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are kids, so northerners enjoy beans all their life. Though I didn't like it, since Sayadaw exhorted me, "You don't eat fish sauce? It gives you strength!" I tried it. Now I like it a little. "Though you may not like them, you should things which are full of nutrients," Sayadaw often says.
There's another thing Sayadaw often says concerned with diet, "You shouldn't eat your food like a cow. You should eat like a goat." Cows fill their belly with one thing when they eat. Goats aren't like that. They eat a something from here and something from there, a little of this and a little of that, to have a variety. Humans should eat like that, a little of this and a little of that to have a variety, he says.
Sayadaw himself eats fruits, grains, and vegetables, and tells others to do the same. The novices and young nuns in the Buddhist Culture Course don't really eat the dishes they don't like. Sayadaw would like people to eat things with nutrients which make them healthy. Sayadaw doesn't like to see Myanmar children stunted and thin due to malnutrition. He wants Myanmars to be tall, strapping, and robust. That is why he has doctors talk about diet at the Buddhist Culture Course. He wants children, too, to have dietary knowledge. The really need to have that knowledge. The children who attend the Buddhist Culture Course and get to listen to this dietary knowledge have good kamma. The author's generation did not have this kind of good kamma. That's probably why we are frequently ill.
Sayadaw had me take myrobalan fruit soaked in cattle urine because my extremities often get cold and stiff. It makes you good and warm, he said. They call that the Buddha's medicine. Some in this country as well as abroad make a habit of taking that medicine. Sayadaw can speak in scientific terms and in terms of nature to make one want to take that medicine.
One time, the devotee U Maung Lay, who lives across from the Shwe Taung Gon Sâsana Yeiktha entrance, fell ill, so Sayadaw paid a visit at his home. The author went along. Sayadaw spoke eloquently of the potency of the myrobalan fruit, the Buddha's medicine. When he was done, U Maung Lay said he would try it. Sayadaw had someone go and get it from the his room and gave to U Maung Lay, who said it was good.
I can't speak or write eloquently about it like Sayadaw. That's because I don't know much about it. If I knew, I would surely be able to write about it. I need to know enough to write about it. I have resolved that if I get another chance to listen to that Dhamma discourse on myrobalan fruit, I will take careful note. Abracadabra…on the basis of my good kamma, may I get another chance to listen to the Dhamma discourse on myrobalan fruit.
Sayadaw is rather plump, isn't he? Therefore, he has to avoid fatty foods. He has a few words of advice, "Though we like them, we have to avoid the kind of foods which make us unhealthy." Since he does not follow his taste desires but rather eats healthily,
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