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7.1. Chapter Seven CONCLUSION A summary of the research work The aim of Buddhist education is to help human being to realize the truth of suffering, its cause, its cease and way leading to end it. In other words, the goal of Buddhadhamma is certainly not simply to be a "good" person but is to become "real" by becoming more aware of the true nature of oneself and one's relationship to the world. Buddhism does make sure that the very man decides happiness or suffering for himself not others even Buddha or Jesus Christ or God who cannot bring it to him. With this truth and due to the difference in men's karmas, Lord Buddha has applied many various methods, ways of use of words and languages in order to verbalize and to communicate his message "life is suffering and way of ending it" to everyone during his lifetime. In the entire thesis, that message has been presented through the special and practical form that is ahara (food) - the primary need of man. Ahara is the simple word but its covers all the teachings of the Buddha recorded in the Pancanikaya and the key word that unfolds the doors of life and death. The Buddha's teaching that ahara is the cause of dukkha is complex, having several levels of profound meaning. The main difficulty lies in the interpretation of the word ahara. Most of us do not understand what the word ahara refers to and are likely to take it in everyday sense of food for physical body taken from gardens or supermarkets. The Buddha taught

269 499 that ahara is suffering, is it likely that in saying this he was referring to material food for physical body? Think it over. If he was referring to material food, it is unlikely that he would have gone on to say "Destruction of ahara is that of suffering." So what is meant here by the word ahara? According to the Buddha's word, life is suffering because of the arising of the false idea "I" and "mine," of attachment to the world and all sensual pleasures, and of hurting things in the world. And the destruction of suffering here means "true happiness consists in ending the conceit "I," "I am," being non-attachment to the world, having overcome all sensual pleasures, and hurting nothing in the world. Clearly, ahara refers to nothing other than all kinds of foods that nourish suffering or the false idea "I" "mine." Thus, the "ahara" referred to is not only edible foods for body but also the types of food for mental event, that are ignorance, craving, clinging, the arising of the false notion of "I" and "mine" taking place in the mind. Accordingly, the word "ahara" is on all levels, as metaphor food nourishes us in realms beyond our normal perceptions. In this meaning, there are four kinds of ahara has been taught by Lord Buddha: kabalinkarahara, phassahara, manosancetanahara, vinnanahara the first one for physical body and the other three for mind. As said in the fourth chapter, the term "ahara," derived from the Sanskit root "a-hr," means to support, to bring near, to carry, to fetch, to convey to oneself. Therefore, the four kinds of food are the basic needs to support oneself for the cultivation and transformation of the mind, free from suffering, and the achievement of true happiness in this life. In other words, their function is to support oneself for existence and maintenance of life so that one can develop and practise the path 500 - 499 Udana, 2.1

270 leading to liberation but man has exceeded their limits and functions, for this reason the Buddha said, "aharas are suffering and the destruction of these aharas is that of suffering." One of the four types of food, Kabalimkarahara (edible food) that is the first need of a man, known as a supporter or home help or a clerk and man is like its boss, this is to say it has the only duty is to help physical body to free from hunger in order to develop intelligent capacity and to practice mediation but because man who has believed too much in it, has unendingly craved for it, and has been ordered by it, so he is suffering. If one thinks deeply, one really feels ashamed of greed for edible food. Whenever greed is present at eating edible food and goes with it, immediately he is suffering, born, reborn and samsara and birth is suffering in this meaning. As a condition, when greed appears, hatred, delusion, ignorance, wrong view and all kinds of suffering are there. Furthermore, one hungers for edible food too much because he thinks that his physical body or form is "self, permanence" hence, he wishes "may my form be beautiful thus, may my physical body not be thus, meanwhile all forms are no self, unstable, and painful. If form were self, permanence, then form would not lead to sickness, pain, and one could say whatever he wants. He has eaten for making up his self. This is the reason why the Buddha called Kabalimkarahara is dukkha. Also for this reason, He has taught: "All forms, whether past, present, or future, internal or external, coarse or subtle, low or high, far or near, should be regarded with proper wisdom as it really is: "This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self."501 " Beside edible food, man is nourished by touch or contact called phassahara (sense impressions or touching food) - the first kind of food 501 S. III, 66 (SN. 22.59) Anattalankkhana Sutta (Not-Self Characteristic Discourse.)

271 for mind which is eyes look at form, ear hears sound. If the six sense organs do not touch with the six objects, the sense organs will be degenerated. But if the sense organs are in touch with the objects that bring the unpleasant and uncomfortable feelings, the sense organs will be seriously injured and ruined, and the objects which to develop mindfulness and concentration are not cognized lucidly they will disturb heart and mind. Hence, one should nourish the sense organs in touch with the preferential nature, the song of birds, blow of wind, kinds of flavor, flowers, all of these will not disturb one's mind, and it is easy to practise concentration, to develop wisdom, and to contemplate what the true nature of existence is. Thus, the objects (the external world) play a role in support of the sense organs to cognize and distinguish rightly so that one can grasp what the truth of the external world or environment is - that is an important part of the sense organs nourishment, and the sense organs are not entities that separate from the external world. However, in the process of cognition, instead of cognition on visible objects and sounds is impermanent and what is unstable it is painful, what is painful it is not mine and not my self, conversely while touching, one craves for the gratification of visible objects, does not know their peril and way leading to free from them. 502 What is the gratification of visible objects, their peril and way of the escapes from them? When one looks at any nice visible object - suppose the beauty of a young girl belonging to the noble class, she is neither tall nor short, neither dark nor fair, neither thin nor fat, he feels pleased with her due to her beauty and loveliness, immediately the pleasure and joy that arise in him in dependence on that beauty and loveliness are the 502 Ibid.

272 503 gratification in the case of visible object. Later on one might look at the same woman who is now over eighty years, as crooked as roof bracket, supported by a walking stick, tottering, her youth gone, her teeth broken, with limbs all blotchy, and dangers are countless; this is the danger in the case of visible objects. The way of escape from them is to remove and abandon desire and lust for visible objects, this is the escape in the case of visible objects. Because one does not know the gratification and peril of 504 visible objects and way leading to free from them, so while touching, his eyes are charmed by the gratification of visible objects in relation to sensual and sexual pleasure and craving for them, then the three feelings at once arise in him and he thinks that those feelings are his and his self and he has depended upon those feelings all his life. It is clear that whenever the eye has overdone its cognition function this means attachment is present at the moment of touching with forms in relation to the sensual and sexual pleasure, there is the arising of the false notion of "I," "mine." Any of the things that relate to "I" and "mine" that is suffering, wrong view, ignorance. Thus, it is that conditioned by ignorance are the karmainformations, consciousness, psycho-physicality, the six (sensory) spheres, sensory impingement, feeling, craving, grasping, becoming, birth, aging and dying, grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation and despair come into being. Such is the arising of this entire mass of anguish.505 This is the reason why the Buddha said, phassahara is dukkha. The second type of food for mind, manosancetanahara (will of mind) perhaps is one of the most important foods is mental volition, without which no thought becomes active or alive and it is the equivalent of karma, and hence it feeds rebirth, fixes destiny and forms the 'soul' of 503 M. 1, 88, Mahadukkhakkhandha Sutta. 504 Ibid. 505 M. I, 261.

273 " existence. The food that is to maintain one's life is hope, wish, or dream. The function of this food supports man in developing the noble wishes that are inclined to cultivate his deeds, to help and to benefit others, are not harmful to the humans, animals and environment. However, man has been immoderate in wishes. Instead of the development of the noble wishes, one has made his wish go a drift into the stream flow of "I,' "mine," and his wishes relate to the false notions of "I am this," "I am that, ," "I was this," "I was not this," "I will be thus in future," "I will not be thus," etc. With these wishes, he starts to enter into the battlefield of goodness, badness, gain and loss, success and failure; superiority and inferiority, etc. in which he has to encounter many serious troubles to get his fame and position. When position is in his hand, immediately enemies as well as envious people are on the watch round him and they can harm him any time for his position; therefore, he tries to hold it with him at any cost. However, he is doing a useless thing because what he has it will be lost, further what he has now it has resulted from the struggles competition, and many people have to lose their lives due to it. Thus, the wrong wishes really are root causes of craving for sensual desire, craving for existence, craving for non-existence, hatred, anger, etc. They lead men to sorrow, lamentation, grief, and suffering. Such is the operation of the idea "I" and "mine" and that of manosancetanahara. If all efforts of those who are searching for happiness are based on "I" and "mine," happiness will always be out of their reach. Such is the current problems. On the subject of the doctrine of Dependent Origination, the idea of "self" and "mine" means ignorance (avijja,) and its operation really is the operation of ignorance: this is the arising of Dependent Origination leading to suffering, and is the truth of these current human problems.

274 The false notion of "self" and "mine" hence exists as what determines the fateful suffering of human beings. Vinnanahara (nutriment consciousness) is the third kind of food for mind. The Buddha said everything comes from consciousness, and when consciousness is taken care of, when wrong perceptions have been removed, consciousness becomes wisdom. Nevertheless, one's consciousness is often not guarded and wrong perceptions often arise in one's consciousness. Every day one's consciousness receives the wrong deeds of touching between sense organs and objects, and wrong wishes, fear, anger like body absorbs the food, if thinks deeply one will see one his consciousness was and is being seriously injured. If he does not use right compassion, mindfulness and right concentration as medicines to cure, he will continue to recreate nama-rupa. Thus, it is that conditioned by consciousness are the name-and-form and suffering. The four kinds of food for both body and mind play a role in support of constant operation of body and mind or consciousness. They help one to develop the strength of concentration, wisdom, will, and unlimited compassion in order to see the truth of pain and joy and to be inclined to the noble life without attachment and grasping. However, man has overdone and abused too much their supports; therefore, he has to face many troubles in his life. ,,506 According to the Buddha, "From the uprising of craving is the uprising of sustenance. Indeed, the body, from birth to death, craves ceaselessly for material food; and mind hungers as eagerly for it own kind of nourishment, for ever new sense-impressions and for an ever expanding universe of ideas. Those four nutriments have craving is the base, craving is the origin, craving is the producer, craving is the 506 Ibid., 48, Tanhasamudaya aharasamudayo.

275 507 ,,509 ,,508 source. Craving (tanha) is the principal condition of any 'in-take' or 'up-take' (upadana,) that is, of nutriment in its widest sense. In fact, craving is the first common factor to all types of nutriment, be they physical or mental. Therefore, Lord Buddha teaches: "These four nutriments" have craving as provenance, craving as source, craving as birth, craving as origin. "Life in any world is incomplete, insatiate, the slave of craving. The second common factor is the process of the assimilation of food. In the process of eating and digesting, what was external becomes absorbed in the internal; what was foreign matter becomes "one's own" and is identified with one's personality. And this applies as well to mental nourishment. The mind also feeds on "external" material: on sense-impressions and variegated experiences; on the contents of the store-house of knowledge accumulated by the race; and on the precipitate derived from all these sources. Also memories when they become objects of mind are as "external" to the present thought-moment as the ideas read in a book. What cannot be absorbed by the system is discarded, and thus, in the body as well as the mind, there is a constant process of grasping and rejecting, assimilating and dissimilating, identifying with oneself and alienating. When one looks closely at this process of nutrition, physical and mental, one shall notice that it is not only the eater who consumes the food, but, in the course of assimilation, also the food devours the eater. There is thus mutual absorption between them. One looks how much people can be changed (for better or worse) by ideas they have absorbed and which finally have absorbed and consumed them. From the stopping of craving is the stopping of aharas; the course leading to the stopping of aharas is the Noble Eightfold Way itself, that is 507 508 S. II, 11. Op. cit., 261, Mahatanhasamkhayasutta. 509 M. II, 72.

276 to say: right view, right thinking, right speech, right action, right way of living, right endeavor, right mindfulness, right concentration. Thus, the 510 Noble Eightfold Path plays an important role in transforming of the nutriments that have created anguish and in developing the nutriments that bring true happiness. The first practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is Right view (sammaditthi) that is a deep understanding of the Four Noble Truths, Dependent Origination, and the Three Characteristics. In the Discourse on Right View (Sammaditthisutta,) Right view is knowing which of the four kinds of foods that one has ingested have brought about what has come to be and is to have faith and confidence that there are people who have been able to transform their foods. Further, Right view as the ability to distinguish and to recognize which foods have nourished wholesome roots (kusala mula) in order to encourage those foods to be developed as well as to realize which foods have nourished unwholesome roots (akusala mula) in order to eliminate them. Actually, Buddhism is not collection of views. It is a practice to help us eliminate all kinds of food, which stimulate wrong views. On the base of Right view, one establishes his Right Thinking (sammasamkappa.) One thinks deeply about what kinds of foods that have nourished suffering for both mind and body, and tries to transform them. For example, one should always think deeply that meat eating will bring pain to him and easy to destroy his compassion, or wishes of mind in relation to the "I" and "mine" will cause dangers for him. Thinking deeply that mindfulness on breathing is the true food to bring body and mind back together and become whole again. Suffering and its cause, not self, changing, and conditioned are what one should think about. In thinking this, he creates him much valuable nutrition for his thinking and 510 Tanhasamudaya aharasamudayo, tanhanirodha aharanirodho, ayameva ariyo atthangiko maggo aharanirodhagamini patipada. M. I, Sammaditthisutta.

277 he is easy to touch with true happiness. Right speech (sammavaca) is based on Right Thinking. Speech is regarded as popular food for everyone's ear, this kind of food is produced by mouth factory, war or peace is dependent on it. It is also called habitual food; hence, the practice of Right Speech is to try to change one's bad habitual foods to good ones. The society in which speech is a means of connection between individual and individual, between community and community, it is very important and necessary to practise nice and true words. Individual, family and society need to be nourished by this kind of food. In order to obtain Right Speech, one has to practice deep listening through right mindfulness of his breathes and things. The cultivation of Right Speech is not to say words in relation to the idea "I" and "mine." The practice of Right Action (sammakammanto) is to do everything in mindfulness. One should practice without doing evils such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, telling a lie, and other evil actions. Right action means bringing into one's body and mind only the kinds of foods that are safe and healthy. He practices mindful eating, drinking, and consuming aware of suffering caused by unmindful consumption. He is not eating things that create toxins in one's body and mind and has to be mindful to protect himself from wrong actions. One practises mindful consumption to protect his family and society from ingesting toxins. Thus, the basis of Right Action is Right Mindfulness in which one frees from all actions that are tied by the notion of "I" and "mine." Right Livelihood or Right Living (sammaajivo) implies the right jobs or professions that do not harm the living of other people, animals, and environment. In other words, the ways searching for foods do not affect living of people, animals, plants, and minerals. Nowadays so many modern industries are harmful to humans and nature, even food production. Chemical pesticides -

278 and fertilizers can cause a lot of harm to the environment. People's jobs that involve killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, selling drugs, manufacture or sell of weapons is not Right Living. It is difficult for modern men who want to practise Right Living. To practise Right Living, one has to find a way to earn his living without transgressing his ideals of love and compassion, and he has to destroy the idea of "I" and "mine." Right Endeavor (sammavayamo) is to try one's best to eliminate wrong views, wrong thinking, wrong speech, wrong actions, wrong living, wrong mindfulness, wrong concentration so that one can achieve right view, right thinking, etc. Right Mindfulness (sammasati) is at the heart of the Buddha's teachings. Right Mindfulness is energy that brings us back to the present moment. To practise Right Mindfulness is to identify sources of foods that bring suffering to us and then to transform and purify them. Right Concentration (sammasamadhi) is to cultivate a mind that is onepointed. In order to be concentrated one should be mindful, fully present and aware of what is going on. Mindfulness brings about concentration. So, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration lift one above realms of sensual pleasures and craving, and one finds himself lighter and happier. One's world is no longer gross and heavy, the realm of desires. The eight practices of the Noble Eightfold Path nourish each other, when Right View is present, Right Mindfulness and Right Action, etc. are present, and vice versa. The strict practice of the Noble Path helps one comprehend food thus, comprehends the uprising of food thus, comprehends the stopping of food thus, comprehends the course leading to the stopping of food thus, he has got rid of all addiction to attachment, has dispelled addiction to shunning, has abolished addiction to the latent

279 view 'I am,' has got rid of ignorance, has made knowledge arise, is herenow end-maker of anguish. 511 The Buddha's teachings on aharas as depicted in Pali Pancanikaya opens new regard for food/nutrition of human that is the operation of the four foods is clearly pointed out by the Buddha that in this process of nutriment there is no eater separate from the food; it is a process of assimilation where the life-continuum is sustained by physical food, by sense-contact, by volitional activity and by reproductive consciousness. In this process of alimentation and assimilation, the absorbent physicopsychical organism is not a separate entity, not even a separate process, but has become and continues to become that which it has become and by means of which it sustains its process of becoming. Thus, process of nutrition in its various aspects covers the entire field of the teaching of the Lord Buddha, physically, psychologically, emotionally, mentally, ethically, for it is the essence of the Buddha's teaching which shows existence as a flux, as a process of becoming, dependent on condition. That is a process of nutrition, which is a living experience in which the object is assimilated and becomes the subject. This so-called subject can only continue in its process by gathering fresh experience, just as a flame can keep itself alive only by burning, by drawing into itself new fuel, until everything is seen as food for body, food for will, food for thought. In the realization of the loathsomeness of this food will arise a disgust with the process itself which alone can make one free. In this present study, the researcher has discussed and considered the true meaning and nature of "aharas," has introduced the existence of man that is just the constitution of the four kinds of food, which is conditioned, and no self. The truth of "aharas" and the nutritious source 511 M. I, 48.

280 of human life that has been proved through the doctrines of Dependent Origination, No Self, Impermanence, Karma, and the Four Noble Truths. The truth of ahara has covered the life of man and world as discussed will open new courses of individual and community nutrition. It is going to be mentioned next.