Essay name: Ahara as depicted in the Pancanikaya
Author:
Le Chanh
Affiliation: Savitribai Phule Pune University / Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit Languages
This critical study of Ahara (鈥渇ood鈥�) explores its significance in Buddhism, encompassing both physical and mental nourishment. The Panca Nikaya, part of the Sutta Pitaka, highlights how all human problems, including suffering and happiness, are connected to Ahara. Understanding this concept is crucial for comprehending and alleviating suffering, aiming for a balanced, enlightened life.
Chapter 4 - Concept of Ahara in Buddhism
72 (of 76)
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settles to a comfortable routine and forgets his precarious situation in this
world, which the Buddha so often described. Hence, there is the need that
man, and especially a Buddhist, should face now and again such stern
teachings as those on the nutriments, which will keep him alert and will
strengthen his mental fiber so that he can fearlessly meet the unveiled
truth about the world in which he lives.
The contemplation on the four nutriments of life can do this for him.
From that contemplation, man can learn not to recoil from the real and
not to be carried away by the unreal. He will learn from it that it is
suffering which is nourished and pampered by the four nutriments. He
will more deeply understand that 鈥渙nly suffering arises where anything
arises and only suffering ceases where anything ceases.
4.4. The operation of four kinds of 膩h膩ra
99338 As discussed in chapter three, the operation of the four nutriments
(膩h膩ra) is that of craving (ta峁噃膩,) of name-and-body of Dependent
Origination and five aggregates and so is the operation of Dependent
Origination itself. And, the four nutriments co-exist; they cannot be
separate from each other.
Though Lord Buddha said that the four nutriments constantly
support for the subsisting of man, this is not to say the four nutriments are
separate from man or the five aggregates. Here, nutriments are known as
conditions and craving is called the origin of nutriment, of the five
aggregates, and of name-and-form in that the craving of the previous
existence is the source of the present individuality with its dependence
upon and continual consumption of the four nutriments in this existence.
Craving is one of elements of the twelve causes; hence, the operation of
craving is the operation of the twelve causes, of the five aggregates, and
338 M.I, S奴tta 22.
