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Chapter Two CONCEPT OF AHARA IN THE WORKS OF MODERN SCHOLARS AND OTHER RELIGIONS It is said that food (ahara) is an inseparable and indispensable part of human life. With changing stages in human civilization the concept of food, too, has undergone accordant changes. From its unrefined form in the primitive age to its present refined form, food culture has constantly progressed. Two major facets of the food culture however, can be said to have remained more or less constant. Firstly, food comes from nature. Nature is one and the only source of most of the foods that are later processed to suit the taste and the digestive system. Nature implies mainly the environment and bio-diversity around us. Availability of food varies according to diverse regions. Secondly, in every culture certain beliefs, ideas or concepts are associated with food peculiar to that culture. Thus, food is never a mere means of sustenance but a mirror, which reflects the pattern of thoughts and beliefs of that culture and vice versa. 51 This chapter focuses firstly on a survey of modern researches and studies by modern scholars on the Buddhist concept of ahara. Secondly the concept of ahara in different religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, in which in the concept of each religion, foods will be mainly examined through the beliefs and food practices of the forms of taboo, symbols, rituals, fast, and diet will be surveyed in this chapter. 51 Source: http://foodandculture.blogspot.com/.

40 2.1. A survey of modern researches on food Ahara is a simple word but it directly occupies the entire destiny of human, hence it is not easy to give a necessary and sufficient definition as well as perfect viewpoint on food although as with so many words and ideas that are universally used and presumably universally understood. 52 Being an essential substance to nourish and sustain human beings, food is always a burning topic to discuss and debate every time and everywhere. The research on ahara is the study related to biology, psychology, and morality of human beings. Hence, the food scientists always do their best to point out the relationship between food and human beings. 54 According to several modern researches or concepts of some scholars, ahara is understood as: substance taken in by the mouth, which maintains life and growth, i.e. supply energy, and build and replace tissue. 53 Any substance containing nutrients, such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats that can be ingested by a living organism and metabolized into energy and body tissue. What one takes into the system to maintain life and growth, and to supply the waste of tissue, aliment, nourishment, provision, victuals. Anything which, when taken into the body, serves to nourish or build up the tissues or to supply body heat, aliment, nutriment." Food: what is food to one man is bitter poison to others. 56 Food: 1) Any substance (nutritive material of plant or animal origin) or mixture (except oxygen and water) that nourishes an organism, builds tissue, and supplies heat. 2) Any nutritive material that is taken into an organism or consumed for maintenance, growth, work, and tissue repair but sometimes consumed for social or other reasons; the term sometimes means only solid 53 Ibid. 52 The Penguin Encyclopaedia of Nutrition, New York: Viking Penguin, 1985, p. 154. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid. 56 Th-13151 Bergen Evans, Dictionary PF Quotations: Collected and Arranged with comments, New York: Delacorte Press, 1968, p. 244. Jayakar Knowledge Resource Centre SPPU, Pune

41 food or nutriment; for legal purposes, it may sometimes refer to things that are normally considered nonfood but that are regulated by a governmental food agency. 3) A material recognized by an individual or a group as fulfilling the physiological needs of the body and usually consumed for that purpose, or sometimes for social or other reasons. 58 57 Food, anything eaten to satisfy appetite and to meet physiological needs for growth, to maintain all body processes, and to supply energy to maintain body temperature and activity." Nutrition is a combination of processes of receiving and utilizing materials needed for sustaining life. These processes not only maintain the functions of the various growths and renewal of its components. 59 According to a currently accepted definition (FAO 2000), 'Food Security' is achieved when it is ensured that "all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." Food is here defined as any substance that people eat and drink to maintain life and growth. As a result, safe and clean water is an essential part of food commodities. The above researches on food generally mentioned the function of edible food for the growth of the physical body, for maintenance of physical health of life. These concepts can urge humans to satisfy the material needs more than to cultivate the mind, and they do not help one understand what the nature of food is. The researches imply that human beings only live to eat more than eat to live. 'Live to eat' is understood as satisfaction of needs of life such as health, beauty, wealth, position, 57 Audrey H. Ensminger, et al, Food & Nutrition Encyclopedia, 2 vols. vol. 2, Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1994, p. 307. 58 Judy Pearsall, The New Oxford Dictionary of English, New York: O.U. Press, 2001, p. 714. 59 60 Dr Savitri Ramaiah, All You Wanted To Know About Nutrition, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 2002, p. 11. Source: http://www.foodsec.org/tr/fns/BP_I_Concept_Definitions.pdf.

42 knowledge, and honors. In order to gain these needs, human beings must compete with others and must trample upon mutually, even without feeling regret with any wrong deeds. Competition is the embodiment of seditions of greed, hatred, and delusion. These seditions make human life get hungrier and worse. The hungrier, the thirstier to cling to life and fear death are human beings. Hence, such competition is never ending in the modern world. In modern life, the sedition of market competition is hard to identify, because they are organized and designed by many sophisticated and artful forms. It can be said that if 'live to eat' is understood in that way, 'eat to live' is the opposite. One who eats to live is aware of what true value and purpose of life is, one eats but does not injure himself and others. He is moderate in food and does not waste it. He eats to love, to tolerate, to sacrifice, and to save and to protect life of all beings as well as the environment. While consuming, one understands that what he is consuming is the result of effort of many people and protection of the environment, even the food he works for. For edible food or food for physical body is being alarmed due to its unsafety. The modern society is so busy that men cannot prepare food for themselves daily; they have to order their meals from the restaurants. Hence, food safety is always noticed. In fact, food safety hygiene is one of the urgent problems. Food safety awareness is at an all-time high nowadays. It is because new and emerging threats to the food supply are being recognized; and consumers are eating more and more meals prepared outside of the home. Although the meals are carefully prepared and inspected, food borne disease expands fast. In the United States alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that each year diseases caused by food may result in 325,000 serious illnesses 61 61 Frank Yiannas, Food Safety Culture: Creating a Behavior-Based Food Safety Management System, New York: Springer, 2008, p. 1.

43 62 resulting in hospitalizations, 76 million cases of gastrointestinal illnesses, and up to 5,000 deaths. In order to ensure food safety for the physical body, in Frank Yiannas research, in his book, has dignified human behavior or morality while processing food. He thought that food safety is dependent upon human behavior while making food. He wrote: "To improve the food safety performance of retail or foodservice establishment, an organization with thousands of employees, or a local community, you must change the way people do things. You must change their behavior. In fact, simply put, often times food safety equals behavior. When viewed from this perspective, one of the most common contributing causes of food borne disease is unsafe human behavior."64 63 Frank Yiannas concept of food safety is very interesting. It calls upon one to be responsible for community food while processing and making it. However, food safety is not quite dependent upon one who processes and makes food but it depends on the manner and fit and clever food choice of those who consume it. Furthermore, his standpoint is limited because he does not mention what food for the mind is at all. 65 66 Ian Shaw's concept of food safety comes from cooking. No one knows when or why people first began to cook." Cooking, of course, made food much safer from the microbiological point of view. No doubt as cooking was introduced, food poisoning incidence declined. In fact, if cooking makes food become safe why people still get ill and the spirit of man gets upset; as a result, conflict and violence emerge from family to society. Ian Shaw's view indeed needs to be reviewed, because it has only dignified the method and technicality of cooking, he has not 62 Ibid., p. 4. 63 Ibid., p. I. 64 Ibid. Ian Shaw, Is It Safe to Eat? Enjoy Eating and Minimize Food Risks, New Zealand: Springer, 2005, p. 8. 65 66 Ibid.

44 considered self-control or thought and manner of a person with regard to food consumption. In other words, one must be aware and mindful with all types of food that enter or are received into both physical bodies; this is a way leading to great safety in having food. However, this is mere safety of the physical body. Ian Shaw did not attach special importance to safety of mentality while touching things. Being good at the study of food and culture for many years, Kittler and Sucher's researches on food are as follows: "Food is integral and universal aspect of human existence. Food is any substance that provides the nutrients necessary to maintain life and growth when ingested. 67 Food to ingest is further complicated, however, by another psychological concept regarding eating - the incorporation of food. Consumption is understood as equaling conversion of a food and its nutrients into a human body. For many people, incorporation is not only physical but associative as well. It is the fundamental nature of the food absorbed by a person, conveyed by the proverbial phrase, "you are what you eat." In its most direct interpretation, it is the physical properties of food expressed through incorporation."68 Kittler and Sucher pointed out the conversion of a food into physical body and its incorporation after digesting; it is one-sided, without inverse. Besides, they have only realized the eater who consumes food and that food assimilates into physical life, and they do not show in the course of assimilation, also the food devours the eater and there is thus mutual absorption between them. 69 Different from the standpoints as mentioned, Francine Schiff's concept of food is food for solitude (alone) as a purpose to heal body, 67 Kittler & Sucher, Food and Culture, USA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008, p. 1. 68 Ibid. 69 Op. cit.

45 mind and soul. Here food is not something to eat but food is a process of preparation to live alone, be in front of itself, and look inside the heart, control actions with the aim of tasting of inner peace and harmony. This is to say that, Francine Schiff is interested in food for nourishing the mind. He wrote: "How I found my food for solitude, for now how I really care about how you will discover your own food for solitude, how you will learn to transform what could be boring lonely hours alone, into the most creative and fulfilling experience possible. 70 Like the nature of solitude itself, there are many foods and moods. As you will see, food is on all levels. As metaphor, it nourishes us in realms beyond our normal perceptions. As ingredients from our mother earth, it nourishes us so we may be grounded enough to go a bit higher. Without the soup, we couldn't say our prayers, but without prayers, what good is the soup? We need both. The soup in itself is a prayer. The prayer in itself is the soup to nature our hearts and souls. If you already enjoy your solitude, I hope you will find new and inspiring. ingredients to make your time alone even more meaningful. If you are shy about being alone, especially about eating alone, then I know the recipes gourmet food for one will change all that. If you are about what other people have to say about their food for solitude, about their solitude journeys, their harmonizing time, their solitude moments, their fears and needs to be alone, then here you will find insights and perceptions that will confirm what you may already feel, and tell you things you never heard before. I hope these ingredients inspire you to be alone creatively, happily, and with complete permission to give up all the guilt about being truly alone on all levels. If I accomplish anything, I want to give you that permission - 70 Francine Schiff, Food for Solitude, USA: Element, Inc., 1992, p. xiv.

46 to feel good about being alone, to encourage you to celebrate yourself, however you choose, so you can continually discover your own kind of food for solitude. 997] Francine Schiff believed that 'believe yourself, or believe the answer in you' is food for being alone. He thought that only man could decide or solve all his problems, not any other. 'Believing in you' means you can control yourself, can do the right way. She again wrote: "I'm the best friend I ever had; I like to be with me. I like to sit and tell myself, things confidentially." 3972 Generally, Francine Schiff's concept of food is close to the Buddha's teachings as described in the Bhaddekarattasutta (Discourse on Auspicious) of Majjhima Nikaya and the Khaggavisanasutta (of Sutta Nipata). Yet, food for solitude (alone) of Francine Schiff as a purpose to heal body, mind and soul is still bounded in the ideal 'food' is not just a symbol of or for the culture but it is integral to the Hindu's ultimate reality in the same as 'self' is. 73 From Francine Schiff's view, it makes us recollect one of the phrases that concerns the meaning of food mentioned in many dictionaries is 'food for thought' or 'intellectual nourishment'. Food in 'food for thought' does not mean something to eat. The phrase means something that makes one thinks carefully, or anything that provides mental stimulus for thinking, or if something is food for thought, it is worth thinking about or considering seriously, or this is something one should think about. This meaning implies that careful thoughts and noble actions of a person will nourish his mind, or food for his mind. There are many things in life to stimulate us to think about, but choosing a right way of thinking is not easy. Each person has a different way of thinking, but mostly the ways of 71 Ibid. 72 Ibid., p. 2. 73 R. S. Khare, The Eternal Food: Gastronomic Ideas and Experiences Of Hindus and Buddhists, Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1993, p. 19.

47 thinking of human beings who are living in a worldly life relate to suffering and produce suffering. Their ways of thinking are always bound by craving and grasping, by lust, anger, and delusion. Sometimes, they also think very carefully, but their aim is to get more advantages, wealth, and high standing. They have thought about what does not need thinking. Such as to think with loving attachment, considering oneself as a living being, or an atta, an individual or 'self," in spite of the fact that in personalities of themselves there exists only a continual phenomenal process of rupa and nama, Buddhism calls such way of thinking as wrong thought (micchaditthi.) All ways of thinking as mentioned are toxic food for the mind. In general, the modern researches on ahara of Bonnie J. Kaplan, Francine Schiff, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas, Kittler, Sucher, Judith E. Brown, etc. which have discussed many aspects on food, are very interesting and useful, but very limited. Their researches have only centered on food for the body, not for the mind. They can help us to understand its meanings better, to have a firm grasp of some way of consumption of edible foods in order to prevent from causing diseases and to make our health to be improved. To some extent these researches also have pointed out that happiness or anguish, both physical life and spiritual life of human quite depend upon food and manner of eating. Therefore, they cannot resolve the mysteries regarding food and life, for example, even when a man has sufficient food, why is he far from happiness, what has food to do with the thought process of the man and his conduct, the requirement of food other than merely the physical food.