NAMO TASSA
BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMA SAMBUDDHASSA

'THE BUDDHIST HOUR'

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The Buddhist Hour Knox FM Radio Broadcast

15 October 2000

Today’s Program is called: The four kinds of nutriments

Last Tuesday, our Members had two types of cakes offered to them half way through their practice of the Perfection of Wisdom, by a Member who is one excellent and generous cook. She had made coconut macaroons and a delicious multi-layered hummingbird cake.

For the only time this week, Members ate similar food together.

When they were asked what they had experienced during the eating some Members realised that they had created the conditions, through the shared experience, whereby they would all come together again in the future - for more of the same - to learn about Buddha Dhamma and, perhaps again, enjoy similar food together.

In the ordinary view of events, this sort of cause and effect statement would need to be challenged and could be discounted as a childish statement by many persons who seek to twist our mundane approach to karmas.

Generally, Buddha Dhamma is not a religion about the karma of food.

Karma is one of those words we do not translate. Although its basic meaning is simple enough - action - but because of the weight the Buddha’s teachings give to the role of action, the Sanskrit word karma packs in so many implications that the English word action cannot carry all its luggage as Thannissaro Bhikkhu has stated in an essay on this topic.

For the early Buddhist followers, karma was non-linear.

Other Indian schools believed karma operated in a straight line, with actions from the past influencing the present, and present actions influencing the future.

As a result, they saw little room for free will.

Buddha Dhamma followers saw that karma acts in feedback loops, with the present moment being shaped by BOTH the past and the present actions.

The imagery used to describe karma is explained in terms of flowing water.

Sometimes the flow from the past is so strong that little can be done to stand fast, or if the will is weak, we get swept away as we did in the past.

At other times, the past flow is gentle enough to be diverted in almost any direction.

What we are doing right now is more important than who we were in the past.

Even though the past may account for many of the inequalities we see in life, the outcomes could change at any moment.

You need not focus on your karmic past too much otherwise you can become obsessed by it.

Your karmic opportunity lies in the present to act in a wiser manner.

The belief that a person’s value is measured, not by one’s past but by the actions one does in the present is of course threatening to the caste system that depends on one’s parent’s caste.

When we drop such ideas, we come to see it is true that to have done good things with food is a large blessing (mangala) with food we must not become obsessive about the nutrition we had in the past, but make the effort to consider the resultant likely to be obtained from the nutrient taken in the present.

A good start to this practice is the five reflections on food.

These are:

1. This meal is the labour of countless beings. Let us accept this offering with gratitude.

2. This meal is taken to strengthen our exertions, for greed and opinion are strong. Let us deserve this offering.

3. This meal is taken to help us become clear and generous. Let us pay attention.

4. This meal is taken to nourish and sustain our practice. Let us be moderate.

5. This meal is taken to help all beings attain Buddha way. Let us practice wholeheartedly.

This meal is finished. Our strength is restored for us to teach the Dhamma.

We ought not to abandon these reflections on things that give nutrient just because they are difficult to do with insight or because they do not seem to give a instant result.

Reflection on nutrients has a canonical basis.

Methods of reflection on the Four Nutriments is one of the secrets Buddhist practitioners would like to share with you in today’s program.

The information is found in the Theravadin Canon, the Tipitaka.

The Lord Buddha’s Chief Monk, the Venerable SARIPUTTA, one day addressed a gathering of bhikkhus and gave a discourse on the Four Noble Truths in detail.

At the end of his teaching, the bhikkhus were delighted and then asked “Friend, might there be another way? Might there be another case?”

What they were asking was, is there another way to teach the Dhamma without referring to the Four Noble Truths while still staying in the Right View?

Venerable Sariputta answered them saying “There might be, friend, there might be”.

As you may know, the Lord Buddha regularly taught the Four Noble Truths, which are the reality of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path leading out of suffering.

The Buddha taught the Dhamma in 84,000 slokes, taught in the most appropriate language or style to suit the particular audience.

Here the Bhikkhus were asking Venerable Sariputta if there was a way of teaching the Buddha Dhamma without referring to the Four Noble Truths directly.

The Venerable Sariputta then proceeded to teach on the Four Nutriments, which is a method of viewing Dhamma without relying on reference to the Four Noble Truths. This may make the teaching of the Buddha accessible to those beings, whose minds don’t want to accept the idea of suffering as the basis of life.

Some years ago, at a lecture at Melbourne University, the late Professor De Jong of the Australian National University suggested there was little direct evidence for the teaching of the Four Noble Truths in the early days of Buddha Dhamma.

So - what is nutriment and what does it nourish?

Well, the definition of a nutrient has a different meaning to a nutriment; Nutrients are substances that serve as nourishment and possess nourishing qualities such as food.

In the Pali translation of the Sammaditthi Sutta, or the Discourse on Right View and it’s commentary- nutriment is described as a condition which nourishes its own fruit.

Nutriment provides nutrient.

Venerable Sariputta taught that there are four Nutriments - only one of which is physical and three which are mind. The balancing of these nutriments can provide the conditions for waking up in this life and to create the karmic conditions for good rebirth.

The first of the four nutriments is physical food - kabalinkaro in Pali - which is either fine or coarse.

Contact - phasso dutiyo in Pali - is the second nutriment. The six-fold contact which begins with the eye-contact - or sight, sound, smell, taste and so on - should be understood as the second of the four kinds of nutriment.

Mental volition - manosancetana in Pali - is the third nutriment.

The fourth nutriment is Consciousness - vinnanam.

These are the special conditions or nutriments needed for personal continuity. What is personal continuity and its importance?

Physical nutriment is the special condition for the material body of beings which eat physical nutriment and is usually the first to be understood in this teaching by the Venerable Sariputta.

What a being eats - whether it is fine or coarse - is both causes and effects. Past karma is from the causes of the type of food or nutrient a being enjoys and the effects are the conditions which are being laid for the next birth each for himself or herself by the manner of using the food.

The type of food or nutrient we are drawn to ourselves in this life is caused by the karmic pattern we laid down in our past lives, and the types of food we enjoy in this life can create the karmic causes for our future lives. For example, if we love eating one type of food such as Vietnamese or Italian food and then, if our attachment to such food was very strong, in our next life we may be drawn to Vietnamese or Italian parents.

Another more extreme example is what would happen to our Members if they were to die of starvation?

What would be on their minds as they were dying? It may be the recollection of the evening’s practice, of the company and the memory of the cake.

Attachment to wishing with good intentions near the last moments of this life can tend to incline a person towards heavens of pleasure.

The desire for good practice is a good intention, but the desire for food may or may not be a good intention.

If it was just greed for sensation in the taste of the food that could bring painful results in the future.

But if the five reflections on food (performed on that occasion) came to mind at the same time, a Member would be more likely to pass away to death without growing cynical about true good intentions.

At death, cynical thoughts of cause and effect might come to one who practiced half-heartedly:

“I had consumed all that good cake without thinking of cause and effect of how to get good food again and again but the memory of the taste seems to come back to haunt me and I cannot see how that memory of the past is of any use to me now I am near death”.

But the cake maker who provided the nutrient cakes could well be less cynical and think near her death:

“I am happy I helped sustain those Upwey disciples before I came to be near death and I would like to be able to create the causes to practice like that again and again to help persons”.

The difference in one person having a most penetrating discovery about such things while another does not depend much on the person’s intention to shape his or her lives by mastering insight skills involving food as nutrient for practice.

We fund overseas orphanages to buy nutrient food for persons in Bangladesh - and the recollection of this fact near death could help lift the mind.

Correct reflection on nutrients could well be known that whatever leads to the physical environment of our next birth of whether or not we are reborn to a life in a land where food is as easy to obtain as it is here in Australia at present depends on such things.

It is not only the karmic connection with our next parents which leads to a particular birth, but also our cravings or unbalanced views of nutriment at the time of death.

The second, third and fourth nutriments which the Venerable Sariputta expounded to the gathered Bhikkhus, are the group of mental constituents. These are even more powerful in outcome in terms of recollection near death.

The second nutriment, which is contact is the special condition for feeling, mental volition (the third nutriment) is the special condition for consciousness, and consciousness (the fourth nutriment) is the special condition for mentality - materiality.

It is important to understand that the mind nutriments are not referring to some nutrient we eat which then nourishes the contact senses, mind volition and consciousness, but rather it is that the contact senses, mind volition and consciousness are themselves nutriments.

The following description is taken from the commentary on The Discourse on Right View, or the Sammaditthi Sutta, translated from Pali by Bhikkhu Nanamoli (1991).

Physical nutriment nourishes the materiality with nutritive essence. This essence is the simplest kind of material set, consisting of the eight groups, which are the four basic elements plus colour, smell, taste and nutritive essence.

Contact as nutriment nourishes the three feelings, which are pleasant, unpleasant or neither pleasant nor unpleasant. All feelings can be placed in these three groups.

Mental volition as nutriment nourishes the three kinds of being - that is animal, human, and deva, which can be described among the egg born, womb born or spontaneously born.

Consciousness as nutriment nourishes the mentality - materiality of rebirth linking. That is the mental and physical circumstances of a beings next life. You will notice that we refer to beings here rather than saying ‘we’ or ‘you’ as these conditions are relevant to all realms of existence.

So how does this occur?

As soon as it is placed in the mouth, physical food as nutriment brings into being the eight kinds of materiality as we have mentioned earlier. As we all know from experience, the mere taste of food can bring renewed energy straight away, when the actual mastication, digestion and absorption of the nutriment takes much longer. This example shows how the mind can use physical nutriment instantly.

But with contact as the nutriment, when contact productive of pleasant feeling arises it nourishes pleasant feeling. Contact productive of painful feeling nourishes painful feeling and contact productive of neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling nourishes neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling .

This demonstrates that in all ways contact as nutriment nourishes beings.

In the case of mental volition as nutriment, kamma leading to sense-sphere being nourishes sense-sphere being; kamma leading to fine-material and immaterial being nourishes its respective kind of being. Therefore in all ways, mental volition as nutriment nourishes the three kinds of being.

Because of our heavy karmic Western culture based on Greek thought, we may start to find the views of Plato expressed in his writings that deal with aspects of the sense-sphere, with a hint that fine-material and immaterial could exist.

Socrates: Now let me ask the awful question, which is this:- Can a man know and also not know that which he knows?

Theodorus: How shall we answer, Theaetetus?

Theaetetus: He cannot, I should say.

Socrates view is he can, if you maintain seeing is knowing.

He gives an example of a man in a well who closes one of his eyes and asks whether he can see his cloak with the eye which he closed. The answer given is he can not with that eye but the other.

This infers you see and do not see the same thing at the same time.

If seeing is knowing, and not-seeing is not knowing: then the inference is the contradictory of the assertion.

The next part is what you would say if an opponent had gone on to ask whether you can have sharp but also dull knowledge.

Also whether you can know near, but not at a distance, or know the same thing with more or less intensity and what happens when you consider hearing, smelling and the other senses.

Also, do we really suppose that anyone would admit the memory which a person made of an impression which has passed away is the same with that which he or she experienced at the time?

He is far from saying that one person may not be a thousand times better than another person.

Socrates says that the wise man knows that to the sick person his or her food appears to be bitter and to the healthy person the opposite of bitter.

He cannot conceive that one of these persons can be or ought to be made wiser than the other.

But one state requires to be changed into the other, the worse into the better.

As in education, a change of state has to be effected even though persons can think what is not as the inferior state of mind has thought of a kindred nature, so Socrates conceives that a good mind causes persons to have a good mind set.

But we do not argue that wise men ought to have long beards.

Is not the world looking for Leaders and Teachers and rulers with wisdom?

Somehow says Soccrates, there is something wrong with the notion that humans are the measure of all things.

Do not thousands upon thousands of persons take up arms against the truth of things?

But there is a great difference in understanding between persons.

Some persons gain power in court by learning how to flatter the Master in word and indulge him in deed: but such persons are of small scope.

He concludes that in the human world evils never pass away, there must always remain something antagonistic to good.

There are two patterns - one blessed and divine - the other wretched.

He suggests the good path.

Socrates suggests the free use of words and phrases, rather than minute precision, is generally characteristic of a liberal education. But sometimes precision is necessary.

Discussion on our opinions follows in this text, or methodology, he suggests we need, at times, to move questions out of the sphere of knowing and not-knowing, into that of being and non-being.

But if we miss the aim of thought we may come to false opinion.

Memory is called the Mother of the Muses.

We need energy to straighten out our memory to get to the truth.

This is where the fourth nutriment - consciousness - is useful. It is said that it nourishes the mentality - materiality of rebirth-linking.

It nourishes the aggregates associated with itself at the moment of rebirth-linking and the different kinds of materiality which arise by way of continuity. Thus consciousness nourishes the mentality - materiality of rebirth-linking.

This way of understanding Dharma is not usually taught. For some persons, it opens up a vast area for them. Perhaps you are one of those types of persons who can benefit from such Teaching.

In the next part of the discourse, The Venerable Sariputta told the gathered bhikkhus of the four functions associated with the four nutriments.

In regard to the four kinds of nutriment, physical food as nutriment accomplishes the function of nutriment by sustaining the physical being, contact accomplishes it by contacting, that is touching, mental volition accomplishes the function of nutriment by accumulating and consciousness accomplishes it by cognising.

So how is this done and how do these nutriments contribute to the maintenance of beings?

Physical food as nutriment, by sustaining, is “for the maintenance of beings” by maintaining the body - it is what enables us to physically continue to exist. Physical food as nutriment becomes a condition for two material continuities, that is, that which originated by nutriment and that kammically acquired. It is a condition for the kamma-born materiality by becoming its preserver. It is a condition for that originated nutriment by becoming its producer.

Then contact, by contacting the object which is the basis for pleasure is “for the maintenance of beings” by causing the occurrence of pleasant feelings.

Mental volition, accumulating by way of wholesome and unwholesome kamma, is “for the maintenance of beings” because it provides the root of existence.

Consciousness, by cognizing, is “for maintenance of beings” by causing the occurrence of mentality - materiality.

Once Venerable Sariputta was satisfied that the gathered Bhikkhus had grasped the idea of the four nutriments and their functions, he then described the four dangers associated with those Nutriments. The reason he did this was to help them understand the craving and attachment which can cause imbalance and bias in the four nutriments.

Once the dangers were understood then the disciples would be able to see how to eliminate the desire of the four nutriments and thereby attain full understanding.

The four dangers are quite straight forward - once they are explained.

In the case of physical food as nutriment, the danger is desire. That is desire of certain food types, desire of quantities, desire of indulgences and so forth.

In the case of the nutriment contact, the danger is approach. Those who find gratification in contact, commit crimes in respect of others guarded belongings such as theft, adultery and so on create unwholesome kamma and thus lead to a bad rebirth.

With the nutriment of mental volition, it is said to be the danger of accumulating which creates the imbalance. The entire danger in the three realms of existence has come about through accumulation of wholesome and unwholesome kamma.

In the case of consciousness as nutriment, it is said that the danger is that of launching - that is launching into a new existence by way of rebirth-linking. The text goes on to describe that in whatever place rebirth-linking consciousness launches, then in that same place it is reborn by seizing the rebirth-linking mentality-materiality. When this is produced then all dangers are produced for they are all rooted within it.

Once the dangers associated with the four nutriments were explained, Venarable Sariputta then told four similes to help the bhikkhus understand a way of eliminating desires and dangers and thereby being free.

The first simile was told for the sake of eliminating desire for physical food and was called The Simile of the Sons Flesh. A couple, it was said, set out with their son, on a journey across a desert trail one hundred yojanas long. A yojana is about seven miles, so the journey was about 700 miles.

When they had gone only half way their limited provisions ran out. Exhausted by hunger and thirst, the husband and wife sat in some scanty shade and each offered to be killed by the other so they could eat half their flesh and then continue the rest of the journey with the remaining flesh as provisions. The wife could not kill the husband and the husband said that if he killed his wife then the son would also die. The husband then said that they could create another child again so they should kill their son, eat the flesh and continue. The mother said - “I bore this child in my womb and have suffered greatly for him - I cannot kill him. Son - go to your father!” But the father said that he had also suffered much to support the boy and could not kill him either. He said “ Boy - go to your mother”.

The child died going back and forth between the two. After much weeping they took the flesh and then departed. But the flesh was repulsive to them for nine reasons and it was eaten not for enjoyment nor for intoxication nor for making the body strong and beautiful, but only for the purpose of crossing out of the desert.

The nine reasons were that it was the flesh of their own offspring, the flesh of a relative, the flesh of a dear son, the flesh of a youngster, raw flesh, not beef, unsalted, and unspiced. Venerable Sariputta concluded by saying “Therefore the bhikkhu who sees the nutriment physical food as similar to son’s flesh eliminates the desire for it.

The simile to help dissolve the danger of approach for the nutriment contact was called the Simile of the Flayed Cow. If a cow were stripped of its skin and then set free, whatever it did or rested upon would cause great pain. So whatever the basis or object that the contact stands upon as its support becomes a basis for the felt pain from that basis. Therefore a bhikkhu who sees the nutriment contact as similar to a flayed cow, eliminates the desire for it.

The third simile is the Simile of the Charcoal Pit. The three realms of being are like a charcoal pit in the sense of a great burning heat. Like two men who drag a weaker man by the arms and legs toward it, is mental volition in the sense that it drags one toward the realms of being. Therefore a bhikkhu who sees the nutriment mental volition as similar to a charcoal pit eliminates the desire for it.

The final simile is The Simile of the Man Struck with Three Hundred Spears with each spear creating its own wound on the body. The nutriment rebirth-linking consciousness is like the thief. His mentality-materiality conditioned by consciousness is like the wound openings created by the striking of spears. The arising of the various kinds of suffering by way of physical pain and disease in regard to consciousness conditioned by mentality-materiality should be regarded as like the arising of severe pain for that man conditioned by the spear wound openings.

Therefore a bhikkhu who sees the nutriment as similar to one struck by three hundred spears, eliminates the desire for it.

Thus by eliminating desire in regard to these nutriments, he also understands the four nutriments.

The Blessed One said:

Bhikkhus, when the nutriment physical food has been fully understood, lust for the five cords of sensual pleasure has been fully understood. When lust for the five cords of sensual pleasure has been fully understood, there exists no more any fetter bound by which the noble disciple might come back to the world.

Bhikkhus, when the nutriment contact has been fully understood, the three feelings have been fully understood and when the three feelings have been fully understood. When the three feelings have been fully understood, there is nothing further for the noble disciple to do, I say.

Bhikkhus, when the nutriment mental volition has been fully understood, the three kinds of craving have been fully understood. When the three kinds of craving have been fully understood, there is nothing further for the noble disciples to do.

Bhikkhus, when the nutriment consciousness has been fully understood, mentality-materiality has been fully understood. When mentality-materiality has been fully understood, there is nothing further for the noble disciple to do, I say.

It is by way of this rarely taught Dhamma teaching on the Four Nutriments, that the Lord Buddha and his Venerable disciple Sariputta were able to teach a means of attaining liberation without mention of the Four Noble Truths and suffering or in Pali dukkha.

We are very pleased to be able to share this valuable teaching with you. If you would like a transcript of today’s radio program you can find it on our website at www.bdcublessings.one.net.au

May you be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Lainie Smallwood, Tim Browning, Pennie White, Clara Iaquinto, Julian Bamford, Evelin Halls, Stuart Amoore and Isabella Hobbs, Lyne Lehman and Nick Prescott.

Print based References

Soni, R. L. (1987). Life’s Highest Blessings, The Maha Mangala Sutta, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Bhikkhu Nanamoli (translator) & Bhikkhu Bodhi (editor and revision), (1991). The Discourse on Right View, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Bhikkhu Thanissaro. Noble Strategy, Wisdom Audio Visual Exchange. Essay on Karma, pp. 9-12. Printed for free distribution as a gift of Dhamma. Printed: 1000 copies July 1999; 1000 copies (Sin) July 1999. Those wishing to contribute towards the next Dhamma title or reprint those titles that are out of stock may write to: Mr/s Lim Tay Poh, c/o No. 2 Jalan Chan Ah Thong, Off JLN Tun Sambathan, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. E-mail: hockchai@tm.net.my.

Edman I (1956) The Works of Plato. Random House Toronto.

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