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What Keeps a Life Going

SN 12.11, the Āhāra Sutta — set 4, Not-Self and Dependent Arising

Reading time: about 4 min · 676 words

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Before you read

Four things keep a life going: physical food, contact, intention, and knowing. The text names them, then asks what they depend on in turn — and the answer walks straight back down the dependent-arising chain.

The move worth catching is the one that treats contact and intention as nutriment in the same sense as food. They are not being compared to feeding here; they are what an ongoing life actually runs on.

Not to be confused with SN 46.51, which shares its name and does something quite different.

Translation

The Setting

So I heard.

At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī, in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery.

The Four Nutriments

"Bhikkhus, there are four nutriments that keep beings going once they have come to be, and that support those looking to come to be.

What four?

Edible-food nutriment, whether coarse or fine; contact nutriment is the second; mental-intention nutriment is the third; knowing nutriment is the fourth.

Bhikkhus, these are the four nutriments that keep beings going once they have come to be, and that support those looking to come to be.

Where They Come From

And these four nutriments, bhikkhus — what is their source? What is their origin? What are they born from? What produces them?

Ignorant wanting is their source, ignorant wanting is their origin; they are born from ignorant wanting, and ignorant wanting produces them.

And this ignorant wanting, bhikkhus — what is its source? What is its origin? What is it born from? What produces it?

Felt experience is its source, felt experience is its origin; it is born from felt experience, and felt experience produces it.

And this felt experience, bhikkhus — what is its source? What is its origin? What is it born from? What produces it?

Contact is its source, contact is its origin; it is born from contact, and contact produces it.

And this contact, bhikkhus — what is its source? What is its origin? What is it born from? What produces it?

The six fields of experience are its source, the six fields of experience are its origin; it is born from the six fields of experience, and the six fields of experience produce it.

And these six fields of experience, bhikkhus — what is their source? What is their origin? What are they born from? What produces them?

Name-and-form is their source, name-and-form is their origin; they are born from name-and-form, and name-and-form produces them.

And this name-and-form, bhikkhus — what is its source? What is its origin? What is it born from? What produces it?

Knowing is its source, knowing is its origin; it is born from knowing, and knowing produces it.

And this knowing, bhikkhus — what is its source? What is its origin? What is it born from? What produces it?

Putting things together is its source, putting things together is its origin; it is born from putting things together, and putting things together produces it.

And this putting things together, bhikkhus — what is its source? What is its origin? What is it born from? What produces it?

Ignorance is its source, ignorance is its origin; it is born from ignorance, and ignorance produces it.

The Chain

"Bhikkhus, so with ignorance as condition, putting things together; with putting things together as condition, knowing; with knowing as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six fields of experience; with the six fields of experience as condition, contact; with contact as condition, felt experience; with felt experience as condition, ignorant wanting; with ignorant wanting as condition, taking personally; with taking personally as condition, becoming; with becoming as condition, birth; with birth as condition, ageing and dying, sorrow, lamentation, dissatisfaction, distress, and despair come to be.

That is how this whole heap of dissatisfaction comes to arise.

But with the complete fading and quenching of ignorance, the quenching of putting things together; with the quenching of putting things together, the quenching of knowing; with the quenching of knowing, the quenching of name-and-form; with the quenching of name-and-form, the quenching of the six fields of experience; with the quenching of the six fields of experience, the quenching of contact; with the quenching of contact, the quenching of felt experience; with the quenching of felt experience, the quenching of ignorant wanting; with the quenching of ignorant wanting, the quenching of taking personally; with the quenching of taking personally, the quenching of becoming; with the quenching of becoming, the quenching of birth; with the quenching of birth, the quenching of ageing and dying, sorrow, lamentation, dissatisfaction, distress, and despair.

That is how this whole heap of dissatisfaction quenches."

The first discourse is finished.

Words used in this translation (16)
ageing and dying
Growing old and dying, treated in these texts as one linked process and as the end point of the dependent-arising sequence.
becoming
This project's rendering of "bhava" -- the settling of experience into a way of being that feels like somebody being something. Often translated "existence."
bhikkhus
Buddhist monks -- those who have left household life to practise full time. The Buddha's usual way of addressing the assembly, roughly "friends" in force.
birth
This project's rendering of "jāti": birth, coming into being. In the dependent-arising sequence, ageing and dying depend on it. In MN 141 the word appears once in its everyday sense instead, in a simile about a mother.
contact
This project's rendering of "phassa" -- the meeting of a sense, its object, and the knowing of it. A technical link in the dependent-arising sequence, not physical touch specifically.
dissatisfaction
This translation's rendering of "dukkha," the Buddhist term for the unsatisfying, unstable quality of ordinary experience. Often translated "suffering," but that can sound more dramatic than the everyday sense of things not quite being right.
fading
The fading away of attraction and investment in experience, as passion cools.
felt experience
This project's rendering of "vedanā", often translated "feeling". It is the immediate pleasant, painful, or mixed tone of an experience, before any story we build on top of it.
ignorance
This project's rendering of "avijjā" -- not general stupidity, but specifically not seeing how dissatisfaction works and how it ends. The first link in the dependent-arising sequence.
ignorant wanting
Wanting something you can't have right now. This project's rendering of "taṇhā", often translated "craving". We call it ignorant because it comes from not seeing clearly; ordinary, sensible wanting is something else.
knowing
This project's rendering of "viññāṇa" (often translated "consciousness") -- bare awareness of an object through one of the senses or the mind.
name-and-form
The mental and physical sides of experience taken together: roughly, whatever you can name plus whatever has shape. One link in the dependent-arising sequence.
putting things together
This project's rendering of "saṅkhāra": the ongoing activity of assembling experience, and also what that activity assembles. Context shows which of the two the text means. Other translations often say "formations" or "fabrications", which this project avoids as needlessly opaque.
quenching
An extinguishing image for dissatisfaction and its causes going out. Different Pali words use this image on different pages, so the exact scope comes from the sentence.
six fields of experience
The six channels through which you experience anything at all: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking. Other translations often say "sense bases".
taking personally
This project's rendering of "upādāna" -- treating some piece of experience as "me" or "mine" and holding on to it. Usually translated "clinging" or "attachment."
Source and corrections