Food (AN5.37)

Numbered Discourses 5.37

4. With Sumanā

Food

“Mendicants, when a giver gives food, they give the recipients five things.

What five?

Long life, beauty, happiness, strength, and eloquence.

Giving long life, they have long life as a god or human.

Giving beauty, they have beauty as a god or human.

Giving happiness, they have happiness as a god or human.

Giving strength, they have strength as a god or human.

Giving eloquence, they are eloquent as a god or human.

When a giver gives food, they give the recipients five things.

Being attentive, one is a giver of life, strength,

beauty, and eloquence.

An intelligent giver of happiness

gains happiness in return.

Giving life, strength, beauty,

happiness, and eloquence,

they’re long-lived and famous

wherever they’re reborn.”