Over the years I have read dozens of books on the Buddha, but rarely I have come across a detailed account of the Buddha’s daily routine and what he ate.
Few days back I stumbled upon a little book on the Buddha by Siridhamma which talks about the daily routine of the Buddha. I was fascinated. I love Buddha and to know about his daily routine says so much about this unique man, who on one side, talks, walks, eats like rest of us, but on the other side, there is a different quality to his being, daily activities, the way he raised his hand, the way his silence pierced, the way his radiance defied his earthy ordinariness.
My interest in knowing Buddha’s daily routine was not in the sense of imitating it or getting influenced by it. But I felt curious. Like a lover feels about his beloved whom he has been encountering for years and yet he is not aware how she lives her daily life and what she eats.
I am not attracted to Buddha’s daily routine or life for imitation, but for a subtle hint. Millions of people during last two and a half millennia have imitated the Buddha and missed the point. Even Buddha’s elder cousin and his chief personal attendant Ananda, who remained with the Buddha like a shadow for most of the Buddha’s preaching life, missed it. When Buddha was about to attain nirvana, Ananda started weeping. He had been closest to the Buddha, soaking his vibe, his field all the time during Buddha’s routine, listening to his sermons and yet he missed. He could not get enlightened. He attained enlightenment only after the Buddha’s nirvana and prior to the commencement of the first Buddhist council.
Those who have eyes can see through the Buddha's daily routine. It is ordinary and yet mysteriously beautiful and haunting. What Buddha attained, can be attained by each one of us. Buddhahood is available to all of us. All we have to do is to light our own lamp , Appa deepo bhava, and forget about the outer Buddha.
It is said that Buddha's daily routine comprised of five parts: the morning session (4.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon), the afternoon session (12.00 noon to 6.00 p.m.), the first watch(6.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m.), the middle watch (10.00 p.m. to 2.00 a.m.) and the last watch( 2.00 a.m. to 4.00 a.m.)
The Buddha would get up at 4.00 am, have a wash and sit down to meditate for an hour. From 5.00 to 6.00 a.m. He would look around the world with his mental eye to see if anybody needed help. Perhaps the ripples of his love in the Buddhafield would make the needy awash with his compassion and lessen their misery. At 6.00 am he would put on his robe and either go out and help the needy or beg for food. Sometimes he would go begging with his disciples, who would walk behind him in single line.
I can imagine the serene figure in orange walking calmly…If somebody invited him to their house for lunch, he would give a discourse to them and his followers. In the afternoon the Buddha would usually answer queries of monks. Then the Buddha would again retire to his room and look around the world with his mental eye to see if anyone was looking for his help. He would then go and meet people who were waiting for him. During first watch, followers would come again to the Buddha to either listen or ask questions to clarify their doubts. During the middle watch, it is said that Devas (divine beings of light ) would go to see the Buddha and learn from him.
During the last watch, for the first hour, the Buddha would walk up and down meditating and freeing himself from the discomfort of sitting all day. Then he would sleep for an hour.
For knowing, what the Buddha’s ate, I searched a lot of sources and googled a lot. There has always been a controversy regarding whether Buddha’s last meal sukara-maddava was pork or mushrooms. The meal had led to food poisoning and resulted into his exit from the body. There is also controversy whether the Buddha ate meat or he was strictly vegetarian. Many Buddhist scholars claim that the Buddha ate mushrooms, which may have been poisonous and led to his death at the age of 80, when Buddha completed his 1000th full moons.
One Buddhist text mentions that the Buddha was once served sukaramamsa (Pali) with jujube fruit. The term mamsa means meat or flesh. The text says that Buddha ate it out of compassion. According to the Buddhist lore, the three most important foods served to the Buddha were the final meal, (mushrooms or pork), the meal just before enlightenment, which was the milk rice served by Sujata, and the meal right after enlightenment, which was barley meal honey balls.
A scholar, David N. Snyder has complied a list of the vegetarian foods from various Buddhist texts that the Buddha was offered on various occasions in his life. The list includes thick milk-rice porridge and fresh ghee, wild rice, rice with grains, barley meal honey balls, rice with curry, rose apple, mango, myrobalan fruits, steamed barley and rice, lettuce and fruit salad, vegetables and rice, milk, conjey (watery rice porridge) and honey lumps, vegetables and bread.
Why is Buddha’s personal life or pictures or statues important. Even though Zen tradition, the highest flowering of Buddhism, maintains, if you meet Buddha on the way, cut his head. Perhaps when one sees the outer Buddha, our inner Buddha knocks on the door of our heart….Our inner Buddha echoes back the outer Buddha.
Somewhere Osho says that ``Just looking at the statue of Buddha you will feel some serenity within you - the proportion of the Buddha, the body, the posture, the way he is sitting, the half-closed eyes. You just sit silently, look at the statue, and you will start falling into a silence....In the East a statue is not made for its own sake. It is made as a code language for centuries to follow. Scriptures may disappear, languages may change, words may be interpreted. Doctrines can be wrongly interpreted, commented upon. There may be dispute about theories…Now what dispute can there be about the statue of a Buddha..? …Watching a Buddha statue is watching a yantra. The figure of the statue, the geometry of the statue, creates a figure inside you. And that inside figure creates a certain vibe…..Watch the state of Buddha sitting so silently, in a certain yoga posture. If you go on watching the statue, you will find something like that is happening within you too’’.
Let Buddha’s daily routine, his pictures and statues inspire us to recognize and achieve our own Buddhahood…to inspire us to light our own lamp…Appa Deepo Bhava.
