The Four Foods

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£h¤ra, Cattari £h¤ro

The Four Foods, Shi wu, jídlo, nahrung, cibo, alimento

PTS: The Book of the Kindred Sayings, II: XII: The Kindred Sayings on Cause, 2: Sustenance-Suttas, 1: Sustenances, Mrs. Rhys Davids, trans, pp8:

PTS: The Book of the Gradual Sayings, V: The Book of the Tens, The Great Chapter, The Great Questions, Woodward, trans., pp36ff

Pali	MO	Hare	Horner	Punnaji	Bodhi	Nanamoli	Rhys Davids	(Mrs)Rhys Davids	Thanissaro	Walshe	Woodward
Cattari £h¤ro	The Four Foods	Food	food		The four nutriments		Four supports, or foods	Four supports, or foods	Four Nutriments	The Four Nutriments	Four Sustenances, Helps, Nutriment, Support, Food
kaba²ink¤ra £h¤ro	material food				edible food		solid, bodily	material food	physical food	Ordinary Food, real food, material food	solid food
phassa	Touch, contact	contact	sensory impingement	sense experience	contact	contact	contact	contact	contact	contact	contact
manosa¾cetan¤h¤ro	intent				mental volition		motive or purpose	volition	intellectual intention	Mental volition	intention
vi¾¾¤¼a	Double-knowing-knowning, consciousness	consciousness	consciousness	cognition	consciousness	cognition	consciousness	consciousness	consciousness	consciousness	consciousness

**Pali Text Society, Pali English Dictionary (edited entry):**
£h¤ra: [fr. ¤ + hr, lit. taking up or on to oneself] feeding, support, food, nutriment (lit and fig.). The term is used comprehensively and the usual enumn. comprises four kinds of nutriment, viz. (1) kaba²ink¤ra ¤h¤ro (bodily nutriment, either o²¤riko gross, solid, or sukhumo fine), (2) phass¤h¤ro n. of contact, (3) manosa¾cetan¤- n. of volition, (4) vi¾¾¤¼- of consciousness. Thus at M I.261; D III.228, 276; Dhs 71-73; Vism 341. Another definition of Dhammap¤la's refers it to the fourfold tasting as asita (eaten), p¨ta (drunk), kh¤yita (chewed), s¤yita (tasted) food. A synonym with m¬la, hetu, etc. for cause. - Vin I.84; D I.166; S I.172; II.11, 13, 98 sq. (the 4 kinds, in detail).

PED on Line (no diacriticals): "Ahara"
PED on Line (unicode font required): "Ahara"

"There are these four sustenances, brethren, for the maintenance of beings that have come to birth or for the forwarding of them that seek to become. Which are the four? Material food, coarse or fine, secondly, contact, thirdly, volition, fourthly, consciousness. . . .
And of these four, brethren, what is the base, whence is the uprising? How are they produced? What causes them?
Craving is their base, from craving is their uprising, craving produces them, causes them to be."--PTS: KS II, p8:

"What is one? All animals subsist on food."-- The Novice's Questions, Thanissaro Bhikkhu trans

"There are these four nutriments for the establishing of beings who have taken birth or for the support of those in search of a place to be born. Which four? Physical food, gross or refined; contact as the second, intellectual intention the third, and consciousness the fourth.
"Where there is no passion for the nutriment of physical food, where there is no delight, no craving, then consciousness does not land there or grow. Where consciousness does not land or grow, name-&-form does not alight. Where name-&-form does not alight, there is no growth of fabrications. Where there is no growth of fabrications, there is no production of renewed becoming in the future. Where there is no production of renewed becoming in the future, there is no future birth, aging, & death. That, I tell you, has no sorrow, affliction, or despair.
"Where there is no passion for the nutriment of contact...
"Where there is no passion for the nutriment of intellectual intention...
"Where there is no passion for the nutriment of consciousness, where there is no delight, no craving, then consciousness does not land there or grow. Where consciousness does not land or grow, name-&-form does not alight. Where name-&-form does not alight, there is no growth of fabrications. Where there is no growth of fabrications, there is no production of renewed becoming in the future. Where there is no production of renewed becoming in the future, there is no future birth, aging, & death. That, I tell you, has no sorrow, affliction, or despair."-- Thanissaro Bhikkhu, SN XII.64.