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The Previous Buddhist Thinking and the works of Asanga cxxxiii These texts further point out that one should take food in measured quantity. The preceding description regarding the food has further been explained as the main factor leading to the cessation of the tendencies of envy (dveșa), sloth (moha) and attachment (rāga) respectively. The other point refers to the good health and proper nutrition of a bhikṣu which is essential for samādhi. The food should be taken only for the subsistence of the body, knowing its pathyāpathya well, for favour of chasteness, for the cessation of the past, older vedanās, for the betterment of life and yātrā devoid of the defects and defilements of worldiness. 9
Ahāra has also been enumerated as one of the twentyfive pratyayas (Pali-paccayas)4. Ahāra is the root cause of suffering, phenomenality and defilements and its cessation leads to the cessation of the same.
The Ābhidharmika texts, both Pāli and Sanskrit, give a detailed analysis of the concept of āhāra in the light of the above points and refer it as the base of the world. The Kabalīkāra āhāra consisists of gandha, rasa and spraştavya dharmas and is taken only in the Kāmāvacaraplane of the worldly existence. The remaining three āhāras, viz., the sparsa, cetanā and vijñāna (sāsrava and anāsrava) are found in the three plānes of kāma, rūpa and arūpa.? 1. The Vaibhāșikas observe that all the four āhāras are essential for the 'pusti' or nourishment of the living beings and are responsible for the next life of the worldly (rāgi)
2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
M. N., 1. 335; Dh. p. 18. VSm., 1. 89-90 and elsewhere. Vbh., p. 299; Dh. S., pp. 290-91. See, Abhas., VIII, 14 sq. Vide, supra, fn. 1, 4, 5. Cp. Ada., pp. 40-41 sq.; AK with Bhâsya, III. 38-41; Cp. D. N., 11[. 169; 211, A. N., IV. 139. AKB, III. 38-41.
7.
