Saṃyukta Āgama (371), Part One

(1) Original text: 如是我闻。一时。佛住舍卫国祇树给孤独园。尔时。世尊告诸比丘。有四食资益众生。令得住世摄受长养。何等为四。谓一粗抟食。二细触食。三意思食。四识食。 

Explanation: The World-Honored One told the bhikṣus: There are four kinds of food that nourish and benefit the living bodies of sentient beings, enabling them to be sustained and to abide long in the world. What are these four kinds of food? The first is coarse solid food (kavaḍaṅkāra-āhāra), which is chewed and enters the internal organs to be absorbed by the body, nourishing the physical body so as to maintain life in the world; the second is the subtler food of contact (phassa-āhāra), which takes as food the contact of the six sense faculties with the six sense objects, as well as the contact arising from the conjunction of the six faculties, six consciousnesses, and six sense objects, nourishing the five aggregates of grasping and sustaining life; the third is food of mental deliberation (manasaṃcetanā-āhāra), which takes as food the mind consciousness's coarse deliberation upon dharmas, nourishing the body of the five aggregates and sustaining life, while primarily it is the manas's deep and subtle deliberation (manana) upon dharmas that serves as food; the fourth is food of consciousness (viññāṇa-āhāra), which takes as food the consciousness's sustaining of the body, maintaining the operation of the body of the five aggregates. 

All eight consciousnesses have the function of sustaining the body. The eighth consciousness sustains the body absolutely and is the first body-sustaining consciousness; the seven consciousnesses sustain the body relatively—the seventh consciousness is the second body-sustaining consciousness, the mind consciousness is the third body-sustaining consciousness, and the five sense consciousnesses are the fourth body-sustaining consciousness. As long as the eighth and seventh consciousnesses together sustain the body, the living body of the five aggregates can remain in the world, but the functions of the five aggregates will be incomplete. The vast majority of sentient beings cannot do without the body-sustaining function of the mind consciousness, as well as that of the five sense consciousnesses, in order for the functions of the five aggregates to operate in a complete manner and for life to continue and accumulate. Although the eighth consciousness has the absolute function of sustaining the body, the food of consciousness discussed here does not yet include the food of the eighth consciousness; it takes mainly the food of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. 

The four kinds of food that sentient beings require are all inseparable from the food of consciousness; it is the food of consciousness that serves as the fundamental food sustaining the body of the five aggregates, and only on this basis are the food of contact and the food of deliberation needed. If one does not possess profound meditative concentration (samādhi), one must have the earth, water, fire, and wind of solid food as the nutritional elements of the physical body. If one's meditative concentration is relatively deep, one can eliminate solid food and rely mainly on the food of consciousness and the food of deliberation to nourish the physical body; there may be a slight amount of food of contact, or one may even be able to eliminate the food of contact altogether. The more sentient beings depend on these four kinds of food, the more they transmigrate through birth and death, and the more suffering they undergo. The deeper one's meditative concentration, the less one depends on these four kinds of food, and the more at ease one's life becomes. But dependence on the eighth consciousness can never be eliminated—one simply should not grasp at the eighth consciousness.