When body contemplation is practiced correctly, it becomes very intense and requires continuous mental effort. Eventually, the mind grows tired, and at that point it is appropriate to stop and rest. When meditators deeply engaged in body contemplation take a break, they return to the concentration practice they have carefully developed. Reentering the stillness, peace, and concentration of samãdhi, they rest in complete calmness where no thoughts or mental images disturb the Citta. The burden of investigating with wisdom is temporarily laid aside so the mind can relax completely in tranquility. Once the mind has rested fully in samãdhi, it naturally withdraws feeling refreshed, energized, and ready to continue the difficult work of body contemplation again. In this way, samãdhi supports wisdom and makes wisdom sharper and more effective.
After withdrawing from samãdhi, investigation of the body should immediately begin again. Every time mindfulness and wisdom investigate, the investigation must happen fully in the present moment. To be truly effective, each investigation must feel fresh and spontaneous. Do not let your investigations become copies of previous experiences. You must maintain a direct awareness of the present moment at all times. Forget what you learned before. Forget what happened during previous investigations of the body. Focus only on the present moment and investigate from there alone. This is the true meaning of mindfulness. Mindfulness keeps the mind fixed in the present so wisdom can focus sharply. Past experiences belong to memory and should be set aside, otherwise memory will pretend to be wisdom. This is simply the past imitating the present. If memory replaces direct present-moment awareness, true wisdom cannot arise. Therefore, be careful of this tendency in your practice.
Continue examining and analyzing the body again and again, using every perspective wisdom can create until you become completely skilled in all aspects of body contemplation. True mastery of this practice produces clear and penetrating insight. It reaches directly into the true nature of the body in a way that completely changes how the meditator sees the human form. Eventually, wisdom becomes so skilled that when looking at people, their bodies seem to break apart instantly. When wisdom fully masters this practice, instead of seeing a person, we see only flesh, tendons, and bones. The whole body appears as a mass of raw flesh. The skin disappears immediately, and wisdom sees directly inside the body where all the unpleasant organs and bodily fluids fill every cavity. Whether male or female, the skin—which people normally find attractive—is ignored completely. Wisdom sees only the repulsive reality hidden beneath it.
Wisdom can penetrate the truth of the body with complete clarity. The body’s apparent beauty disappears entirely. Then what remains to be attached to? What is there to desire? What in this body deserves clinging? Where inside this mass of flesh is the “person”? Mental defilements create deception about the body, fooling people into believing in beauty and exciting lustful desire. But the object of that desire is false from the very beginning. When seen clearly through wisdom, the body naturally repels desire rather than attracts it. Once this delusion is exposed by wisdom, the human body appears in all its unpleasant detail. Seen clearly and directly, the mind naturally withdraws from it immediately.
Persistence and perseverance are the keys to success. Always remain diligent and alert while applying mindfulness and wisdom to this work. Do not become satisfied with partial success. Every time you contemplate the body, carry the investigation through completely to its conclusion. Then mentally rebuild the image of the body and begin again from the start. As wisdom penetrates deeper into the body, the various parts gradually begin to break apart, decay, and disintegrate before your inner vision. Carefully follow this process of decay and destruction. Mindfully observe every detail while wisdom focuses on the unstable and impermanent nature of this body that the world admires so strongly. Allow intuitive wisdom to initiate the process of decay and observe what happens. This is the next stage of body contemplation.
Follow the natural process of decay as the body decomposes and returns to its original elements. Decay and destruction are the natural destiny of all living things. Eventually, everything breaks down into its elemental parts, and those elements scatter apart. Let wisdom become the destroyer by mentally visualizing the process of decay and decomposition. Focus especially on the flesh and soft tissues as they gradually rot away until only disconnected bones remain. Then mentally rebuild the body again and restart the investigation. Every time wisdom destroys the body in contemplation, restore it mentally and begin the process again from the beginning.
This practice is a very intense form of mental training that requires great skill and strong mental endurance. The rewards are equal to the strength and intensity of the effort made. The more skillful wisdom becomes, the brighter, clearer, and more powerful the mind grows. The clarity and strength of the mind seem limitless, while its speed and agility become astonishing. At this stage, meditators feel a strong sense of urgency because they begin to see clearly the danger hidden in attachment to the human body. The danger can no longer be ignored.
Previously, people grasped the body as something valuable, beautiful, and worthy of admiration. But now they see it only as a pile of decaying bones and flesh, and they feel deeply repelled by it. Through the power of wisdom, a dead and decaying corpse and a living human body are understood to be exactly the same in nature. No real difference remains between them.
You must continue investigating repeatedly, training the mind until wisdom becomes highly skilled. Avoid all speculation and imagination. Do not allow thoughts about what you should be doing or what the results may mean to interfere with the investigation. Simply focus on the truth that wisdom reveals and allow truth itself to speak. Wisdom naturally knows the correct path and clearly understands the truths it uncovers. When wisdom becomes completely convinced of the truth about any aspect of the body, attachment to that aspect naturally disappears. No matter how intensely the mind investigated it before, once the truth is fully realized, the mind feels completely satisfied and has nothing more to search for there. Then the mind naturally moves on to investigate another aspect, and then another, until all doubts are completely removed.
As you continue striving in this way, probing deeper and deeper into the body’s true nature while remaining fully focused in the present moment, awareness becomes increasingly sharp and intense. Eventually, this intensity exhausts the mind. Experienced meditators instinctively know when it is time to rest the mind again in samãdhi. At that moment, they let go of all investigation and focus on only one meditation object. Completely laying down all burdens, they enter the cool, peaceful, and refreshing calmness of samãdhi. In this way, samãdhi becomes a separate practice entirely. No thoughts of any kind disturb the Citta’s knowing nature while it rests peacefully in one-pointed concentration. While the Citta is absorbed in complete stillness, the body and the outside world temporarily disappear from awareness. Once the Citta has rested fully, it naturally withdraws back to ordinary awareness on its own. Like a person who has eaten a full meal and rested well, mindfulness and wisdom return refreshed and ready to work again with renewed strength. Then, with firm determination, concentration practice is temporarily set aside and the practice of wisdom resumes once more. In this way, samãdhi becomes an excellent support for wisdom.
……………………………………
Read next chapter #7 – Click Here
Go back to list of chapters – Click Here
……………………………………..