成唯識論了義燈 4.61

4.61

Question: Contact food can give rise to joy and pleasure, and volitional thought food is necessarily accompanied by desire. Joy and pleasure sustain and benefit, and desire inherently seeks; should feeling and desire not rather be spoken of as food? Answer: Feeling arises from contact, and desire arises from volitional thought; by indicating the fruit, the cause is revealed, so it is precisely contact and volitional thought that are spoken of as food. Hence the ninety-fourth fascicle of the Yogācāra-bhūmi states: 'Contaminated contacts conducive to pleasant feeling serve as food for joy and pleasure. Due to joy and pleasure, the sense faculties and primary elements are then nourished.' Up to saying: 'Because of grasping the sense faculties and primary elements, and because life span and warmth are inseparable from consciousness, staying as their cause, consciousness is therefore said to be the cause of their abiding. Because of their abiding, vigor, joy and pleasure, attentive dwelling, and hope revolve dependent on them.' The meaning is that because consciousness sustains the sense faculties and primary elements, joy and the like revolve dependent upon them; hence consciousness is food. The sixty-sixth fascicle states: 'When various morsel objects are swallowed, they gladden the mind and bring joy to the sense faculties; similar to contact and volitional thought being able to generate them, only then is there nourishment and benefit, so it is not feeling and desire.' It is also like the pure land, where the Dharma generates joy and pleasure: the Dharma substance itself is food, not the feeling of joy and pleasure. However, contact harmonizes faculties and consciousness to grasp the object and provide nourishment and benefit; this belongs solely to the mental factor of contact. Volitional thought deliberates and benefits the faculties, not being mere hope. Another explanation: It is not the same as Dharma food. Dharma food directly takes joy and pleasure as food; the feeling derives its name from the cause and is named the joy and pleasure of the Dharma. The former explanation is correct. The Buddhabhūmi-śāstra states: 'In this pure land, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, with uncontaminated subsequent attainment, can expound and experience the flavor of the Mahāyāna Dharma, generating great joy and pleasure.' Since it says 'flavor of the Dharma', it clarifies that the Dharma is food. The meaning is that only because the Dharma can generate joy and pleasure is it called food; if it does not generate joy and pleasure, it cannot be food.