The Four Nutriments of Buddhism

In Buddhism, there are four types of nutriments that aid in either our happiness or our suffering. These nutriments are edible food, sense impressions, intention, and consciousness.

Edible food is the most obvious of the four nutriments, however it goes much further in depth than just the nagging-mom cliché of “eat your fruits and vegetables”. In Buddhism, the nutriment of edible food is not only about eating healthy, but also about looking to, “see how we grow our food, so we can eat in ways that preserve our collective well-being, minimize our suffering and the suffering of other species, and allow the earth to continue to be a source of life for all of us” (Hanh 32). This means that we should not eat meat from farms that abuse their animals, or eat processed foods from factories that pollute and damage our planet.

But still, the concept of nutriment of edible food goes further. Buddhists believe that, “When we smoke, drink, or consume toxins, we are eating our own lungs, liver, and heart. If we have children and do these things, we are eating our children’s flesh. Our children need us to be healthy and strong” (Hanh 32). The notion that allowing negative substances into your body is the same as physically eating your own organs is an extremely eye opening idea to me. Never before had I viewed smoking and drinking to be a person physically eating away at themself. I viewed it as someone simply making a poor decision and that their decision, whether it be smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol excessively, or doing drugs, was what damaged them. Though my view is much more common among our society, I like the idea of a person physically eating away at themself much more because I feel as though it is a much better representation of what is actually happening. Every time someone goes outside on a “smoke break” it is like they are choosing a piece of their lung to dispose of, as if they no longer need it.

After reading about the Buddhism view on the nutriment of edible food, I definitely feel as if I am much more aware of what I eat. After all, if I love and care about myself, then why would I treat my body like a trashcan?

The second type of nutriment is sense impressions. This is the stimulation of our senses of sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. Every second of every day all of our senses are constantly in use. However, we must be very aware of what we feed our senses. “Advertisements that stimulate our cravings for possessions, sex, and food can be toxic” (Hanh 33). A great example of how sensory input can be harmful to one’s self is the food network. I used to always love relaxing after a day of classes by watching the food network with my friend, Jen. However, we realized that often times after watching gourmet food being prepared on TV, we would be hungry and crave foods that are not at all healthy. But can you blame us? The negative sense impressions we received from the TV (both sight and sound) made us want something that is toxic to us. Since our realization, Jen and I have started watching shows that leave us with more positive feelings. We now like to watch shows like The Biggest Loser because it inspires us to eat and act healthy.

Hanh explains the concept of sense impressions best when he says, “Our skin protects us from bacteria. Antibodies protect us from internal invaders. We have to use the equivalent aspects of our consciousness to protect us from unwholesome sense objects that can poison us” (Hanh 33).

The third type of nutriment recognized by Buddhists is volition, which is the desire in us to obtain whatever it is we want. The big problem with this nutriment is that what we want is often not what is in our best interest. “We need the insight that position, revenge, wealth, fame, or possessions are, more often than not, obstacles to our happiness. We need to cultivate the wish to be free of these things so we can enjoy the wonders of life that are always available” (Hanh 35). Buddhism suggests that rather than suffer from wanting something we cannot have, it is much better to focus on the things we do have. “We always try to accumulate more and more, and we think these “cows” are essential for our existence. In fact, they may be the obstacles that prevent us from being happy” (Hanh 35).

About a year ago, I was in a very bad relationship. He treated me poorly, we fought all the time, and he was extremely unfaithful. However, I chose to stay with him because I loved him and really wanted things to work out. My desire for things to work with someone that constantly hurt me is a perfect example of what Hanh is talking about. I wanted something that not only was not good for me, but also made me suffer. Once I realized that he was not what I wanted and did not make me happy, I was able to find peace within myself and began finding things that actually made me happy, like spending times outdoors and writing poetry.

The fourth and final type of nutriment is consciousness. Consciousness is a combination of our thoughts, ideas, and actions. “Our consciousness is eating all the time, day and night, and what it consumes becomes the substance of our life” (Hanh 36). If we dwell on the negative, then we are not able to let ourselves be happy. Yes, forcing a change of consciousness is hard and involves lots of work, but it is possible.

Since reading The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, I have started to focus more on my stream of consciousness and work towards making it more positive so that I can ultimately improve my life. I often find myself ruminating about negative things in my current relationship. My boyfriend has a friend named Jessica, who he used to be romantically involved with. This really bothers me and I often find myself wondering whether or not she is a threat to me, what her feelings are towards him, what his feelings are towards her, what they talk about, and why she doesn’t like me. These thoughts are all really negative and it never ceases to put me in a bad mood whenever she comes to mind. I’d love to finish off this blog post with a happy story about how thanks to a lot of introspection, meditation, and realization I no longer worry about her and have improved my life in the process, but that’s not true. The truth is that changing your consciousness is hard. Really, REALLY hard. We have unknowingly conditioned ourselves our entire lives to think the way that we do, and our stream of consciousness is a creature of habit that does not want to be altered. Hopefully with time and a lot of mindfulness I can come to better terms with my insecurities about Jessica and not let them effect me as much, but for now I still struggle with this. But hey, what is life without struggle?