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

Abstract

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.