The Four Foods
What was actually meant by the four foods?
This is not an easy question when we rely on EBT sutras because the four foods were rarely defined explicitly. As a result, they are often conflated with sensory contact and dependent origination. This is because of sutras that begin with a teaching on the four foods but then segue into dependent origination or other common topics about experience. The expression “food of consciousness” also appears to be interpreted as an item of dependent origination or an element of experience, but it is not the same as the food of consciousness in the four foods. It is, rather, a colorful way of describing how consciousness is generated by sensory experience.
When we look for the topic of the four foods in Chinese Āgama and Abhidharma sources, we find that the four foods had a much more concrete and straightforward meaning: They are quite literally the things that sustain sentient beings and help them to survive, reach adulthood, and maintain themselves. But the concept went beyond physical food to cover other needs and also to explain how non-corporeal beings, such as those in hell or a formless heaven, sustain themselves.
As a result, the four foods became a general way to divide sentient beings into four classes:
- Humans, earth spirits, and the desire and form realm gods
- Birds and other animals born from eggs
- Fish and other amphibious animals that guard or mind their young
- Beings in hell and the formless heavens
Physical food is the most obvious of the four foods, but it takes many forms depending on the beings involved (earthly or heavenly, e.g.). It was also expanded from actual food to other bodily necessities like clothing, bathing, perfumes, and the like.
The food of contact nearly always refers to physical contact of some kind, not the contact of the six senses. The most common examples given are of egg-born beings, and the term was even translated once as “warmth” instead of literally as “contact.” But some sources, like EĀ 29.4, keep it to a human context and even list having the company of a wife as an example.
The food of thought or intention is the least consistent across sources that I have found thus far. Sometimes it seems to be a synonym for saṃskāra, meaning karmic creations. Sometimes it refers to a mother fish or reptile minding her offspring. The intention of nurturing and protecting them keeps them alive and allows them to grow. There is even the idea that some beings can imagine eating physical food and be sustained by that. It’s probably safe to say that the original meaning of this item in the list was not well remembered.
The food of consciousness almost always refers to non-corporeal beings. It is the way they sustain their purely spiritual existence in hell or the formless realm.
When we turn to more well known sutras in EBTs with this interpretation in mind, we can see that the four foods stand as a close equivalent to the five aggregates in that they are objects of desire and attachment, given that they are required for a being’s immediate survival. The four foods function interchangeably in this way as a source of attachment and suffering.
The problem of understanding the “foods” of contact, intention, and consciousness is solved by realizing that the four foods are intended to explain the sustenance of human, animal, and supernatural beings. As a whole, they represent the conditions that continue life in any mode of existence, and so we also see a sutra that advises monks to reject them with somewhat hellish parables (SN 12.63 and SĀ 373).
Below are some sources that provide descriptions of the four foods as the necessities of life in saṃsāra. I’ve created this post as a wiki so that other sources can be added over time.
Āgama Sources Describing the Four Foods
EĀ 29.4:
It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks: "The class of sentient beings have four kinds of food that nourish those sentient beings. What are the four? They are lumps of food, whether large or small, food of contact, food of thought, and food of consciousness. These are the four.
"What is called lumps of food? Lumps of food refers to the foods presently among humans, which are things they put into their mouths, are edible, and which they chew. This is called lumps of food.
"What is called food of contact? Food of contact refers to clothing, parasols, various fragrances from flowers, smoke of burned [incense], and oils, as well as the company of a wife. These and other kinds of physical contact are referred to as the food of contact.
"What is called the food of thought? For some, the ideas and thinking in their mind, whether because of speech, bodily contact, or the dharmas that they remember. This is called the food of thought.
"What is the food of awareness? This refers to the awareness of what is thought and what is known by the mind. From the chief of the Brahma Heaven up to the Heaven with and without Perception, their food is consciousness. This is called the food of consciousness.
DĀ 30, Chapter 8:
The Buddha told the monks, “All sentient beings subsist on four kinds of food. What are the four? Physical and fine food is the first, food of contact is the second, food of thought is the third, and food of consciousness is the fourth.
“Various sentient beings eat different things. People in Jambudvīpa have diverse meals of grains, fish, and meat that serve as their physical food. Clothing and bathes serve as their fine foods. The people of Godānīya and Pūrvavideha also eat diverse meals of grains, fish, and meat that serve as their physical food. Clothing and bathes serve as their fine foods. The people of Uttarakuru only eat spontaneously cooked rice that possesses heavenly flavors that serves as their physical food. Clothing and bathes serve as their fine foods.
“Nāgas and garuḍas eat tortoises, crocodiles, fish, and turtles that serve as their physical food, and bathes and clothing serve as their fine foods. Asuras eat pure physical food, and bathes and clothing serve as their fine foods. The four god kings, Trāyastriṃśa gods, Yama gods, Tuṣita gods, Nirmāṇarati gods, and Paranirmitavaśavartin gods eat pure physical food, and bathes and clothing serve as their fine foods. The gods above them take the joy and happiness of dhyāna’s samādhi as their food.
“What are the sentient beings whose food is contact? Egg-born sentient beings have contact as food. What are the sentient beings whose food is thought? There are sentient beings that subsist because of food of thought. Their faculties grow, and then their lives don’t end. This is food of thought. What are [the sentient beings] whose food is consciousness? Sentient beings in hell and the formless realm are called those whose food is consciousness.
Taisho 23, an alternate translation of DĀ 30:
The Buddha said: "For people, their bodies are established by four kinds of food. What are the four? First is food that’s seen and taken, second is food of warmth, third is food of thought, and fourth is food of consciousness. …
"What is food seen and taken? … [same as physical food in DĀ 30] …
"What is food of warmth? The class of egg-born beings are fed the food of warmth.
What is the food of mental thought? There are those who have the mental thought and perception of flesh food then eat with that mental thought. [?!]
What is food of consciousness? Beings who are in hell and the Heaven without Perception eat with consciousness.
Taisho 24, another alternate translation of DĀ 30:
"Monks, all sentient beings have four kinds of food on which they rely to become adults, to accomplish their existences, and which they accumulate. What are the four? First is coarse lumps and fine types of food. Second is food of contact. Third is food of mental intention. Fourth is food of consciousness.
"What are the coarse lumps and fine types of food appropriate for sentient beings to eat? … [Very similar list of examples to DĀ 30] …
"Monks, which sentient beings are fed with contact? Monks, these are all the sentient beings who receive birth from an egg. This refers to birds like geese, swans, cranes, chickens, ducks, peafowl, parrots, mynahs, doves and every other kind of sentient being that’s born from eggs because they obtain their bodies by being born from an egg, they all have contact as their food.
"Which sentient beings have intention as their food? There are sentient beings that rely on mental thought to nourish their faculties and grow their bodies and lives. This refers to fish, turtles, tortoises, snakes, frogs and other sentient beings that nourish their faculties and grow their lives with mental thought. Such types of beings use intentions are their food.
"Which sentient beings have consciousness as their food? This refers to sentient beings in hell and the gods in the Heaven of Limitless Consciousness, etc. These sentient beings use the maintenance of consciousness as their food.
Abhidharma Sources
[to be continued]