the attire of the Tang dynasty. They weren't originally part of Buddhism. What proof is there of this? Take a look! The monks of the Theravada, even today, still wear their sash at all times. Why don't they wear the sash in China? It's very easy to understand. It's because Chinese people are very industrious. They do a lot of physical labor. As soon as they go out to work, the sash becomes an inconvenience. So when people go out to work, they take off their sash and work in the robe that is under the sash. Since the sash was very messy and cumbersome and got in the way in their work, they stopped wearing the sash. After a long time had passed, they got used to it. They started thinking that the inner robe in which they slept was the proper attire for left-home people. Actually, they were just keeping the attire of the Tang dynasty. The clothing of ordinary, worldly people had already changed in style, while the left-home people held onto old ways and didn't alter the Tang dynasty attire. They came to regard it as the special attire of left-home people, but that's a complete mistake. If you don't wear the sash, then you're nothing but a worldly person with a shaved head. You're not a left-home person! Why not? You're too casual. In your every move and gesture, you don't even know that you're a left-home person.

     During the Chan Sessions, of course they didn't wear the sash. The precept texts say, "The sash should not leave one's body." The three sashes, almsbowl, and sitting cloth should be taken wherever one goes. If you don't bring these things, then you're violating the precepts. But if you ask the left-home people of today, which one of them can say that their sash never leaves their body? That is just the external appearance. It's not the case that wearing the sash makes someone a left-home person. If you wear the sash but you don't hold the precepts, then you still can't be considered a left-home person. You're just a Bhikshu who has violated the precepts, and that's even worse than being a layperson. So even when you wear your sash, you often indulge in idle thoughts of lust and wild fantasies. If you didn't wear the sash, well, I don't think any one of you is a Bodhisattva, or a Hearer, or a Condition-Enlightened One.

     There's also eating one meal a day. Why do I eat one meal a day? Starting from when I was young, I had this kind of thought: I wanted to stand in for all living beings and take their suffering, while giving all the blessings that I should receive to others. I wanted everyone's sufferings to be given to me to endure. When Japan attacked China, they captured the Chinese and put them in labor camps, where they had to toil and didn't get enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear, and were fed to dogs when they froze or starved to death. Seeing the people of China going through that kind of misery, I realized there were many people in the world who didn't have anything to eat. So I began to eat only one meal a day. When I was eating three meals, I could eat five bowls of rice in one meal. When I later began eating one meal a day, I only ate three bowls of rice, so I saved twelve bowls for people who didn't have any food to eat. In such a cold place as Manchuria, I was willing to wear only three layers of cloth even when it was raining in the winter. That way the cloth and cotton that I saved could be given to people who didn't have any clothes to wear. That's how I came to eat one meal a day. Later I left the home-life, but since it's not that cold here in America, I haven't set any limitations on clothing. As for food, the people who leave the home-life with me, be they male or female, all have to eat only one meal a day and help me save some food for those who don't have any food to eat.   

     In China there wasn't any place where they ate one meal a day. When they held a Chan Session in China, it could have been called an Eating Session. They had three tea breaks and four meals, with a snack of dumplings on top of that. They even ate dumplings at night. If you claim you can still work diligently like this, I don't believe it. I already feel it's a lot of trouble to eat just one meal a day. Yet you eat four meals, plus dumplings in the evening! In China's Buddhism, they call the evening meal "taking medicine." That is called "plugging up your ears and stealing a bell." That is cheating yourself and deceiving others. They want to eat at night, so they call it "taking medicine." That's Buddhism in China--a Buddhism which cheats people. I had no way to reform it. In America, I've established an overseas tradition that's totally different from the Buddhism in Asia. In America, the people enjoy too much luxury. Because their lives are so comfortable, even if the left-home people have steamed dumplings and buns to eat, no matter how good their food is, it still won't be as good as the food enjoyed by laypeople. Oh! The laypeople can feast to their heart's delight on seafood and fancy meat dishes. Therefore, I have promoted the practice of eating one meal a day to counteract this kind of luxury. Americans all like to enjoy luxury.
I didn't come here to speak Dharma for the Chinese. I came here to teach Americans. The target of my teaching is Americans; Chinese people are just incidental. I came from Asia, thousands of miles away, to America, all by myself, utterly alone. Coming right into the heart of this territory dominated by other religions, I advocated the practice of eating one meal a day as an antidote to their comfortable lifestyle. If you can eat one meal a day, then you can leave the home-life. If you cannot eat one meal a day, then you are not qualified to leave the home-life. That's eating one meal a day.

     As for wearing the sash, in China, I cannot tell whether or not those "left-home people" have really left the home-life. I simply do not know. Anyone can shave his head and make a few incense burns and call himself a left-home person. There isn't anything distinctive about their appearance. That's why I require every left-home person at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to wear the sash. Upon coming to America to be a pioneer for Buddhism, I promoted the practices of wearing the sash and eating one meal a day.