The teachings of Ajahn Suchart "Body contemplation"

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart
"Body contemplation"

Question: Can Ajahn give the full set of instructions on body contemplation?

Than Ajahn: Body contemplation has many different aspects that you have to contemplate upon, like the impermanent aspect of the body. You have to see that the body is constantly changing, from birth to death. The body keeps changing its shape, its condition. It grows up; it gets old; it gets sick and dies. In order to be able to cope with the changing condition of the body, you have to keep reminding yourself of this truth. 

If you don’t contemplate on it, when the body changes from good to bad, you will become sad. But if you constantly contemplate about it that this is the nature of the body, that the body is going to change from good to bad, so when the body turns from good to bad, you will not feel sad because you’ve prepared yourself to accept this truth.

This is one aspect of body contemplation: to contemplate the nature of the body, that the body is constantly changing, it will go from good to bad, it will get old, get sick and die; and there is nothing you can do about it, except for accepting it for what it is. If you can accept this, then you will not be hurt by the changing condition of the body.

The second aspect you want to contemplate is that the body isn’t you. You, the contemplator, and the body, are two separate persons. You are the mind, the one who contemplate on the nature of the body. The body is just made up of the four elements and it becomes the 32 parts, the parts that build up the body, like hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, skeleton, heart, lungs, kidneys, intestines, and so forth. These are the organs, the parts that build up the body. None of these parts is you. None of these parts is the mind. The mind is not in the body. The mind is another person. The mind is like a doctor, and the body is like a patient. So, the mind just looks after the body.

Due to delusion, the mind thinks that it itself is the body.

So, anything happens to the body, the mind becomes affected. If you can separate the mind from the body, to know that, the mind is the one who contemplates, the one who knows, the one who thinks and; the body is the organs that are made of the four elements that one day it will return back to the four elements, then you will not be hurt when things happen to the body.

You will also see the true appearance of the body. 

Normally you only see the external part of the body, so you become attracted to the beautiful part of the body. But if you look inside the body, you can see that besides the attractive part of the body, there is also the unattractive part of the body. Seeing this will prevent or stop you from having any attraction towards the bodies of other people. It can stop your sexual desire.

And if you have no sexual desire, you can live alone and be happy. This is a better kind of happiness than happiness you get from living with somebody else. It’s because if you live with other people, you’re going to end up arguing, you are going to end up having quarrels and eventually you might end up separating. What happens when you have to separate?

You’ll feel bad again; you’ll feel sad again.

If you can see from the start that the person you think is attractive is not really attractive, you will not have any sexual attraction towards that person. 

Then, you can live alone. You don’t have to go out and look for companion because you are happy by being alone. These are the different aspects of contemplating on the body.

Besides looking at the 32 parts, sometimes you also have to contemplate on the decomposition of the body after it dies, how it looks like in the ten stages of corpse’s decomposition – From the first few days when the body dies, start from when it bloats and turns greenish, when all the fluids coming out of the body, when it breaks up, decays and dries up, and eventually when it becomes dust. This is what you want to contemplate, to see the true nature of the body. This is to prevent you from being attached to the body, your body or other people’s bodies.

Then, you know that the body is just the body. It’s not the mind. 

The mind doesn’t die with the body. The mind is the person who we communicate with through the body. The mind doesn’t die, like your father or your mother doesn’t die. The bodies of your father and your mother are not your father and mother. The bodies are just the medium that your father and your mother use to communicate with you. And you use your body to communicate with your father and your mother. You are not the body. 

Your father and your mother are not the bodies.

They are the minds that do not die with the bodies.

If you know this truth, then you do not feel sad when you lose your loved ones because you don’t really lose them.

What you lose are just the bodies, the medium that their mind use to communicate with you. Like the telephones, the ones who use the telephones don’t die with the telephones. 

They just go buy new telephones when the old phones break down. They go and buy new ones.

Q&A, Apr 7, 2017.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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