The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
25 April 2024
“This is what we should do as a monk.”
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“We also use body contemplation to get rid of our sexual desire. Whenever sexual desire is arising, we have to look at the unpleasant parts of the body, like the 32 parts of the body. If you observe the 32 parts, if you see the organs underneath the skin, then your sexual desire can be eliminated.
So, whenever you have sexual desire you have to get rid of it, because if you don’t do it, this sexual desire will prevent you from attaining Nibbāna, and you will be stuck in the realm of rebirth. So, you have to contemplate the unpleasantness of the body.
Look at the body when it gets sick, or when it gets old, or when it dies. It is not pleasant at all when you look at a corpse. Everybody eventually becomes a corpse. So, whenever you have sexual desire to sleep with somebody, just remind yourself that you are going to sleep with a corpse. The difference is that now the person is still breathing, that’s all. Otherwise there is no difference.
When we die and stop breathing, the body turns into a corpse. But the body is still the same, it still has the 32 parts. This is what we have to do regarding the body.
We have to study the nature of the body until we can get rid of our fear of losing our body. Once we see the truth of the body, and if we have samādhi, we will be able to let go of the body because we have a calm, peaceful and happy mind that can exist without relying on the body to have happiness.
When we don’t have samādhi yet, we will not be able to let go because we have to rely on the body to acquire happiness for us. If we have samādhi, we have happiness inside the mind, then we don’t need to have the body.
We know that when we eventually have to lose the body, we will not be sad; it will not have any impact on us in any way.
So, we first must have samādhi before we can develop wisdom or paññā to let go of our attachment to the body. We will see that if we are attached to the body, the result will be suffering, sadness, and unhappiness. If we let go of the body, the result will be peaceful and calm. This is what we have to do.
First, we have to develop samādhi. Once we have rested in samādhi and come out of it, we have to study the true nature of the body in order to get rid of our delusion, our attachment, and our desire towards the body, be it our own body or other people’s body.
They are all the same, they are all aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. They are all asubha, not beautiful, not pleasant to see when they become sick, when they get old or die, or when you look inside under the skin. This is how we have to train the mind to look at the body.
Once we see the body as it is, then the mind will let go of the body and the mind will not be affected in any way. There will be no sexual desire. You can live alone and be happy. You don’t have to have a partner or a wife to make you happy. Instead of having happiness from having a wife, you may end up having problems with a wife, so it is better to live alone than to live with a wife.
If you see with wisdom, then you can leave your wife and become a monk. This is basically the first level of practice, that is to understand the nature of the body, so that we can let go of our desire towards the body. If we can do this, we will achieve the third level of attainment, called the Anāgāmī level.
An Anāgāmī has no attachment to the body, has no desire towards the body in whichever way at all. It has no attachment, no desire for the body not to get sick, get old or die. It has no desire to have sex with anybody because he has seen the unpleasant parts of the body.
So, this is what we should do as a monk.”
“Singapore via skype – talks given to monks, Aug 9, 2015.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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