Āhāra – Food for the Mental Body

Āhāra in Buddha Dhamma refers to “food” for the mental body, not the physical body.

July 20, 2024

Both “Bodies” Require Food

1. As discussed on this website, humans have two bodies: the physical body (karaja kāya) and the mental body (gandhabba). Both these bodies need food to survive.

  • We eat physical food (like bread, rice, etc.) to sustain our physical bodies, but the Buddha did not teach about those foods. 
  • Buddha’s teachings are all about the mind. A mind attaches to “pleasurable things in this world” and gets four types of food to thrive.
  • A special category of food called “kabalinkā āhāra” is available only in kāma loka. Three more types of foods are needed in all three lokās (kāma, rupa, and arupa loka). They are phassa, manō sañcetanā, and viññāṇa āhāra. See “Āhāra Sutta (SN 12.11).”
  • Therefore, all four types of food are for the mental body of a human (human gandhabba).
Nibbāna = Cessation of All Four Āhāra

2. Food is essential for all living beings. If one stops eating physical food (including water) for about seven days or so, one’s physical body will die.

  • However, one’s mental body (gandhabba) will not necessarily die with the physical body. It comes out of the dead physical body and lives in “gandhabba loka” until pulled into a womb to be born again with a physical body. 
  • A human gandhabba also has a finite lifetime. It also dies at the end of its lifetime, but another mental body will immediately created by the kammic energy associated with that lifestream. See “What Reincarnates? – Concept of a Lifestream”
  • All four āhāra to the mental body cease when one becomes an Arahant, i.e., when attaining Nibbāna; see “Āhāra Sutta (SN 12.11).”
  • However, the mental body of the Arahant can live without āhāra until the death of the physical body. Thus, with the death of the physical body, the mental body also dies, and the Arahant attains Parinibbāna (“full Nibbāna”) at that point.
Nibbāna and Parinibbāna 

3. Even though all four āhāra to the mental body cease when one becomes an Arahant, the mental body (gandhabba) cannot die as long as it is attached to a living physical body. 

  • At the death of the physical body, Arahant‘s gandhabba comes out of the dead body. Now, it must be sustained by one or more of the āhāra. Since all four āhāra have ceased, it will die that instant.
  • In other words, even if Arahant‘s gandhabba had not reached the end of its life, it would die instantly due to a lack of food. Unlike the physical body, the subtle mental body cannot survive even a moment without food.
  • Now the question is: “Why doesn’t the Arahant‘s mind grasp another mental body (i.e., another existence) at that moment (like for other beings)”? That process is called “cuti-paṭisandhi,” where cuti is the death of one mental body, and paṭisandhi is the grasping of another. Paṭisandhi (“paṭi” is to “bind,” and “sandhi” is a “joint” in Pāli or Sinhala.) Thus, paṭisandhi means joining a new life at the end of the old. That happens a thought-moment after the last citta of the current existence (bhava.)

4. Two conditions must be satisfied to generate a new mental body at the cuti-paṭisandhi moment: (i) There must be a kamma bījā available to grasp, and (ii) one’s mind must willingly grasp that kamma bījā.

  • We all have accumulated numerous kamma bījā, so the first condition is always satisfied for anyone. Therefore, the second condition — grasping a new existence (bhava) at the cuti-paṭisandhi moment- is the condition that stops the rebirth process.
  • With each stage of magga phala, the possibility of grasping another existence decreases. For example, a Sōtapanna‘s mind will not grasp a bhava (existence) in the apāyā; A Sakadāgami‘s mind will not grasp a human bhava. In addition, an Anāgami will not grasp any bhava in the kāma lōka, and an Arahant will not grasp any.

5. An excellent example from the Tipiṭaka is Ven. Angulimala. He killed almost a thousand people and had accumulated enough strong kamma bījā (in that last life itself) to be reborn in the apāyā.

  • But at death as an Arahant, his mind was devoid of that kind of (kamma)viññāṇa to grasp any type of bhava in the 31 realms. Therefore, he was not reborn anywhere in the 31 realms.
Weakening and Elimination of Āhāra With Magga Phala

6. All four types of āhāra weaken at each stage of magga phala. 

  • For example, “kabalinkā āhāra” is responsible for generating kāma rāga. It is weakened at the Sotapanna and Sakadagami stages and eliminated at the Anagami stage. 
  • The remaining three types of āhāra also weaken with each stage of magga phala, but they are eliminated only at that Arahant phala.
  • Thus, the “lifestream” for an Arahant in this world of 31 realms ends with the death of the physical body. See “What Reincarnates? – Concept of a Lifestream”
Kabalinkā Āhāra – Only in Kāma Loka

7. Sensual pleasures with “close contacts” of smell, taste, and bodily contacts (touch, especially sex) are available only in the realms of kāma loka. Kabalinkā āhāra is closely associated with the six types of “kāma guṇa” available in kāma loka.

  • Rūpavācara Brahmās in “rupa loka” experience only two of the five physical senses (sight and sound), and they have “rupa rāga” (and mainly crave “jhānic pleasures.”) 
  • Arūpavācara Brahmās in “arupa loka” do not experience the five physical senses. They only have the mind or mano (sensing dhammā) and have only “arupa rāga“ (and mainly crave “samāpatti pleasures.”) 
  • Therefore, kabalinkā āhāra is the strongest because it triggers the accumulation of “apāyagāmi kamma,” leading to rebirth in the apāyās.
  • For details, see “Kāma Rāga Dominates Rupa Rāga and Arupa Rāga.”
Paṭicca Samuppāda Does Not Start Without Āhāra

8. There is yet another way to look at this mechanism of grasping a new bhava at the cuti-paṭisandhi moment. In the uppatti Paṭicca Samuppāda (PS) cycle, a certain bhava is grasped at “upādāna paccayā bhava.“

  • When we trace the cycle backward, we see that it starts at “avijjā paccayā saṅkhāra” and “saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa.“
  • Cessation of all four types of āhāra means the cessation of avijjā and thus the cessation of all subsequent terms in Paṭicca Samuppāda: (abhi)saṅkhāra, (kamma)viññāṇa, namarupa, salāyatana, (sam)phassa, (samphassa-jā-)vedanā, taṇhā, upādāna, bhava, jāti, and soka, parideva,…(“the whole mass of suffering.”)
  • The grasping (upādāna) happens only if that PS starts with avijjā and generates an appropriate (kamma)viññāṇa for grasping a specific bhava.
  • No Paṭicca Samuppāda cycle can be active for an Arahant. Thus, at the cuti-paṭisandhi moment, it cannot grasp any existence in this world.
Two Critical Roles of Kamma Vinnana

9. Therefore, the word viññāṇa represents much more than just consciousness (which is a vipāka viññāṇa). It is “kamma viññāṇa” that is one of the four  “foods” (viññāṇa āhāra) for accumulating new kamma bījā and also provides “food” or “fuel” for grasping a new existence (bhava.) Even though the Tipiṭaka does not explicitly use the terms kamma viññāṇa and vipāka viññāṇa, they help explain critical concepts.

Viññāṇa Āhāra = Kamma Vinnana

10.  As long as a mind can generate kamma viññāṇa, one will be born somewhere in the 31 realms. This is why viññāṇa is called a type of food for the mental body; to be specific, it is the kamma viññāṇa that is one of the four types of āhāra.

  • As one proceeds at successive stages of Nibbāna, one will crave fewer and fewer things in this world. For example, at the Anāgami stage, one would have lost all cravings for sensual pleasures — which removes a big chunk of kamma viññāṇa.
Sañcetanā Āhāra = Defiled Cetanā

11. Kamma viññāṇa is cultivated by thinking, speaking, and acting in such a manner. Thinking, speaking, and acting are done based on manō, vacī, and kāya saṅkhāra which arise due to sañcetanā (“sañ” + “cētanā” or defiled intentions; cētanā is pronounced “chethanā”).

  • For example, an alcoholic regularly thinks about drinking, likes to speak about it, and likes to drink. The more he does those, the more that kamma viññāṇa will grow.
  • It is easy to see how a gambler, smoker, etc, grow their corresponding kamma viññāṇa the same way.
  • The ability to generate such kamma viññāṇa can lead to other immoral activities, such as the tendency to lie, steal, and even murder.
  • Therefore, all activities done in cultivating such kamma viññāṇa are based on manō sañcetanā. That is why manō sañcetanā are also food for the mental body.
Phassa Āhāra = Samphassa Āhāra

12. The triggers for such sañcetanā are defiled sensory contacts or samphassa. These are not mere sensory contacts but those that give rise to “samphassa-jā-vēdanā. “

  • Phassa means sensory contact. When one looks at something, thoughts arise via phassa. But if one looks at it with greed or hate (and ignorance) in mind, that is samphassa (“sañ” + “phassa“); see, “Vēdanā (Feelings) Arise in Two Ways. “
  • This is why defiled sensory contacts or samphassa are food for the mental body. Such sensory contact can lead to thoughts about immoral actions and give rise to future kammaja kāya.
  • Therefore, one must avoid sensory contact with sense objects that one has taṇhā for. We need to remember that taṇhā is attachment to something via greed or hate; see “Taṇhā – How We Attach Via Greed, Hate, and Ignorance. “
  • So, it is a bad idea for a gambler to visit casinos, an alcoholic to make visits to bars, etc. Furthermore, one needs to avoid friends who encourage such activities, too.
  • It is best to avoid any “defiled contact” (samphassa) that can lead to sense exposures that provide “food” for the mental body, i.e., get us started thinking about those destructive/immoral activities.

13. Now we can see how those three types of food act in sequence to feed the mental body: Defiled sensory contacts (samphassa) can lead to manō sañcetanā, which in turn cultivate kamma viññāṇa.

  • Such sense contacts (samphassa) automatically start manō saṅkhāra; then, we start thinking and speaking about those favorite activities, i.e., we start vacī saṅkhāra (consciously think about them and even talking about them). Then, when the feelings get strong, we will start doing them (using kāya saṅkhāra).
  • It is essential to realize that manō saṅkhāra, vacī saṅkhāra, and kāya saṅkhāra are all generated in the mind: vacī saṅkhāra are conscious thoughts that can lead to speech; kāya saṅkhāra are conscious thoughts that move the physical body.
  • All three types of saṅkhāra arise due to manō sañcetanā. We cannot think, speak, or do things without generating appropriate manō sañcetanā.
Mental Body (Gandhabba) Is Primary

14. As we have discussed, the physical body is just a shell controlled by the mental body (gandhabba). See “Manomaya Kaya (Gandhabba) and the Physical Body.”

  • Sensory contacts come through the physical body, are processed by the brain, and passed onto the mental body where samphassa occurs. When the mind (in the gandhabba) attaches to samphassa (defiled contacts), it generates manō sañcetanā and thinks, speaks, and acts accordingly, developing various types of kamma viññāṇa.
  • It is kabalinkā āhāra (available only in kāma loka) that triggers a mind to engage in accumulating the worst types of kamma. However, the other three types of āhāra must trigger all attachments present in all three lokās.  
  • That is why all four types of food are for the mental body.
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