All beings subsist on eating, on food, Ahara (Khuddakapatha 4). Ahara, food or nutriment, is of four kinds: 1. ordinary material food (kabalinkarahara); 2. contact (of sense organs with sense objects, phassahara); 3. consciousness (viññanahara); and 4. mental volition (manasañcetanahara) (Samyutta Nikaya 12.63).
Ananda taught that "This body comes into being through food. And yet it is by relying on food that food is to be abandoned" (Anguttara Nikaya 4.159)
