I was struck by how Nyanaponika Thera uses it here:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... el105.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Is this the entire explanation, or is anyone able to throw more light on the topic of consciousness as nutriment?But there is still more meaning than that to be derived from the description of consciousness as a nutriment if we consider that it is explained primarily as rebirth consciousness. This rebirth consciousness, which is a single moment's occurrence, feeds (or conditions) the mind-body process (naama-ruupa) of the present existence; and it is the arising of such moments of rebirth consciousness at the beginning of each successive life that continues the interminable chain of future births, deaths and sufferings. Growth or proliferation is a characteristic feature of all consciousness. Each rebirth consciousness, though its direct link is with the life immediately preceding it, has behind it the inexhaustible store-house of the beginningless past, a vast granary of potential seeds of life. Fed from the dark unfathomable recesses of the past, lurks consciousness, an octopus with not eight but a thousand arms, ready to grasp and take hold wherever it finds a chance, and there to procreate a fresh breed of beings, each with its own set of grasping tentacles.
I have no interest in this becoming a rebirth debate (just to clarify) thanks