Buddhist Sun App
Download iOS AppRecently I made a mobile app to help me know when the Solar Noon is approaching and past.
Why Is the Sun Important for Bhikkhus?
Why Is The Sun Important for 8 & 10 Precepts?
If you are a monk, nun or a practicing yogi who has vowed to not eat after Noon, you will benefit from this app. The real Solar Noon is not 12:00 pm when it comes to the Buddhist rules because there were no clocks back then. Rather, the Sun was used to know when one should stop eating. In addition to the Noon time, the Dawn time is important to know because that is the time at which one can start eating. If one eats before Dawn, then one is eating when it is still considered night.
This app calculates the Dawn times based on different methods you can select. It also calculates the Solar Noon with a speech countdown timer. It uses GPS to calculate the Solar Noon and Dawn times. Myanmar, Sinhala, and Chinese language are supported. It was created for monks, but those who follow the Buddhist 8 precepts will find this useful. It has a default safety set to one minute which can be increased or disabled. Astronomical Algorithms, are based on calculations by Jean Meeus and accurate within one minute within normal geographical locations.
About:
Buddhist Sun is a small app for Buddhist monks and nuns to display the Solar Noon time specific to Buddhist monastic needs. Because I usually eat with my hands, I needed to have a “hands free” way to know when the Noon was approaching. The timer with voice notifications turned on helps me know the time left for eating. I enjoy using the app, and I hope that you do too.
Why is this important?
Those who follow Buddhist monastic rules are not allowed to eat after Noon. The rule is according to the sun at its zenith in the sky rather than a clock. They did not have clocks in the Buddha’s time. Others who follow 8 or 10 precepts may find this app useful too.
I recommend TimeandDate.com to verify this app’s accuracy. This application is meant for “present moment” location use.
Help:
Calculations:
The calculations are based on equations from Astronomical Algorithms, by Jean Meeus. The sunrise and sunset results are theoretically accurate to within a minute for locations between +/- 72° of latitude. Please consider stopping well before the stated time.
NOON:
The Noon screen displays the Solar Noon for the current day as selected by GPS or City in an easy to view manner. All times reflect the safety from settings. (see below)
DAWN:
The Dawn screen displays the selected Dawn formula from the settings and also various solar calculations. All times reflect the safety from settings.
Pa-Auk = ( Sunrise - 40 Minutes).
Na-Uyana = ( Sunrise - 30 minutes) (see below)
GPS:
GPS will automatically set the city if the Internet is on and the checkbox is checked. It is recommended that you use the GPS settings for your location because the Solar Noon will be most accurate this way. This was not tested with “Day Light Savings” locations.
Settings Page:
Offset:
This is automatically set when using GPS. If you use City Search in settings, you must select an offset (GMT +- your local time).
Safety:
This subtracts minutes from the Noon time to make it earlier and adds to Dawnrise to make it later. The formula is accurate within one minute so the default safety is 1 minute.
Dawn:
Choose your preferred Dawnrise. Na-Uyana uses Sunrise -30 minutes, and Pa-Auk uses Sunrise -40 minutes. Safety will add x-Minutes to this time.
Timer:
The Timer screen allows for hands free audio notifications. Speech means “Text to Speech”. The volume is controlled by the slider. Under normal conditions the speech notifications only work while the screen is on. To fix this, you can make the screen stay awake with the “Screen Always On” switch, or you can enable the “TTS with screen off” feature. This will enable “background” operation while your screen is off and prevent the device from entering sleep mode. You should test this background feature a few times before relying on it. Some phones may not allow it. We are not responsible for anything. When you close the applicaton, a method is called to stop the background task. You will know the app is running in the background by the sun icon displayed in the top of your phone’s notification area (where the time and signal bars are). If Buddhist Sun is not in \“background mode\”, you will not see a sun icon. This feature is not available for iOS users.\n The speech announcements are in the following minute intervals: 50,40,30,20,15,10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1,0
Privacy:
A full privacy statement is located at: https://americanmonk.org/privacy-policy-for-buddhist-sun-app/
We do not collect information.
May this help you to reach Nibbāna quickly and safely!
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