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Chapter One INTRODUCTION Food or nourishment (ahara) is the basic need of man. Without food, man cannot exist in the world. The food itself governs both physical and mental life, and all aspects of human life and society. All things are originated from and nourished by the food; it determines the destiny of human and world. Thus, the ahara bears the profound and complex meaning; therefore, one should not understand simply that ahara is something as rice, fish, meat, fruit, or vegetables to nourish his physical body. The so-called "man" is made of the components of body and mind, both need food to maintain. The body may absorb one, two or three meals in a day, but the mind really eats constantly both day and night. Man always cares for the material food for his body and he does not have the notion of the food for the mind. Buddhism attaches significance to the food for the mind, the control of the mind and the purification of the mind, because all good and evil deeds are the results of what has been founded by mind. Therefore, the Buddha's teaching on ahara as recorded in the Panca Nikaya of Pali Literature that is categorized into the four kinds of food: edible food, contact food, volition food, and consciousness food, in which the first one is the food for the body and the other three are the foods for the mind. Lord Buddha really pays attention to the nourishment of the mind, hence the amount of the food of mind is bigger than the body. "The food for the mind and the mind eats

2 constantly" is strange and new way of speaking to us, but it is true and that should be contemplated. The truth of the ahara in Buddhism, which is the foundation of all existence and lives, relates to the truth of life and happiness and suffering of the human beings. "All that lives subsist on food."I "Whatever pain arises is all in consequences of aharas. By the destruction of the aharas, there is no origin of pain." In the above statements, the Buddha has condensed the root of all existence, of all human problems, of happiness and anguish, of individual and society into the word ahara. He equates sufferings with aharas. According to the Buddha, this is the one single fact about life that deserves to be contemplated and understood. 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 its uprooting. Here, too, Lord Buddha proved to be one who "saw to the root of things." Hence, it was thought useful to study on the Buddha's concept of ahara. ! From the statements, there is no reason for us to discuss food in Buddhism subjectively and superficially. In fact, researching on food in Buddhism, most of scholars and people have centered on the concepts of vegetable and non-vegetable (meat eating) in relation to the viewpoint of the two Buddhist traditions - Theravada and Mahayana. The matter that for a long time has become a fascinating subject for everyone to think about ahara in Buddhism and even is debated seriously still now. Actually, this is not the main issue for one who wants to learn about the truth of food in Buddhism, because it is not the central point concerning the truth and nature of food as taught by the Buddha. ' A.V, 51 (sabbe statta aharatthika.) 2 Suttanipata , 747 (Yam kinci dukkham sambhoti, sabbam aharapaccava; Aharanam nirodhena, natthi dukkhassa sambhavo.)

3 Being essential for the human life, the food is always a burning subject for everyone to discuss. The previous and current food theories and studies on food, which have been mentioned and discussed widely from different angles of view, are very interesting and useful, but they have been crucially centered on the material foods and the physical health improvement, not for the mental food at all; therefore, those food theories cannot help people resolve the mysteries regarding food and life, their hunger and ill mentality though they take sufficient edible food daily. In this regard, a critical study of concept of "Ahara and its Importance as Depicted in the Panca Nikaya" is essential. In the first chapter of the introduction of the present thesis, the researcher begins discussing firstly the problems in human life; secondly, ahara (nourishment or food) known as a basic problem; thirdly, the importance of ahara in human life; fourthly, the Pali Tipitaka literature; fifthly, the sources for research on nourishment; sixthly, the purpose of the research; seventhly the methodology of the present work, and lastly the structure of the research.