Zen teacher Dosho Port says a student once asked him, "What is the minimum amount of asceticism required?" This seems like a good question for Hungry Ghost month.
The dictionary defines asceticism as strict self-denial practiced for the sake of personal and spiritual discipline. And you probably know that asceticism for the sake of asceticism isn't a Buddhist thing. The historical Buddha tried it and decided that extreme self-denial doesn't lead to enlightenment.
Instead, he taught a middle way between self-denial and self-indulgence. But I think most of us thrash around quite a bit trying to find that middle way.
Asceticism usually requires one to give up sensory pleasure. I've noticed some schools of Buddhism seem to view sensory pleasure differently from others. The Theravadins seem highly suspicious of it. For example, this is a Theravadin meal verse --
Wisely reflecting, I use this food not for fun, not for pleasure, not for fattening, not for beautification, but only for the maintenance and nourishment of this body, for keeping it healthy, for helping with the Spiritual Life;
Thinking thus, I will allay hunger without overeating, so that I may continue to live blamelessly and at ease.
Zen students, by contrast, are more often told that it's fine to enjoy tasty food as long as one doesn't attach to craving for tasty food. It's a fine distinction, though, and few of us can eat one potato chip without craving another one. Sometimes it's easier to just deny ourselves the first potato chip; or, at least, to not keep a bag of chips in the house.
On our recent dharma field trip, the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi made an offhand remark about practitioners losing a desire to attend rock concerts. This struck some of us as odd. Rock concerts are bad? It turns out the Pali Tipitika contains some precautions about listening to music, especially on uposatha days.
But listening to music is not forbidden. Thanissaro Bhikkhu said,
So keep watch on what comes out of the mind and what comes in. For lay people, this means being careful about the friends you associate with, the magazines you read, the TV you watch, the music you listen to. Be very careful about how you look at these things, how you listen to these things. After a while you find that this is not a case of restricting yourself so much as it is learning to see things more carefully, more fully, because you're seeing both sides of what used to seem solely attractive or solely repulsive.
This makes sense to me. I listen to all kinds of music, but I'm mostly drawn to music that makes me feel happy, or want to dance, or which is just very pretty. I think I will keep listening.
Is there anything you're thinking of giving up (or have given up already) for the sake of practice?
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