Luangpu Jiak On Body and Asubha Contemplation
Both Luangta Maha Boowa and Luangpu Jiak agreed that until one has fully overcome sexual desire, one should neither talk about it nor teach it to others. As such, Luangpu Jiak was able to teach body and asubha contemplation based on his personal experiences on what truly work as well as how to overcome the obstacles that occur in the course of one's practice.
Besides being more detailed than the instructions found in the texts, Luangpu was able to pinpoint exactly how the student’s asubha contemplation fell short and what should have been done instead, on occasions even without him having being told. In fact, without Luangpu Jiak's guidance, many monks would still be stuck with the recitation of Buddho and not know how to proceed to the development of liberating insight.
Luangpu Jiak would exhort the monks: “All of you should contemplate this body composition thoroughly. Don’t miss contemplating any body part, not even an inch of it!”
According to Luangpu Jiak, this body should be contemplated up and down, repeatedly and continuously:
Examine the nails; what is under it? Examine the skin; what is under it? Flesh. What is under the flesh? Tendons and Ligaments. What is under tendons and ligaments? Bones. Like this and so on.
Then set one’s mind to visualise the severance of these body parts one by one methodically-- from the toe to the head, then from the head to the toe-- and keep at this contemplation until one finds it enjoyable. If one continues this contemplation relentlessly, one will experience the miracles of it one day.
After practising according to Luangpu’s Dhamma instructions, a monk who was proficient in samadhi returned to tell Luangpu:
“Than Ajaan, I cannot do this meditation anymore! After severing two or three body parts, the heart would not want to continue. It’s lazy; it wants to stop. It doesn’t enjoy doing it and the heart is not still!”
Luangpu explained that the heart has been working, that is why it feels tired. This is not enjoyable because the contemplation work is not yet skillful; it does not have the tranquility of the restful stage of samadhi.
One needs to contemplate harder on the physical elements of the form aggregate. The lazier the heart, the harder one should strive against it. One has to really compel oneself to contemplate on the body as this would not be comfortable like when the heart is peaceful (from being unstirred). Body contemplation is not (initially) enjoyable; it is uncomfortable and must be forced until one achieves mastery. One must persist at doing body contemplation until it becomes an ingrained habit, by then which the mantra Buddho is no longer needed. Instead, for contemplation at this stage, focus one’s investigation solely within this body.
Luangpu would always check on the progress of his students and ask them to tell him of the problems that they had encountered during their practice. He would reprimand those who sat in meditation but did not contemplate to develop insight. This is because once this becomes a habit, it would be difficult to rectify in much the same way like those who sit in meditation and fall asleep.
Subsequently, Luangpu would stress on doing contemplation at all times of the day. Those monks who became skillful at body contemplation following Luangpu’s instructions eventually realised the miracles of the practice that Luangpu had previously talked about.
However, contemplation of the unattractiveness (asubha) of the body is not enough. After one has become adept at it, one needs to proceed to the final stage of contemplation: To contemplate on the attractiveness (subha) of the body embodied by the sexual organ so as to overcome sexual desire and the defilements that are bound up with it. While humans and animals have organs and body parts like eyes, skin, and flesh that are common to both genders, each gender has their own distinct sexual organ which is an evergreen source of fascination and the biggest stumbling block to overcoming sexual desire.
Thus, Luangpu taught that whichever sexual organ that one is fixated on should be mentally cut up and contemplated upon relentlessly, and to use the Four Noble Truths to comprehend the origination of sexual desire in order to eliminate it. If one is still titillated and affected by the sexual organ, one needs to return to the heart of meditation, which is to keep contemplating on sexual desire and its object till one is freed from their oppression. It is only when both concentration and insight (i.e. asubha and subha contemplations) are developed could one bring an end to one's continuous transmigrations and suffering in samsara.
In doing so, one would have truly crossed over the floods of sensuality, becoming, views, and ignorance^1 to the further shore that has no "here," no "there," no "in between" and be totally unbound, never to be found and ensnared by Mara and their retinue ever again.
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^1: "Ogha Sutta: Floods (1)" (SN 45.171), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN45_171.html
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