The Four Requisites
"What is really necessary for living a life?", is a question which should be often asked in order to check our understanding of how to live a life on the Middle Path. In Buddhism, there is an answer to this question, which may be satisfactory for some, but may not be enough for others. The answer is that the basic necessities required for living such a life are ‘the Four Requisites’. These are as follows:
The first requisite is food. This is the first thing people need when they are born and continue to need from then onwards. Food and drink are big business as all living beings must eat and drink to keep themselves alive. Eating and drinking must be based on learning. It is no good just following one’s own desires and blaming others when you imbibe something bad. It is said, "Don’t classify food. If you do, you will get caught up in all sorts of trouble." You can see the truth of this when people argue with each other about eating and create divisions between themselves; as, for example, when someone says, "I’m vegetarian, so I’m cool. You are bad, because you are not vegetarian." Food is food, whether it is vegetarian or non-vegetarian. People must understand the object of eating why they eat. They eat because eating will keep them alive. There is a saying, which can remind people of the objective of eating: "Eat to live, not live to eat." People must also understand that eating anything must be harmful to something. If they don’t hear the scream of butchery, it doesn’t mean that there is no loss of life. With understanding, they can stop all argumentation and judgement. As food is the first necessity, it is therefore necessary to learn to eat as well, so that one can remain healthy.
The second requisite is clothing. It comes in secondary importance as people live in social groups. Also clothes serve the function of keeping people warm in the cold weather. When wearing clothes, people need to understand the purpose of using clothes; for example, that they need to wear thick clothes when the weather is cold and wear thin ones when it is warm. Without understanding, they will fall under the delusion that they require fashionable or luxurious clothes. When they understand that clothes are necessary, they need to learn how to use them too. With understanding, they will not be bothered by using clothes.
The third requisite is accommodation. People need shelter to protect themselves from dangerous animals and the weather. It is for these reasons that accommodation is a necessity. People should also keep to this aim of using shelter. They should not just follow their own desires; for example, having built an adequate shelter they should not yearn for something larger or grander than this. This will only bring them hardship. The purpose for its use must come first.
The fourth requisite is medical care. This is a necessity because peoples’ lives are subject to sickness and old age, so there comes a time when they really need care. Such need of care is both physical and mental. To take care of oneself does not mean that one has to take medicine all the time when one is sick. People also need to learn to eat healthy food, and in moderation; to wear good clothes in order to keep physically healthy and to live in safe accommodation which can protect them from all dangers. All these things constitute real care.
These four requisites will keep human beings living in the middle way. But it is not sufficient just to live using the four requisites. People need to understand them and to put them into practice, which means living with understanding; which is what is meant by living in the middle way. That people need the four requisites is irrefutable as we all have to eat to stay alive; wear clothes to keep warm, or be civilized; live in accommodation to protect ourselves from the dangers of both animals and the weather and we all need to take care of ourselves both physically and mentally.
By living in the Middle Way, living with understanding, we can live our lives happily and peacefully. To live a life happily and peacefully is a blessed life, isn’t it?
