Body Meditation

As described below, these many techniques calm the mind and are an important tool to develop wisdom and to eradicate defilement. To uproot defilements use vipassana. The following describes how to uproot defilement.

Recalling the Nature of the Body

The practitioner practises samatha until they attain appana samathi (attainment concentration). Then, the practitioner uses appana samathi to contemplate the nature of the body. The nature of the body is repulsive because the body is an assemblage of filth, urine, and excrement. Common people see the body and assume it to be beautiful, delightful and attractive. Actually, elements of the body are repulsive. For example, the teeth have to be constantly washed and scrubbed because if we don’t clean them, they will smell bad and no one will come to talk to us. One important thing that deludes people into conceiving of the body as being beautiful and attractive is because the cover of the skin deceives people. We see a body and suppose it to have pleasing complexions: fair, ruddy, dark etc. In fact, without the skin the body would be regarded with nothing but hatred, loathing and disgust. The skin needs us to look after it. If not, it produces a bad smell and disgusts us. One the one hand, if the body were not wrapped in skin, the flesh, tendons and other parts of the body would not hold together and could not be used to accomplish anything at all. It is easy to accept this truth when we look below the surface of the skin. Therefore, the practitioner, to clarify this reality in the mind, investigates the hair of the body, the hair of head, nails, teeth, and skin. After practising in this way, the practitioner will cure the delusion of beauty and attractiveness that is especially fixated on the skin. They will have equanimity in the body, no longer dwelling on it or finding it appealing or desirable, for they have seen it for what it is. This meditation is called tacapancakakammatthana (the subject for meditation comprising the five constituents).

The practitioner investigates whichever part or aspect of the body is agreeable to their temperament until a particular aspect of the body appears as an uggaha nimitta in the mind (mental image). Then they should keep investigating the body on the points that are agreeable to their temperaments. Ask themselves, why do I see my body as beautiful? How is it beautiful and attractive? After investigating a particular aspect of the body, a mental image of the body may appear during meditating. The mental image is a sign of attaining a concentration which is called upacara samadhi (an elevated concentration). The practitioner should investigate that mental image of the body as not beauty until they have equanimity in the body and decline to cling to it. Then, they will not see it as beauty because they have realized the reality of their bodies as they truly are. When the mental image of the body first appears to them and they continue to see it in all places and at all times, this technique is a means of enlightenment. The practitioner must concentrate on it in all places and at all times. A mental image of the body that they contemplated may appear during meditating.

Afterwards, the practitioner should then separate the body into the elements of earth, water, fire, and air. They can examine it until they really see it in those terms. At this stage, the practitioner does not abandon the original body reference point that first appeared to them. They still investigate it and the separate element again and again. Do not exclusively investigate the body or exclusively quiet the mind. When they have investigated it in this way, the mind will be bound to converge in a big way; and the instant it converges, every thing will be one and the same. The entire world will be nothing but elements. At sometime, an image will appear of the world as being level as a drumhead, because the entire world is of one and the same inherent nature. This stage is called yatha-bhūta-dassana vipassana (the clear insight that both knows and sees thing for what they actually are). Next, the practitioner analyses things in line with their inherent nature, namely, impermanence (anicca) and suffering (dukkha). When we analyse this, it will quiet the conditions of the mind. The realization will come to them. The practitioner should not stop at this point, but further investigate all things as non-self until the mind is made to converge, enabling them to see truly vutthana-gamini vipassana (clear insight leading to emergence). At this stage there is a turning point of release that ends suffering. They continue to work to this point until the mind is absolutely clear.

The Enlightened Path (uprooting defilement) 2.5 - Luang Phu Mun
Translated: Ven.Thanissaro Bhikku