All beings subsist on nutriment - this, according to the
Buddha, is the one single fact about life that, above all, deserves
to be remembered, 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, the Buddha proved to be one who saw to the root
of things. Hence, it was thought useful to collect his
utterances on the subject of nutriment, together with the
instructive explanations by the teachers of old, the commentators of the
Pali scriptures.
The laws of nutriment govern both biological and mental life, and this
fact was expressed by the Buddha when speaking of four kinds of
nutriment: edible food, sense-impressions, volitions, and consciousness. It
is hunger that stands behind the entire process of nutrition, wielding its
whip relentlessly. The body, from birth to death, craves ceaselessly for
material food; and mind hungers as eagerly for its own kind of
nourishment, for ever new sense-impressions and for an ever expanding
universe of ideas.