成唯識論了義燈 4.63

4.63

The Treatise states: "These four can sustain the bodies and lives of sentient beings, and so are termed food." Other interpretations hold that only sustaining is called food. Now I say this is not so; it must also nurture, though holding and sustaining is provisionally mentioned. Question: When one remains in the cessation attainment for many days, what does one take as food? Answer: The three of consciousness, contact, and volition. Why is there no solid food? Answer: The transmitted explanation is that solid food sustains the body for exactly seven days. The time spent dwelling in the attainment is long, so there is no solid food. Some also allow that during the long duration of this attainment there is solid food: through the power of concentration it is sustained and able to endure for a long time; those who die upon emerging from the attainment do so because their own karma has expired. The Yaoji objects: "Since solid food is permitted, why refute the outsiders who do not endure by food? Therefore, the tradition states: after seven days have elapsed, solid food is completely exhausted, and only through the force of the three foods and the concentration does the body endure for a long time; upon emerging from the attainment, there is no strength and also no solid food, so one immediately passes away." Now I say this explanation has leftover reasons. Since the power of concentration sustains the body and enables it to endure for a long time, why could it not sustain that solid food, enabling it to endure for a long time? Just as external garments and hair are sustained by concentration without decaying. Furthermore, after dwelling in the attainment for a long time, upon emerging, some may die immediately, while others do not die. Why? It is visibly seen in the world that the force of an illness sustains the body so that although one does not eat or drink for many days, one does not die; the power of medicine is also like this. Why should it be only in concentration that the power of food is immediately exhausted and upon emerging one immediately passes away? Question: Since solid food is allowed, why do the sūtras not state it? Answer: Because the three of life-force, warmth, and consciousness do not separate, the sūtras state that they exist. Solid food is not inseparable, and therefore they do not state that it exists. Moreover, as when one enters the cessation attainment right after eating, how could it be that just upon entering the attainment, solid food immediately ceases to exist? That the sūtras do not state its presence is provisionally explained by this principle. Whether solid food exists or does not exist, and whether one passes away or does not pass away upon emerging from the attainment, have not been seen in Mahāyāna texts, and will be investigated and determined later.