Here is a short video I did of the inside of the Suan Mokkh library. Suan Mokkh is a Buddhist temple founded by the late Buddhadasa Bhikku and located in Chaiya province of Thailand. Not only is it a great little library full of hard or impossible-to-find books, it is also a great place to meditate – it is quiet and cool.
Tag: suan mokkh
Buddhadasa Bhikku Experimented with Fruitarianism!
This was great… I was reading “The First 10 Years of Suan Mokkh” – a description of what went on as one of the most famous Buddhist temples in Thailand, and in the world, was starting out.
Buddhadasa is the founder of Suan Mokkhabalarama, in Chaiya, Thailand – a southern province just north of Surat Thani province on the gulf of Thailand.
“I myself once ate only fruits for some time and felt so comfortable and strange that I would like to suggest that everyone also try it at least once. While being on such a diet, I felt my body comfortably cool, having no odor; the color and smell of the excrement were not revolting at all. All of these, I think, are accessories for peaceful living, which is better than normal living. The only drawback is that in some places there are not enough fruits for convenient practice of such dieting. And becoming a vegetarian, by eating only vegetables or taros and yams, is much more difficult than living on the fruit diet, for, unlike the latter, the body in the beginning cannot abruptly adapt itself: the digestion cannot increase its operating level in keeping with the diet.
Moreover, living on the fruit diet especially has additional inconvenience, that is, one must eat more often than normally; otherwise, he will be hungry at night. Fruits cannot be eaten so much as rice, but can be digested rapidly, resulting in the eater getting hungry earlier.
While I was on this kind of diet, I noted also that my senses of sight, hearing, and smell were many times more sensitive than usual. Aromatic leaves, such as those of the sweet basil, which usually send out smell only when they are smashed by some means, were detected through the nose even when I stood two to four feet away. Flowers smelled very strongly, sometimes too overwhelmingly, even though they do not usually do so. “
Michael Arnstein, ultra-distance runner has said similar things in youtube videos about not smelling when he sweats, and his senses are heightened. Now these are two very different data points – and so, very convincing on both these ideas. I have gone days eating fruits only, but not days in succession.
It really is rather difficult to make sure there is enough fruit, and variety of fruit in the house – even here in Thailand.