No matter how deep or continuous concentration may be, it is not the final goal. Concentration alone cannot completely end all suffering. However, concentration provides the perfect foundation for launching a full attack against the mental defilements that create suffering. The deep calmness and stability developed through concentration become an excellent base for developing wisdom.
The problem is that concentration feels so peaceful and satisfying that meditators can easily become attached to it without realizing it. This happened to me. For five years I was attached to the peace of concentration practice so strongly that I believed this peacefulness itself was Nibbāna. Only when my teacher, Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta, forced me to see this misunderstanding was I able to move forward into the practice of wisdom.
Unless concentration supports the development of wisdom, it can actually pull meditators away from the path leading to the end of suffering. Everyone who works hard to develop concentration should be aware of this danger. The true purpose of concentration on the path is to support and strengthen wisdom. Concentration is very suitable for this because a calm and focused mind feels fully satisfied and no longer seeks distractions outside itself. Thoughts about sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and physical sensations no longer disturb awareness when the mind is firmly established in concentration. Calmness and concentration become the mind’s nourishment. Once the mind is fully satisfied with this inner peace, it no longer wanders into useless thinking. At that point, it becomes fully prepared for the careful investigation, contemplation, and reflection that lead to wisdom. If the mind has not yet settled down—if it still chases after sensory experiences, thoughts, and emotions—then investigation cannot lead to true wisdom. It only leads to endless thinking, guessing, and speculation based on memory and imagination. Instead of leading to wisdom and the ending of suffering, such uncontrolled thinking becomes the very cause of suffering.
Because concentration creates a sharp and inwardly focused mind, it supports the work of investigation and contemplation extremely well. That is why the Lord Buddha taught us to first develop concentration. A mind that is no longer distracted by wandering thoughts and emotions can focus directly on whatever appears in awareness and investigate it according to truth without interference from imagination or speculation. This principle is extremely important. Investigation then becomes smooth, skillful, and natural. This is the nature of genuine wisdom: it investigates, contemplates, and understands clearly without being distracted or misled by assumptions.
The practice of wisdom begins with the human body because the body is the most obvious and visible part of our personal identity. The goal is to penetrate and understand the body’s true nature. Is the body really what we have always believed it to be—something beautiful, desirable, and truly part of who we are? To test this belief, we must thoroughly investigate the body by mentally separating it into its individual parts, piece by piece and section by section. We must carefully study the truth of this body that we know so well by viewing it from many different angles. Begin with the hair of the head, the hair of the body, the nails, the teeth, and the skin. Then continue to the flesh, blood, tendons, and bones. After that, examine the internal organs one by one until the whole body has been mentally taken apart completely. Analyze this collection of different body parts carefully so that the true nature of the body becomes completely clear.
If you find it difficult to investigate your own body in this way, begin by mentally examining another person’s body instead. Choose someone outside yourself, perhaps a person of the opposite sex. Visualize each body part and each organ as clearly as possible and ask yourself honestly: Which part is truly beautiful? Which part is genuinely attractive? Put the hair into one pile. Put the nails and teeth into another pile. Separate the skin, flesh, tendons, and bones as well. Which pile deserves desire and attachment? Look carefully and answer truthfully. Remove the skin mentally and place it in front of you. Where is the beauty in this thin layer of tissue that merely covers flesh and internal organs? Do all these body parts together really create a beautiful person? Once the skin is removed, what remains to admire in the human body? Men and women are exactly the same in this respect. There is not even a small amount of true beauty inside the body. It is only a collection of flesh, blood, and bones that deceives people everywhere into becoming attached to it with desire and lust.
It is the duty of wisdom to expose this deception. Investigate the skin carefully because the skin is the great deceiver. Since it covers the whole body, it is the part people always see. But what exactly does it cover? It covers flesh, muscles, bodily fluids, and fat. It covers the skeleton, tendons, and sinews. It covers the liver, kidneys, stomach, intestines, and all the internal organs. Nobody has ever claimed that the body’s internal organs are beautiful objects worthy of passion and desire. By investigating deeply, without fear or hesitation, wisdom reveals the body’s true nature clearly. Do not be deceived by this thin covering of skin. Peel it away mentally and look underneath. This is the practice of wisdom.
To truly see this truth clearly and without doubt, you must be extremely persistent and diligent. Practicing this contemplation only once or twice, or only occasionally, will never produce clear results. You must approach the practice as though it is the most important work of your entire life—as if nothing else in the world matters except the investigation you are doing at that very moment. Time does not matter. Place does not matter. Comfort and convenience do not matter. No matter how long it takes or how difficult it becomes, you must continue body contemplation relentlessly until all doubt completely disappears.
Body contemplation should fill every breath, every thought, and every movement until the mind becomes fully absorbed in it. Nothing less than complete dedication will produce direct and genuine insight into the truth. When body contemplation is practiced with total commitment, each body part becomes fuel feeding the fire of mindfulness and wisdom. Mindfulness and wisdom then become like a blazing fire that burns through the human body part by part while investigating and uncovering the truth with intense determination. This is what is meant by the practice of intense spiritual effort.
Focus especially on the body parts that strongly capture your attention and whose truth feels easiest to understand. Use these parts as tools to sharpen wisdom. Expose them mentally and tear them apart repeatedly until their naturally unpleasant and repulsive nature becomes obvious. Meditation on the unattractive nature of the body means seeing clearly that the body’s true condition is impure and disgusting. By nature, the body is filthy and unattractive. Essentially, the whole body is like a living corpse—a breathing container filled with waste and decay. Only the thin layer of skin covering it makes it appear acceptable. Everyone is deceived by this outer covering because it hides the body’s true nature. Simply removing the skin mentally reveals the body exactly as it truly is.
Compared to the flesh and internal organs underneath, the skin appears attractive. But look at it more carefully. Skin is rough, wrinkled, oily, sweaty, and full of unpleasant smells. We must constantly wash and clean it every day just to keep it presentable. How attractive is that really? And the skin is inseparably connected to the flesh underneath and therefore connected to all the unpleasantness inside the body as well. The deeper wisdom investigates, the more repulsive the body appears. From the skin all the way to the bones, there is nothing truly beautiful or desirable at all.
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