Samyukta Agama (371), Part 1

(1) Original Text: Thus have I heard. At one time, the Buddha was dwelling in Śrāvastī, at Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Park. At that time, the World-Honored One addressed the bhikṣus: "There are four kinds of food that sustain and benefit sentient beings, enabling them to exist, to be sustained, and to grow. What are these four? They are: first, coarse physical food; second, subtle contact-food; third, mental volition-food; and fourth, consciousness-food."

Explanation: The World-Honored One told the bhikṣus: There are four kinds of food that can nourish and benefit the life-form of sentient beings, enabling sentient beings to be sustained and to exist long in the world. What are these four kinds of food? The first is relatively coarse physical food, which is chewed, digested, and absorbed by the internal organs to nourish the physical form and sustain life. The second is relatively subtle contact-food, which takes the contact of the six sense faculties with the six sense objects, and the contact arising from the conjunction of the six sense faculties, six consciousnesses, and six sense objects as food, nourishing the five aggregates and sustaining life. The third takes the coarse mental volition of the mind consciousness toward dharmas as food, nourishing the five-aggregate body and sustaining life, primarily taking the deep and subtle mental deliberation of the mental faculty toward dharmas as food. The fourth takes the consciousness-mind’s function of sustaining the body as food, maintaining the functioning of the five-aggregate body.

All eight consciousnesses have the function of sustaining the body. The eighth consciousness is the absolute sustainer of the body, the primary consciousness that sustains the body. The seventh consciousness is the relative sustainer of the body, the secondary consciousness that sustains the body. The sixth consciousness (mind consciousness) is the tertiary consciousness that sustains the body. The five sense consciousnesses are the quaternary consciousnesses that sustain the body. As long as the eighth and seventh consciousnesses together sustain the body, the five-aggregate life-form can exist, but the functional capacities of the five aggregates are incomplete. The vast majority of sentient beings cannot do without the sustaining function of the sixth consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses; only then can the functions of the five aggregates operate fully, and life continue and arise. Although the eighth consciousness has the absolute function of sustaining the body, the consciousness-food mentioned here does not include the food of the eighth consciousness; it primarily refers to the food of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses.

The four kinds of food required by sentient beings all depend on consciousness-food. Consciousness-food is the fundamental food that sustains the five-aggregate body. Based on this, the need for contact-food and mental volition-food arises. Without profound meditative concentration (dhyāna), coarse physical food composed of the earth, water, fire, and wind elements is necessary as nutrients for the physical body. If meditative concentration is relatively deep, one can abandon coarse physical food and primarily rely on consciousness-food and mental volition-food to nourish the physical body. One may have slight contact-food or may even completely abandon contact-food. The more sentient beings rely on these four kinds of food, the more they revolve in saṃsāra and the more suffering they experience. The deeper the meditative concentration, the less dependence there is on these four kinds of food, and the more liberated their existence becomes. However, dependence on the eighth consciousness can never be severed; one simply must not cling to the eighth consciousness.