Alms Is Never A Sure Thing
Just a small “monk life” entry: IIT, Sri Lanka, June 23, 20204
Yesterday was the day after the Full Moon Uposatha Day. We didn’t get a lot of food from the village alms round. I went by myself on my usual route, and another monk went by himself on a different route that he sometimes goes to.
I’m not sure what happened. Maybe the villagers were at the monasteries all night. But that day, I didn’t get much food. I got rice of course, but just a few curries. It was enough for me though. When I came back, the other monk was waiting for me because all he got was maybe one or two spoons of rice and one spoon of curry, a vegetable curry.
So, of course I offered him my food. I offered him the best, I offered him first, and I gave him what I could. In fact, because he is a vegetarian and I’m “mostly” vegetarian, I kept this salty fried fish for myself and gave him a good chunk of what I had. If you know about Sri Lankan food, then you’ll know what I’m talking about.
There was just enough food to give him and also for me to survive. It wasn’t a large amount of food that we normally get, but it was enough, especially when I gave my portion to the other monk.
We could say it was just enough food. The other monk even took some of my rice. If you are a monk who has gone for alms, then you know that when there is room to accept more rice for eating, then times are difficult. I still had some leftover rice and gave that for the general monks to take, but that day the overflow was not much.
That was how poor he was that day. Today, there was an abundance of food, an overabundance of food, and again, the other monk didn’t get much food. And, of course, I was very well prepared to give as much curry as he would accept. And even after giving to my friend and myself, the overflow that goes to the general monks was in abundance. I look back at these two days. While it’s always better to have abundance and to be able to give and to give plenty properly, I must say that there is something special about not having a lot and giving all that’s available to give, like what happened yesterday. I don’t know how to explain it.
I don’t want to really wish scarcity on myself, but I remember long ago, I discussed the benefits of alms with a monk friend of mine who is now disrobed, but sponsors my website DNS (website url name). When we were both monks we talked about alms round. And we said that one of the good things about relying on alms for food is that
“It’s never a sure thing”.
I don’t know how to explain it any other way. There are so many days when I think, oh.. I’m not going to get enough food, but usually, I always get enough when I finish. We wouldn’t want this scarcity everyday, especially for our fellow monks. But during times of shortages, there is something special about it.
Because it’s never a sure thing.
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