The Precept of Abstaining from Food after Midday (vikālabhojanā veramaṇī)

Original text of the Ekottara Āgama, Volume 16, Gaozhuang (High Banner) Chapter: 如阿罗汉。尽形寿不坏斋法。恒以时食。少食知足。不着于味。我今亦如是。尽形寿不坏斋法。恒以时食。少食知足。不着于味。从今日至明旦。

Explanation: Like an arhat, for the entire span of one's life one does not break the precept of fasting, always eating at the proper time, eating little and being content, not attaching to flavors. I shall now also be like this: for the entire span of my life I will not break the precept of fasting, always eating at the proper time, eating little and being content, not craving the sense object of taste, from today until tomorrow morning.

This is the one-day-and-one-night eight precepts of fasting (aṣṭāṇa-śīla). Those who have the conditions may undertake and hold them for seven days and seven nights, or may hold them every day—the merit is immeasurable. During the Buddha's time, arhats and all the monastics ate one meal at midday throughout their lives, abstaining from food after midday. They devoted themselves fully to cultivation, without worldly affairs, spending much time in sitting meditation, with pure minds, so keeping to one meal at midday was easy to maintain. Among lay Buddhists, some are able to abstain from food after midday. In the Dharma-ending age, keeping the precept of abstaining from food after midday is somewhat difficult: only retired lay practitioners without jobs can manage to keep it; for those with jobs it is very difficult. As for monastics in monasteries, if the monastery's affairs are numerous and they cannot settle down, with little meditative concentration (samādhi) and impure minds, it is also not easy for them to keep the precept of abstaining from food after midday. The Buddha established this precept so that practitioners could have pure minds, making it easy to cultivate the Path and enter the Path. If one eats too much, first, it increases craving and attachment; second, the stomach is always busy digesting food, so the mind is not pure and cannot concentrate on cultivating the Path and contemplating questions. Especially when eating at night, the stomach is busy digesting food and the mind is not still, meditative concentration cannot arise, and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) cannot be accomplished. Therefore, eating little benefits cultivation.

Some people use the precepts to constrain the Buddha, making the Buddha keep the precept of abstaining from food after midday; not only do they not make offerings to the Buddha at night, they do not make offerings in the afternoon either. Why do these people treat the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas this way? Because ordinary sentient beings do not understand the realms of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and do not understand the substantive meaning of the precepts; they regard the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as ordinary beings (pṛthagjana) like themselves—moreover as human ordinary beings—so they think the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas should, like human sentient beings, keep the precept of abstaining from food after midday.

When the Buddha established this precept back then, it was so that practitioners could have pure minds, free from the interference of food and drink, able to cultivate continuously and apply effort uninterruptedly, without the states of distraction and torpor arising to affect their cultivation. But this precept does not suit the Buddha and the great Bodhisattvas. Even when the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas dwell in the human world in human bodies, they should not be limited by this precept, because first, the Buddha does not need to cultivate, and second, the Buddha possesses immeasurable attainment on the Path and can transform and dissolve food and drink; He may refrain from eating, or may eat immeasurable amounts, and neither affects body or mind. Yet the Buddha, when in the human world back then, also abstained from food after midday, as a demonstration and model for sentient beings; whereas before the devas, the Buddha was not limited by the precept of abstaining from food after midday, accepting the various offerings of the devas anytime and anywhere.

When the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are not in the human world, in the Buddha-lands where they abide, sunlight is not the dividing line between day and night; moreover, one minute in other Buddha-lands equals many human days in the Saha world. So how should humanity's morning and evening times correspond to the times of other Buddha-lands? In the heavens of the desire realm from the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven upward, there is no sun; there is natural radiance manifesting, with no need for sunlight. Therefore, from the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven upward there is no dark night, no nighttime. Other Buddha-lands likewise have no dark nights, and the Buddha's worlds even more so have no such thing as night. The human precept of abstaining from food after midday becomes utterly meaningless in another space-time, so when making offerings to the Buddha there is no need to consider human times such as day and night.

Furthermore, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas possess immeasurable wisdom to discern whether to eat or not, how much to eat, and when to eat. How could the wisdom of ordinary beings presume to conjecture and restrict the conduct of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas? Therefore, there is no time limit for making offerings to the Buddha. In the Buddha's realm there is no time, no division of morning and evening. The Buddha accepts offerings only so that sentient beings can accumulate merit; He Himself needs nothing. Even if He needed something, the Buddha could transform it Himself, accomplishing it in an instant. The Buddha is also not restricted by precepts—with the Buddha's immeasurable wisdom, virtue, and capabilities, He long ago no longer needed any precepts as constraints. Human sentient beings should not demand that the devas, divine beings, and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have the same habits and customs as humans.

The human mind is confined within the scope of human life and cannot understand the realms of beings beyond the human sphere, nor those of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We who study Buddhism should strive to break through humanity's narrow thinking and realms, as well as its various habits. Humans walk on two legs, while the devas fly through the sky; we should not use the rules of human walking to regulate the conduct of the flying devas, still less use the rules of human ordinary beings to restrict and regulate the mental conduct of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Compared with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, humans are like infants and toddlers, unable to understand or imagine the mental conduct and realms of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas—hence all kinds of misunderstandings and confusions arise. We should strive to open our minds and broaden our vision, strive to break through the narrow, unreasonable, and childish thinking of ordinary beings, and strive to draw closer to the mental realms and codes of conduct of higher forms of life.