The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
18 December 2023
Question: I remember reading in the scripture about the importance having the proper attention, ‘yonisomanasikāra’, but I don’t really get the meaning of it.
Than Ajahn: ‘Yonisomanasikāra’ means to investigate or contemplate on a particular object, such as your body, or the action that you do. You have to contemplate or investigate it to know fully the consequence of what you do. If you study the body, you want to truly see what the body is, what makes up the body. You have to see all the different parts of the body, not just the outside parts that you can see, but also the inside parts of the body, under the skin, so you can have a total picture of your body: this is what it means by ‘manasikāra’. ‘Yoniso’ is to contemplate, to study something so you can get a complete picture of the object that you study.
When you contemplate the body, there are many aspects of the body that you have to contemplate and understand. ‘Aniccaṁ’ is one aspect.
What does aniccaṁ mean? Impermanent, changing.
The body keeps changing all the time, from birth to old age to sickness and death: this is aniccaṁ (impermanent).
It is dukkha because no one wants to get old, get sick or die. So, having a body means having dukkha (suffering).
Anattā means the body does not belong to the one who studies or contemplates it. You, who look at the body, are not the body. You are the mind, the one who contemplates, the one who comes and takes possession of the body, and the one who will have to lose the body when the body eventually returns to its origin. The origin of the body is the 4 elements.
The body is made up of the 4 elements: the elements of earth, water, fire and wind.
So, this is the study, ‘yonisomanasikāra,’ of the body: you have to see the body in complete picture, not just the way you normally look at the body. You tend to look at the body as permanent, look at the body as giving you happiness, look at the body as being me, being I, being mine—this is not the right contemplation, this is the wrong contemplation, wrong view, wrong understanding.
So, you do ‘yonisomanasikāra’ to achieve sammā-diṭṭhi, right understanding, right view.
“Dhamma in English, Mar 15, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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