Chapter 6
(Tape 12)
The next chapter is an unpleasant chapter.
It is the chapter on what is foul, what is loathsome about a dead body. It is
also about applying the state of a dead body to our living body. This is the
foulness of the body meditation or the loathsomeness of the body meditation.
Most people in the West I think are afraid of this meditation.
A man asked me: “Do I have to tell my wife
that I imagine her to be a corpse when I go back home?” If you practice this
kind of meditation, you have to do it. Whether you tell your wife this, that is another matter. You may or may not do so. But
if you are going to be practicing this, then you have to see not only your wife
but anybody including yourself as loathsome, as foul. If you don’t like it, don’t
practice it. It’s OK.
This meditation is very powerful and
effective in removing attachment to bodies, to self. Once you see the various
conditions of a dead body, you become less interested in your body or in the
body of any other person.
Just today I was talking with a monk in
Student:
This type of meditation is particularly recommended or useful for people of
greedy character.
Teacher:
Yes, for those who are attached to their bodies or the bodies of others.
Student:
It is discouraged for those of hateful or angry character.
Teacher:
Discouraged, no. But it is recommended for those who have strong attachment to
their bodies, to their lives.
You have read all this, so you know what
these subjects of meditation are. These are the different stages of
decomposition in a corpse. After two or three days it becomes bloated. Then it
deteriorates further becoming livid, festering, cut up and so on.
I want to talk about the first one, the
bloated corpse. “The bloated: it is bloated (uddhumÈta)
because bloated by gradual dilation and swelling after (uddhaÑ)
the close of life, as a bellows is with wind. What is bloated (uddhumÈta) is the same as ‘the bloated’(uddhumÈtaka).” Do you understand that? “What is bloated is the same as ‘the
bloated’.”
Please look at the PÈÄi
words. The first is uddhumÈta. The second one is uddhumÈtaka. So ‘ka’ is added to the word. What the
Commentary wants us to understand is that ‘ka’ denotes disgust. If you say uddhumÈta, it is bloated. If you say uddhumÈtaka,
then it is a bloated body which is disgusting. The particle ‘ka’ is added to show
that it is disgusting. That is what we should understand. It is very difficult
to convey this meaning in a translation. You have to put in a footnote. All
these ten kinds of meditation have added the ‘ka’ to the description of the
corpse. The first one is uddhumÈtaka, the second one
is vinÊlaka, the third one
is vipubbaka and so on.
In order to practice this you have to do a
lot of preparation. Everything is explained in detail in this book. For example
you are not to go to the corpse as soon as you hear that there is a corpse in
such and such a place. You are not to go there directly. It is said that
sometimes there may be wild animals around the corpse or there may be ghosts
around the corpse. Your life may be in danger.
You must not go directly to the place. You
have to study the road to and from it. You must notice things along the road.
Everything is to be noticed - stones are here, in this place the road goes off
to the left, here at another place the road goes off to the right. You have to take
note of everything on the way to the place.
You know this meditation is a very
frightening meditation. You have to go alone. It says two or three times in
this book “no companion,, no companion”. So you have
to do it alone. Sometimes when you are alone, you are frightened. Even when a
dead branch drops, you may be frightened. You may think it is a ghost or
something. So you have to be very careful.
You must inform at least the head of the
monastery where you live that you are going there. That is because cemeteries
are not like here. In this country they are beautiful places. In the East
sometimes thieves or robbers may frequent a cemetery. It is a place not many
people go to. It is secluded for them. Thieves or robbers may go to that place
followed by some people. Then they may drop something that they have stolen
near the monk. Those who follow them may see their property close to a monk and
take the monk to be a robber, to be a thief. In that case if he has informed
the head monk of the monastery, he can explain to people. So you have to do a
lot of preparation if you want to do this meditation.
It is impossible even in our countries to do
this meditation. Dead bodies are not left on the ground. They are either
cremated or buried. It is almost impossible to see a bloated corpse or
whatever.
Let us say it is possible. You are not to
sit too near the corpse or too far away from the corpse. You must not sit
downwind. You must sit in the other direction. If you sit downwind, you will be
offended by the smell. So there are many things in detail which you have to
take care of before you go and practice.
Student:
Did you have the opportunity to do that?
Teacher:
No. You know it is a very frightening meditation. Not many people would do
this. You have to have some kind of courage.
One thing in our countries is that parents
used to try to scare their children by saying, “There is a ghost here, there is a ghost there.” So we are afraid of ghosts. Even
though we have grown up, there is some kind of residue of it in our minds. We
cannot shake it all together from our self. It is not like people in this
country. People in this country are not afraid of ghosts. They may even talk
with ghosts. They may even adopt ghosts or something like that.
Student:
Some people!
Teacher:
One thing is that when you are invited to a funeral service, then as a monk you
have to go to a cemetery. And a cemetery is not a good place like here. It is
frightening. It is dirty. And it is smelly. They don’t have embalming. Most
people don’t have that. So when the corpse is carried to the cemetery, it may
have decomposed. There is that smell.
I had that experience. Once I was invited
and I went to the cemetery. Then the body was put in front of me, about one and
a half feet from me. Then there was the smell and the impurities dripping from
the body. There is always a not good smell at a cemetery. There are monks who
live very close to or in the cemetery. They build small huts or kutis and practice this kind of meditation.
The body should not be of the opposite sex.
That is mentioned here two or three times. A man must look at the corpse of a
man. A woman must look at the corpse of a woman. This is because even a dead
body can cause some mental excitement if it is not yet dead long enough or has
not yet decomposed. Some people may have thoughts of lust even looking at a
corpse. It is not recommended for a monk to look at the corpse of a woman.
The last one is a skeleton. You can practice
looking at a whole skeleton or you can practice looking at only one bone.
In paragraph 85 “And individually the
bloated suits one who is greedy about shape since it makes evident the
disfigurement of the body’s shape. The livid suits one who is greedy about the
body’s color since it makes evident the disfigurement of the skin’s color. The
festering suits one who is greedy about the smell of the body aroused by
scents, perfumes etc., since it makes evident the evil smells connected with
this sore, the body. The cut up suits one who is greedy about the compactness
in the body, since it makes evident the hollowness inside it. The gnawed suits
one who is greedy about accumulation of flesh in such parts of the body as the
breasts since it makes it evident how a fine accumulation of flesh comes to nothing.
The scattered suits one who is greedy about the grace of the limbs since it
makes it evident how limbs can be scattered. The hacked and scattered suits one
who is greedy about a fine body as a whole since it makes evident the
disintegration and alteration of the body as a whole. The bleeding suits one
who is greedy about elegance produced by ornaments since it makes evident its
repulsiveness when smeared with blood. The worm-infested suits one who is
greedy about ownership of the body since it makes it evident how the body is
shared with many families of worms. A skeleton suits one who is greedy about
fine teeth since it makes it evident the repulsiveness of the bones in the
body. This, it should be understood, is how the classification of foulness comes
to be tenfold according to the subdivisions of the greedy temperament.”
When a person practices the foulness
meditation, any one of them, he can only get first jhÈna,
not the other jhÈnas. It is explained here with a
simile.
“But as regards the tenfold foulness, just
as it is only by virtue of its rudder” - I don’t think it is ‘rudder’.
What is ‘rudder’?
Student: A
steering mechanism.
Teacher:
Yes. In PÈÄi the word is pole. We use a pole to push
the boat in a strong stream. “Just as it is only by virtue of a pole
that a boat keeps steady in a river with turbulent waters and rapid current,
and it cannot be steadied without a pole, so too [here], owing to the
weak hold on the object, consciousness when unified only keeps steady by virtue
of vitakka (applied thought), and it cannot be
steadied without vitakka (applied thought), which is
why there is only the first jhÈna here, not second
and the rest.” You can only get first jhÈna if you
practice foulness of the body meditation. This is because you need vitakka (initial application of the mind) for your mind to
be on the object. The object is coarse or gross and so you need this vitakka to keep your mind there. Vitakka
is only present in the first jhÈna. It is not with
second jhÈna, third jhÈna
and so on. So you can only get first jhÈna by this
kind of meditation.
Now paragraph 88 “This foulness, while of
ten kinds, has only one characteristic. For though it is of
ten kinds, nevertheless its characteristic is only its impure, stinking,
disgusting and repulsive state. And foulness appears with this
characteristic not only in a dead body but also in a living one (That is the
point here.), as it did to the Elder MahÈ-Tissa who
lived at Cetiyapabbata, and to the novice to the
Elder Sa~gharakkhita while
he was watching the king riding an elephant. For a living body is just as foul
as a dead one, only the characteristic of foulness is not evident in a living
body, being hidden by adventitious embellishments.” We wash ourselves. We clean
ourselves every day. Some people use cosmetics, perfumes and so on. Therefore
the characteristic of foulness is not evident in a living person, in a living
body. When it is dead the characteristic of foulness becomes evident.
If you want to attain jhÈna
through this practice, you really have to go to a cemetery and look at a corpse
and practice meditation on it. But if you just want to practice it as a
mindfulness of the body meditation, you don’t have to go to a cemetery. You may
imagine a corpse in your mind and apply the nature of that corpse to your own
body. “As this body is bloated, my body also will not escape this state.” You
apply the nature of the dead body to your living body. In that way you can
practice SatipaÔÔhÈna mindfulness meditation. In that
case you don’t have to look for a corpse or whatever. But if you want to
practice this samatha meditation in order to get jhÈna, you have to find a corpse somewhere.
It is almost impossible in this country. But
if you go to some medical college, you may be able to see corpses there.
Outsiders are not allowed there. If you are a special guest, they may allow you
to see the corpses. Otherwise they will not allow you to see. So it is almost
impossible nowadays even in our countries to practice this kind of meditation.
Student:
We can see these stages in animals.
Teacher:
Even that is not so common because of health standards. They won’t let a corpse
be in that stage. One can take pictures of corpses, but it is difficult even to
take pictures. You may look at the picture and develop meditation on it.
This is the foulness of the body meditation.
In our countries when a person dies, they send out invitation. In the
invitation it says please come to such and such a place to practice asubha meditation. They are not invited to come to a
funeral service or to go along with the dead body to the burial place. They are
invited to practice foulness of the body meditation along with us.
I went to Los Angeles this time to conduct a
funeral service. One of my devotees died. I said “You are invited here not just
to say ‘Oh, poor lady’ or whatever, but you are to look at her and practice
foulness meditation and the other kind of meditation, the recollection of
death.” At least these two kinds of meditation
people should practice when they go to a funeral. That is the way to attend a
funeral service. We don’t say that we are assembled to pay last respects to the
person, but we come to practice this meditation and to apply this nature of
this person to ourselves in order to reduce attachment to ourselves.
Then there is one other thing. That is to
share merit with the dead person. That is the purpose when people go to a
funeral service. Most people actually don’t know what to do and why they are
invited. In order to be the real followers of the Buddha then we ought to do
this. One should go to a funeral and meditate in this way and then share merits
with the dead person.
Student:
What do you mean by ‘sharing merit’?
Teacher:
That means that I tell that person “I share my merits with you.” You tell that
person with the understanding that he may be somewhere around as a ghost or a
lower celestial being.
Student:
Is it like a blessing?
Teacher:
Not a blessing. Can we call it a blessing? No. It is helping him in the present
life. A person can be reborn as any being according to the teachings of the
Buddha. Although a person may be a very good person for the whole life, if he
has bad thoughts at the moment of death, then he could be reborn in a lower
world. So those who are reborn as ghosts, hungry ghosts, and lower celestial
beings can be helped by those in this life. That is the basis of a funeral
service in TheravÈda Buddhism. When we share merits
with that person, then that person rejoices at the merit. Then he gets merit
himself by rejoicing. That merit of his actually helps him in his life. It is
not the merit of people here directly giving him results. The teaching in
Buddhism is that you have to do it yourself to get results. Nobody can give you
their results. The merit of those who share becomes the basis for the merit of
those who accept. So it is important when we go to a funeral to practice
foulness of the body meditation and the recollection on death.
OK. Thank you.
SÈdhu! SÈdhu! SÈdhu!