Nutriment: The Sutra of the Son's Flesh

The Four Nutriments of Life: An Anthology of Buddhist Texts with introductory essay by Ven. Nyanaponika Thera; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Eliza Darcey (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Commentary on the "Sutra of the Son's Flesh"

(Taken from Buddhaghosa's Sarattha-pakasini, the Commentary to the Samyutta Nikaya)

Don't kill me, mom and dad, don't eat me.

In explaining the "need arisen" (atthuppatti), that is, the particular reason for the Buddha giving this sutra or discourse, the commentator  explains:

He says that, at that time, the Buddhist monastic community received abundant support by way of alms food and other requisites.

Considering this, the Buddha asked himself:

 

"Will the monastics be able or will they be unable to eat the alms food and still keep to that mindfulness and clear comprehension that lays hold (of the true nature) of nutriment?

"Will they be detached and free of desire and greediness?" And the Buddha saw that there were some offspring of good families, recently gone forth into the left-home life (ordained as Buddhist monastics), who ate their alms food without due reflection.

Seeing this, he thought: "When I practiced the perfections (paramis) for four incalculable periods and 100,000 aeons (kalpas), I did not do so for the sake of the requisites -- such as robes, alms food, and so on -- but for the sake of the highest fruition, of full enlightenment.

"Moreover, these monastics who went forth (into monasticism) under me did not go forth for the sake of these requisites, but for the sake of attaining full enlightenment.

"And now they take the unessential for the essential, the worthless for the worthy!" Such concern arose in the Buddha, and he thought further:

"If it were possible to declare a fifth defeat offense (parajika, after which one is defeated and so can no longer a monastic), the monastics, partaking of food without due reflection should be made a fifth defeat offense.

"It is, however, not possible to do so, because food is constantly used by beings. But I shall speak to them in such a way that they will consider (such thoughtlessness) as if it were a fifth defeat offense.

"I shall place before them a mirror of the Dharma for their self-control and restraint, so that, contemplating on it again and again, the monastics of times to come will make use of the four requisites only after due reflection."

Introduction: All Beings Subsist on Nutriment

Ven. Nyanaponika Thera

"All beings subsist on nutriment" -- this, according to the Buddha, is the one single fact about existence that, above all, deserves to be remembered, contemplated, and understood.

• [Note 1: See § 1.] 

If understood widely and deeply enough, this saying of the Buddha reveals indeed a truth that leads to the root of all existence and also to the uprooting of suffering.

Here, too, the Buddha proved to be one who "saw to the root of biological and mental life, and this fact was expressed by the Buddha when speaking of the four kinds of nutriment: (1) edible food, (2) sense impressions, (3) volitions, and (4) consciousness.

• [With food as "form" and the addition of feeling/sensation, these seem to refer to the Five Aggregates Clung to as Self].

It is hunger that stands behind the entire process of nutrition, relentlessly wielding its whip. The body, from rebirth to re-death, ceaselessly craves for material food. 

And mind hungers just as eagerly for its own kind of nourishment, for ever-new sense impressions and for an ever-expanding universe of ideas.

 

Craving (tanha) is the principal condition of any "intake" or "uptake" (upadana, clinging),

• [3: See Translator's Note to § 3 (a), and The Wheel #17, p. 19 under "Clinging."]

that is, of nutriment in its widest sense. This is the first factor common to all types of nutriment, whether physical or mental. The second common factor is... More