The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

Question:  How to incorporate kāyagatāsati in meditation?

Than Ajahn:   Kāyagatāsati means mindfulness of the body and you can do it from the time you get up. As soon as you open up your eyes, you look at the position of the body; what is the position of the body when you wake up? It is lying down, so you have to be aware right away that the body is lying down on the bed. 

When you want to get up, you have to know right away that the body is changing its position from lying down to sitting, from sitting to standing, from standing to walking, from walking to do whatever the body wants to do. 

You just keep watching, keep following the body all the time: this is the meaning of the word ‘mindfulness of the body.’ 

There are many different aspects but you need to develop this mindfulness of body first. After that, you can go to the next level once you can use the body as the starting point of your mindfulness. Once you have mindfulness, if you are on the level of vipassanā, you can contemplate on the nature of the body, i.e. the body is subjected to ageing, sickness and death. You can contemplate on the no-self nature of the body; the body has no-self; the body is just the composition of the 4 elements. 

When the 4 elements are combined, they become the 32 parts; and when the body dies, these 32 parts will dissolve back to the 4 elements: this is on the vipassanā level. 

Before you go to that level, you want to use the body as the anchor to your mind to prevent your mind from wandering, thinking about this and that; use it to force the mind to watch the body, to observe the body: this will make you develop mindfulness. 

Then, you can use mindfulness to sit in samādhi to get into jhāna. 

Once you have jhāna and are well proficient in entering jhāna and can maintain calm all the time, whether you are in jhāna or out of jhāna, then you can start vipassanā on the body. 

Study the nature of the body until you truly see that the body is anicca (impermanent), it’s subjected to ageing, sickness and death; and to see the body until you can let go of your attachment to it. 

If you can let go of your attachment, you won’t be hurt when your body gets old, gets sick or dies because the body is just the 4 elements. 

You are the mind, who uses the body as the instrument to get what you want and who knows that you can only use the body for so long. Once the body gets old, gets sick and dies, there is nothing you can do to stop it from getting old, getting sick or dying. If you want it not to get old, get sick or die, you’ll become sad. If you don’t want to be sad, then you have to let the body be. 

This is the contemplation on the body, there are two levels: 

(1) the first level is mindfulness for the purpose of samādhi or jhāna; 

(2) Once you have samādhi or jhāna, then you can use it to study the nature of the body for vipassanā, for insight into the true nature of the body. And then, you can let go of the body.

“Dhamma in English, Apr 24, 2019.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g