does anyone know of good asubha resources?

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
Spiny Norman
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by Spiny Norman »

manas wrote:32/parts/of/the/body/contemplation[
I normally use the properties in MN140, these are earth, water, wind, fire, space and consciousness.

"And what is the earth property? The earth property can be either internal or external. What is the internal earth property? Anything internal, within oneself, that's hard, solid, & sustained [by craving]: head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, membranes, spleen, lungs, large intestines, small intestines, contents of the stomach, feces, or anything else internal, within oneself, that's hard, solid, and sustained: This is called the internal earth property. Now both the internal earth property & the external earth property are simply earth property. And that should be seen as it actually is present with right discernment: 'This is not mine, this is not me, this is not my self.' When one sees it thus as it actually is present with right discernment, one becomes disenchanted with the earth property and makes the earth property fade from the mind."

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html
Buddha save me from new-agers!
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samseva
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by samseva »

AnyataroBhikkh wrote:[...]
Thank you, Ven. Anyataro.

I don't know if it has already been mentioned, but for anyone interested, I attached an article/document on asubha practice, by Ajahn Brahm.
Asubha Practice - Ajahn Brahmavamso.pdf
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Mkoll
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by Mkoll »

Thank you for sharing that, samseva.

:anjali:
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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akashdhamma
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by akashdhamma »

I have a collection of what would appear to be very disturbing imagery that I have accumulated over the years - googling things like "beautiful dead woman", "real autopsy", "read dead body", etc. You will be surprised at the variety of content we can find on the internet and the kind of people who generally host this stuff. There are some people whose minds have developed the conditioning to actually be sexually aroused by the exact content that we are trying to absorb for disenchantment. I haven't gotten around understanding how messed up this is but I'm grateful for having my little collection that has mildly helped subdue my inner fires.

For hastened disenchantment, here are some tips :

1) Resolve that the costs of sexual pleasure far outweigh the benefits, and you would never indulge in it again even life offered the best of it.

2) Keep a strong guard of mindfulness that is alerted everytime passiona rises in the mind - and contemplate the opposite theme at that time, such as asubha and the drawbacks of sensuality, example :

This body has many pains, many drawbacks. In this body many kinds of disease arise, such as: seeing-diseases, hearing-diseases, nose-diseases, tongue-diseases, body-diseases, head-diseases, ear-diseases, mouth-diseases, teeth-diseases, cough, asthma, catarrh, fever, aging, stomach-ache, fainting, dysentery, grippe, cholera, leprosy, boils, ringworm, tuberculosis, epilepsy, skin-disease, itch, scab, psoriasis, scabies, jaundice, diabetes, hemorrhoids, fistulas, ulcers; diseases arising from bile, from phlegm, from the wind-property, from combinations of bodily humors, from changes in the weather, from uneven care of the body, from attacks, from the result of kamma; cold, heat, hunger, thirst, defecation, urination.' Thus I must remains focused on drawbacks with regard to this body.

3) Remember the simile that "The pleasure of sensuality is like the pleasure one gets from licking a drop of honey smeared across the edge of a sword's blade".

4) Keep practicing diligently and developing the factors of awakening. As you experience more piti, it will be much easier to let go of sensuality.

5) Diligently avoid making contact with sense objects that trigger your lust. This includes TV, Radio/Music, Media, Eye sense objects that trigger lust, Environments that are conductive for lust (like a crowded beach, disco, etc) and if possible abide in areas which are less developed/outside metros.

6) The commercial side of things pretty much revolves around lust, so avoid commercials. Never try to contemplate beauty of the sex you're attracted to - or appreciate the outer or sensual beauty of people around you (This is a very subtle trap) - (but its OK to appreciate calm features or qualities which may have developed from spiritual maturity - if you can spot them)

7) Never accept the feelings that "You're too young, its ok to indluge/still have much time" or any kind of "Trick pattern".

8) Never consciously create emotions of guilt or remorse after you've fallen back. If these rise automatically, just accept them and strengthen your resolve further to not repeat the same mistakes again.

9) Keep learning & growing. Its much easier if you're surrounded by people who are conductive to this, have a strong sense of purpose, very little free time, and are away from heavily sexualized city centers.

All the best !
Tam Kho Panna Bhagavatam :
Evam Kalyanno,
Kitti Saado,
Abhu Gaato
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Assaji
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by Assaji »

In my experience, contemplation of the 32 parts of one's own body, as recommended in Sutta and Vimuttimagga, provides an excellent start for a balanced practice.

With the start on one's own body, it is much easier to avoid the trap of aversion, and progress to equanimity.
User156079
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by User156079 »

I dont recommend doing Asubha without a qualified teacher or before you have seen some bodypart sign come to you as result of other meditation (ie seeing teeth while doign Anapanasatti). Because this can seriously mess you up, side effects can be developing aversion, perverse views, uncontrollable and terrifying visions of corpses, of death or people coming to kill you etc. If you going to do it on your own, get in touch with some teacher online atleast.. dont be a fool.
If your goal is to get rid of sexual addiction i think Vipassana is a much better foundation.

My advice:

First of all never think about bodyparts as disgusting/foul/gross etc, dont even judge it as unattractive, just contemplate it. Visuddhimagga is good read to get a framework, but we can do better imo.

My advice is to additionally contemplate vulnerability of the body while doing the bodypart contemplation to better understand mortality of conventional reality, this will result in compassion, countering anger and probably makes it easier to reach absorbtion. Use your own body and do it with compassion to avoid "sour grapes" attitude to it and that of other's.

You can do this in several ways, imagine aging of the bodyparts ie "When i get old the skin will get wrinckled/ hair fall out, turn grey/ teeth falling out and rot. Another thing is imagining disease, sores, broken bones, ie when you contemplate blood you can imagine having serious infection, think back to times where you have been sick, think about how bones can break etc.

When contemplating the bodyparts, one should focus on them in/on ones own body, imagining body as skeleton, bones, etc..

Other things you could do is to think of the body as a house, consisting of Space, Water, Earth, Air and Fire elements. So Space Inside, enclosed by "walls" made of the other elements (Read: MN 28, 62, 140, 119) . There are many other things you could do like defining elements, elaborating on vulnerability, thinking of creatures living on skin, bones, sinews, comparing elements inside to elements outside etc.

Another important thing if/when you see images of body parts in front of you, in yourself or others is not to be scared. There is a book by Ven. Maha Bua called "Wisdom Develops Samadhi" you can find it on internet, it gives good advice on handling and developing the visions.

There is more to this practise than this!!!

Dont do it without a teacher rly, its a really bad idea. You can start off slowly and then you notice you have developed aversion or disgust overnight, what u gonna do then.. U can give rise to aversion etc quickly. Im not expert at this but i see alot of potential for fail.

What is this for anyway... To overcome sexuality this is far from a complete solution, more of a shortcut, it can only partially solve the problem. Unless developed to the Jhanas ( which is requires intensive practise) this wont really do much other than triggering some understanding. This doesnt adress craving, pleasurable sensations, desire and liking of those.
Last edited by User156079 on Wed Jul 27, 2016 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User156079
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by User156079 »

akashdhamma wrote:...
I tried to send a PM, but it seems that your account is unable to receive PMs. Send me an email adress if you want or get your account privileges upgraded. Gl
Cormac Brown
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by Cormac Brown »

Sadhu Akashdhamma, great advice.
“I in the present who am a worthy one, rightly self-awakened, am a
teacher of action, a teacher of activity, a teacher of persistence. But the
worthless man Makkhali contradicts even me, (saying,) ‘There is no
action. There is no activity. There is no persistence.’ "
AN 3.138, trans. Ven. Thanissaro
SEC201482
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by SEC201482 »

Ernest Becker unintentionally and unwittingly produced one of the best asubha resources out there in The Denial of Death with his discussion of "anality." It is a rather profound discourse on the preposterous nature of the human body and the incongruity of having sensual desire for it given its nature.

http://waywardblogging.com/2013/09/dual ... -of-death/
lostitude
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by lostitude »

The interesting thing about this is that those medical practitioners who carry out the autopsies, and medical students who have to dissect dead bodies, will never tell you that they are not attracted to their partners anymore. So I guess the way that kind of meditation is performed is much more important than the material at hand.
SEC201482
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by SEC201482 »

lostitude wrote:The interesting thing about this is that those medical practitioners who carry out the autopsies, and medical students who have to dissect dead bodies, will never tell you that they are not attracted to their partners anymore. So I guess the way that kind of meditation is performed is much more important than the material at hand.
Good point. Speaking for myself, I came to the conclusions of asubha meditation years before I even knew anything about Buddhism. I suspect lots of people understand this subconsciously. There is some deep contradiction between sexual attraction and the true nature of the body. There is cognitive dissonance involved:

http://www.salon.com/2001/02/26/loo/
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Nibbana
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by Nibbana »

Hello friends,

This is a timelapse of the decomposition of the human body.

"https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5bd_1306689849"

Just found this and it will be added to my daily reflections, hopefully this will eliminate the craving for forms once and for all.

:anjali:
"Then you understand the brilliance of the Buddha's teaching of anatta, goes right to the heart of everything. They say the Dhamma is the source, not going to it's consequences not papancha, but going right into the very middle, the very essence, the very heart, the atta what you take to be you. From the body into the mind thinking, from the mind into the doer, from the doer into the knower. You can see you're not the knower, you can see you're not the doer..."

-Ajahn Brahm
perkele
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by perkele »

There are these video links in this post from the famous Porn Free for 90 Days thread (oh... fond memories... :P):
perkele wrote:Coronal flythrough of the female pelvis:
http://vhp.med.umich.edu/PelvisCorA4b.mov
http://vhp.med.umich.edu/VHPelBB.rm
http://vhp.med.umich.edu/CPelvis.wmv

Sagittal flythrough of the female pelvis:
http://vhp.med.umich.edu/sag4.mov

Transverse flythrough of the female pelvis:
http://vhp.med.umich.edu/trans4.mov

Some more on http://vhp.med.umich.edu/movies2.html
I think they are fascinating, and very sober, no "shock" imagery, yet perfectly useful for ruining sexual appetite.


:anjali:
Last edited by perkele on Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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aflatun
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by aflatun »

lostitude wrote:The interesting thing about this is that those medical practitioners who carry out the autopsies, and medical students who have to dissect dead bodies, will never tell you that they are not attracted to their partners anymore. So I guess the way that kind of meditation is performed is much more important than the material at hand.
Most of us in medicine and in medical subspecialties that work with the dead body or its dismembered parts regularly go through a phase (or phases) when we feel those things (lack of attraction for partners, etc) but eventually its not difficult to compartmentalize and not let the gravity of the experience "sink in" anymore. Like anything else you can decondition/condition a given response, the mind's potential is truly remarkable.

Also, one can obviously focus on the sheer complexity, bizarreness, beauty etc of the human insides as well. You choose your frame of reference, or lens, like anything else. For my part when I'm exposed to it I deliberately open up to the themes of mortality, foulness, etc, but I consider myself Buddhist and so I'm "looking for that." Its a remarkably powerful tool for letting go, dispassion and samadhi I believe, but again easily lost without persistence and discipline in other areas.

Two interesting related examples:

A colleague of mine was unable to "go near his wife" for days after performing his first pelvic examination (on a "model patient," people who are paid to help teach medical students how to perform things like pelvic exams, etc). He was revolted, apparently by looking at female anatomy from a purely 'medical' point of view. He found the living body bad enough :)

I've heard people complain that performing autopsies "makes them really hungry." The explanation is obvious and its quite disgusting (to me). For my part I can't help but notice how disgusting and savage the act of consuming other animals (let alone anything) is after these experiences and often have to basically dissociate, compartmentalize, etc to continue eating normally etc.
"People often get too quick to say 'there's no self. There's no self...no self...no self.' There is self, there is focal point, its not yours. That's what not self is."

Ninoslav Ñāṇamoli
Senses and the Thought-1, 42:53

"Those who create constructs about the Buddha,
Who is beyond construction and without exhaustion,
Are thereby damaged by their constructs;
They fail to see the Thus-Gone.

That which is the nature of the Thus-Gone
Is also the nature of this world.
There is no nature of the Thus-Gone.
There is no nature of the world."

Nagarjuna
MMK XXII.15-16
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Dhammanando
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Re: does anyone know of good asubha resources?

Post by Dhammanando »

aflatun wrote:Most of us in medicine and in medical subspecialties that work with the dead body or its dismembered parts regularly go through a phase (or phases) when we feel those things (lack of attraction for partners, etc) but eventually its not difficult to compartmentalize and not let the gravity of the experience "sink in" anymore. Like anything else you can decondition/condition a given response, the mind's potential is truly remarkable.
In his Buddhist Meditation and Depth Psychology the American psychiatrist (and Buddhist) Dr. Douglas Burns also remarks to the same effect:

  • A cartoon in an American medical magazine shows four senior medical students standing together. Three are engaged in active conversation. Only the remaining one turns his head to take notice of a pretty nurse. The caption beneath the cartoon reads: "Guess which one has not done twelve pelvic examinations today." It is doubtful that many persons outside of the medical profession will appreciate the meaning, but to medical students and interns it speaks a reality. During his months of training in obstetrics and gynecology the medical trainee must spend many hours engaged in examining and handling the most repulsive aspects of female genitals. As a result he finds the female body becoming less attractive and his sexual urges diminishing. During my own years as a medical student and intern, this observation was repeatedly confirmed by the comments of my co-workers, both married and single. As we have seen, the same principle is utilized in the sections of the Discourse on repulsiveness and the cemetery meditations.

    Other aspects of scientific and medical training can produce results similar to those sought in the latter three body meditations. Chemistry, biochemistry, and histology foster an objective way of viewing the body which is virtually identical to the contemplation of elements. Anatomy, of course, is similar to the contemplation of repulsiveness. And in hospital training the persistent encounter with old age, debilitation, and death continuously reinforces the words of the cemetery meditations: "Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it." Similarly, in order to acquire a vivid mental image of the cemetery meditations, Buddhist monks occasionally visit graveyards to behold corpses in various stages of decay. However, such experiences bear fruit only if one takes advantage of them and avoids the temptation to ignore and forget.

    http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... el088.html
Yena yena hi maññanti,
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.


In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
(Sn. 588)
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