Variations in the Contemplation of the Repulsiveness of Food, āhārepatikūlasaññā: Canonical, Theravāda, Sarvāstivāda and Mahāyāna Forms

ABSTRACT

This article explores the changing treatment of a meditation practice, the contemplation of the repulsiveness of food, āhārepaṭikūlasaññā, from its presence in lists of saññā in canonical texts to its detailed explanation in post-canonical texts of the first millennium CE. We observe two main developments: the limitation in the benefits attributed to the practice within commentarial-period Theravada, and two entirely divergent branches in the way the practice is treated. In the Visuddhimagga of Theravada Buddhism, we see a somewhat practical approach that identifies the unpleasant aspects of the monk’s experience of seeking, eating, digesting and excreting food, and takes them as the focus of a 10-stage meditation practice. In the Sarvāstivāda texts, we see a conceptual aversion created by the association of specific food items with other items treated as impure within meditation practice. This articles explores all these divergences, drawing conclusions about what this says in terms of the understanding of food in these two branches.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Translations are from Bhikkhu (1991) unless otherwise indicated.

2. The other nine anussati are: the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, virtue, generosity, deities, the body, breathing and peace.

3. The Pali name Vimuttimagga is constructed from the title of the Chinese translation T. XXXII (解脫道論).

4. T. XXXII, 411a. Again, see Kim in this volume for a more detailed discussion of this list and how the Vimuttimagga and Visuddhimagga compare in relation to meditation topics.

5. DN. II, 292–298, translation Walshe (1995, 335–339). Clearly these overlap to a significant extent with the 10 asubha practices in the Visuddhimagga, with different emphases in each.

6. Hirakawa (1993, 131–132). The Sarvāstivāda abhidharma has seven treatises which are called the ‘Six feet (pāda)’ and one ‘body (śarīra)’. The Abhidharma-saṅgītī-paryāya-pāda Śāstra is one of the six ‘feet’ treatises and this is the earliest abhidharma text among the seven. The Jñānaprasthāna is considered the most important text, and this is ‘the body’. These texts were established from the second to the first century BCE and are all extant in the Chinese Tripiṭaka.

7. Beside the Pali, and Sarvāstivāda and Mahāyāna positions, there is a third source on the āhārepaṭikūlasaññā in the Satyasiddhi Śāstra (T. XXXII 1646) (誠實論). In this text, we can find the viewpoints and methods of the Sarvāstivāda, Mahāyāna and the Pali as follows:

Question: how should one cultivate the contemplation of repulsiveness in food?

Answer: the nature of this nutriment is impurity, even good flavoured dishes and fruits are all impurities. Therefore one should loathe it. When clean, fragrant, palatable food is pure, it does not benefit the body. Food which is chewed, wetted with saliva is like a vomit and when it enters the organs, it could benefit our body. Therefore one should understand that [food is] impure.

The Satyasiddhi Śāstra, which belongs to Sautrāntika school and dates to around the fourth century CE, shows that it has a viewpoint on food similar to that of the Sarvāstivāda and Mahāyāna in which food is considered as impurity. However, the method of observance of impurity of food is similar to that of the Pali tradition.

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Man-Shik Kong

Following his first doctorate, Man-Shik Kong was a post-doctoral researcher (2006–2007) and then a research professor (2008–2010) at Dongguk University, Seoul. He obtained his second PhD, on food in Buddhism, at King’s College London in 2016 and is now a researcher at the Institute for Jogyejong Studies at Dongguk University.