The Four Foods/Nutriments We Consume — Thich Nhat Hanh

In the book Silence, the author (Thich Nhat Hanh) lays out four different kinds of foods that we consume. These are edible food; sense impressions; volition; and consciousness ( individual and collective).

Edible food: The edible food unsurprisingly refers to the food that we eat with our mouth every day.

The second food is sense impressions and can be best understood as sensory food. This constitutes the sensory experiences we receive through our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. As the author says, “This includes what you hear, what you read, what you smell, and what you touch. It includes your phone and text messages, the sound of the bus outside your window, and the billboard you read as you pass by it.”

The third source of nutriment is volition. Volition refers to your will, your concern, your desire. This fuels your decisions, your actions, and your movements.

The fourth nutriment is consciousness. This includes your individual consciousness and the way your mind feeds itself and feeds your thoughts and actions. For example, when we keep replaying a negative thought over and over again in our mind, we are consuming toxic consciousness. The opposite happens when our consciousness consumes good and healthy diet. Consciousness can also be collective when it is consumed at group level — think of an angry mob (unhealthy) or support group (healthy).