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you practice 
dhutaIga, only three robes are 
allowed. This 
practice puts an end to the desire to 
be choosy 
about your clothes. You have to be 
very careful 
about where and how you sit or 
else you will 
soil your robes and have to go to 
the inconvenience 
of washing them again. Thus such 
a practice 
makes you see the value of the 
robes you 
have while at the same time 
training you in 
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mindfulness (§2). 
Overcoming slavery to one's 
appetite 
[piAIapAtapatisaOyutta]: 
If you are the sort of person who 
cannot control your eating it is 
hard to make 
progress in meditation. If you eat 
too much you will 
be sleepy. With too much protein 
perhaps you will 
be subject to sensual temptations. 
If you cannot restrain 
your appetite for food it is unlikely 
that you 
will ever be able to overcome your 
appetite for 
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sexual temptations. The Buddha 
wanted monks to 
avoid becoming slave to their 
appetites and even 
without following dhutaIga 
practice monks are not 
allowed to eat between midday and 
the dawn of 
the next morning, even if food is 
offered. There are 
thus several ways in which monks 
can train themselves 
to become less controlled by their 
appetite: 
I. Almsfood-eater's Practice 
[piAIapAEikaIga] 
Eating only food that has been 
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received on 
almsround. If anyone offers food 
to you on a 
plate you cannot accept it. You 
accept only as 
much as is given. If anyone makes 
something 
especially for you, you cannot 
accept it. Even if 
some other food offered is better 
than that in your 
bowl, you cannot accept it (§3). 
2. House-to-house seeker's 
Practice [sapadAnacArikalga] 
For this practice you are only 
allowed 
to go for almsround along 
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prescribed routes. You 
may not go on almsround to places 
where you 
think you might get better food. 
You cannot just 
go down a street where you know 
plenty of rich 
people live who might give you 
appetizing food 
(§4). 
3. One meal eater's practice 
[elcAsanikaIga] If householders 
aren't satisfied with their 
breakfast, 
they can make up for it at lunch 
time. If they are 
not satisfied with their lunch they 
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can make up 
for it with an extra large evening 
meal. They eat 
so much that they have to sleep all 
afternoon and 
gradually regurgitate the food little 
by little like 
a cow chewing the cud. For monks 
however, with 
only two meals a day, they have to 
train themselves 
to be content with whatever they 
receive. 
Even so, on two meals a day, some 
monks can 
still not help but be interested in 
food, and may 
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overeat, becoming sleepy as the 
result. Therefore 
some monks prefer to take only 
one meal per 
day (§5). 
4. Bowl-eater's practice 
[pattapiAlikaIga] This 
practice entails eating all your food 
mixed up together. 
This is particularly suitable for 
those addicted 
to tasty food. In a single bowl all 
the food 
will be mixed up, no matter 
whether it be rice, 
chocolate powder, fish soup or 
whatever. By the 
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time the fourth or fifth contribution 
is added to 
the bowl, the contents will 
resemble pig-swill. 
Eating your food in this way will 
help to remind 
you what the purpose of eating is 
— to give you 
strength to carry on doing good 
deeds, not just 
for the sheer enjoyment of eating 
(§6). 
5. Late-serving refuser's practice 
[khalupacchAbhattikaIga] 
This practice entails not accepting 
further offerings of food once you 
have already 
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started eating (§7). 
Overcoming Attachment to 
Luxury Accommodation 
[senAsana-paEisaOyutta] 
I. Forest-dweller's practice 
[AraffilikaIga] This 
practice entails living only in 
shelters in the forBlessing 
Thirty-One: The Practice of 
Austerities 351 
est and never using 
accommodation in the town 
(§8)-
2. Tree-root dweller's practice 
[rukkhamElikaIga] 
This practice entails living only in 
the forest at 
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the roots of trees without any 
building for shelter. 
Such a person will stay under a 
tent or a mosquito 
net — nothing more (§9). 
3. Open-air dweller's practice 
[abbholcAsikaIga] 
This practice entails living out in 
the open, not 
even using the trees for shelter. It 
serves radically 
to reduce your attachment to 
comfort, 
luxury and fulfillment of sense 
desire (§10). 
4. Charnel-ground-dweller's 
practice [sosAnikaIga] 
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This practice entails living only in 
a 
graveyard where corpses have 
been laid to rest 
without coffins. The sound of mice 
running in 
and out of corpses and the sound 
of wind escaping 
from corpses as they dry-out will 
soon put 
an end to sexual obsessions and 
delusions of 
grandeur (§11). 
5. Any-bed-user's practice 
[yathAsantatikaIga] 
This practice entails taking your 
shelter wherever 
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you are put by your host. Even 
those who 
stay under a camping umbrella or 
mosquito net 
are sometimes choosy about where 
they stay —
staying near the kitchen if they like 
the smell of 
food or near the toilet if they think 
they are going 
to have to visit often. If someone is 
extremely 
choosy, maybe they should try 
staying in the 
open air instead (§12) (see 010) 
above). 
Overcoming Laziness 
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[viriya-paEisaOyutta] 
I. Sitter's practice [nesajjikaIga] 
This practice entails 
avoiding lying down. Usually 
when one 
stays on a dhutaIga retreat, one is 
there to meditate 
anyway. If you keep this sort of 
dhutaIga 
practice you must restrict the 
position of your 
body to standing, walking or 
sitting down. In 
the time of the Buddha, monks 
would keep this 
ascetic practice for the duration of 
the rainy season. 
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It works well for a group only 
when everybody 
in the group is at the same high 
level of 
advancement in meditation. It 
should only be 
done when you can meditate well 
enough to 
overcome sleepiness (§13). 
CA Necessary virtues for 
practising austerity 
In general, practice of any 
Dhamma practice is the 
practice of austerities at the level 
of ' sallekha' (above), 
however, for the practice of intense 
austerities, it is 
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normal to practice 
under'residential' circumstances 
(i.e. to join a `dhutaIga camp'). 
When you practice 
austerities, you have to do so while 
applying the 
following virtues: 
I. Patience: (see Blessing 
Twenty-Seven) 
2. Must keep the Precepts strictly 
according to your 
personal status: If you are a 
householder, Five 
Precepts is no longer sufficient. 
You have to keep 
the Eight Precepts at the least. 
Some people 
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might like to keep Ten Precepts 
like a novice. If 
you are a novice you must keep 
your Ten Precepts 
strictly. If you are a monk you 
must keep 
your 227 Precepts strictly. 
3. Keep Sabbath Self-Discipline 
[uposathakamma]: 
You must revise your Precepts 
regularly 
in the same way as monks revise 
their Precepts 
by taking part in the pAEimokkha 
recitation 
ceremony every two weeks; 
4. You must study the Teachings 
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of the Buddha: You 
need to alternate your activities 
with the learning 
and memorizing of the scriptures 
by 
Dhamma sermons or readings and 
daily chanting. 
5. Practise austerities to the best 
of your ability: 
Some healthy people might keep 
all thirteen of 
the dhutalga rules at once, but it is 
more normal 
just to keep two or three of the 
rules at a 
time; 
6. Restraint of the senses; 
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7. Striving in meditation 
Sometimes the sallekha' practices 
might seem to 
overlap with the practices already 
mentioned in the 
preceding Blessings. Sometimes 
for a person who 
still leads the household life and 
who must hold 
down a job, some of the dhutalga 
practices will 
not be at all compatible with 
everyday life on a daily 
basis. However — if one knows 
what the practices 
entail, one can look for 
opportunities to pursue 
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them on a sabbatical basis —
perhaps during free 
weekends or during the long 
summer holidays. Of 
these seven virtues, the first five 
have already been 
352 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
discussed in the forgoing 
Blessings. As for practice 
in everyday life, we find that far 
from being strangers 
to everyday life, the twin practices 
of restraint 
of the senses and striving to 
meditate are perfectly 
amenable even to the householder. 
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The following 
sections give further explanation of 
these sixth and 
seventh virtues of the practitioner 
of austerity —
i.e. restraint of the senses [indriya 
saOvara] (see §D. 
below) and striving [viriya] (see 
section E. below). 
D. RESTRAINT OF THE 
SENSES 
D.1 The Six Sense-doors 
All of us have six channels by 
which we can improve 
or damage the quality of our minds 
and lives. 
They are like six entrances or 
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