more acetyl-CoA (which helps the body to keep up with the fast metabolism). Purines are found in certain proteins and purines contain adenine, which is an important part of the intermediary metabolism for the production of acetyl-CoA from fat and protein. So apart from red meat especially, the vego sources of high purines for fast-oxidisers are bee pollen, chlorella and brewer's yeast. I tried to make this as simple as possible, got it from several sources and am almost lost myself! Hope this is an adequate explanation. Paul

[DalTheJigsaw123]

I wonder if you could develop your Chi so strong that you will only have to eat once a day?

[evZENy]

I see someone forgot to take their meds today

 

Don't take any, my friend. All natural :-)

 

the Dalai Lama benefits sentient beings much more by being alive and eating meat

 

Sure.

I am also sure the Catholic priests benefit their flocks better when sexually satisfied with some kids...

 

Nothing against Dalai Lama - love the guy.

Just trying to bring a point to you.

[Sunya]

Don't take any, my friend. All natural :-)

Sure.

I am also sure the Catholic priests benefit their flocks better when sexually satisfied with some kids...

 

Nothing against Dalai Lama - love the guy.

Just trying to bring a point to you.

 

you're comparing the Dalai Lama with perverted Priests? what point are you trying to make? because I don't see any point to your post.

 

the Tibetans could not eat vegetarian diet because of the barren and arid landscape. it was just too difficult. many modern and young Tibetan teachers, raised outside Tibet, urge peopel to be vegetarian, but the older ones such as the Dalai Lama, and many others, just cannot adapt because their bodies are dependent upon meat for sustenance.

 

what the relation is between this and sexually frustrated Priests is beyond me, but I would love to hear your explanation

Edited June 10, 2009 by mikaelz

[nac]

you're comparing the Dalai Lama with perverted Priests? what point are you trying to make? because I don't see any point to your post.

 

the Tibetans could not eat vegetarian diet because of the barren and arid landscape. it was just too difficult. many modern and young Tibetan teachers, raised outside Tibet, urge peopel to be vegetarian, but the older ones such as the Dalai Lama, and many others, just cannot adapt because their bodies are dependent upon meat for sustenance.

 

what the relation is between this and sexually frustrated Priests is beyond me, but I would love to hear your explanation

 

Are you really a Buddhist? Which tradition do you belong to?

[evZENy]

I don't see any point to your post.

 

I know. Noticed it from other threads. Not surprised either.