Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
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User156079
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Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by User156079 »

How powerful and incredibly awesome is the body contemplation friends!

I think it is somewhat unfortunate that people are generally (rightfully) advised not to train it because of possible complications. It is very dangerous if grasped wrongly but it is also in the heart of the Teachings, right there in the Satipatthana Suttani and really, it is not rocket science as it is not difficult to do it safely.

I think it should be much more popular, as It is quite simple and does quickly lead to disenchantment with the human body, Nimittas & deep jhanic states. It is truly incredible and relatively easy Samadhi-training which complements formal Satipatthana practice perfectly.

Afaik It should be done with compassion(Karuna) and appreciation of the body as a precious vehicle to Enlightenment that should be guarded with care. It is a truly wonderful and versatile practice, one can easily contemplate old age, sickness & death while doing it as well as elements of metta for ones body if needed. I think it is a really good way to develop the perspective and concentration.

:smile:
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Idappaccayata
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by Idappaccayata »

What technique do you use?
A dying man can only rely upon his wisdom, if he developed it. Wisdom is not dependent upon any phenomenon originated upon six senses. It is developed on the basis of the discernment of the same. That’s why when one’s senses start to wither and die, the knowledge of their nature remains unaffected. When there is no wisdom, there will be despair, in the face of death.

- Ajahn Nyanamoli Thero
User156079
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by User156079 »

My technique was to memorize the 32 body parts, reciting verbally and mentally to memorize.

When memorized i trained according to the Suttas and Vsm, the elements of compassion were advised to me by Thai Forest Tradition teacher to counter aversion and it worked well for me.

So when one knows the bodyparts one starts contemplating them one-by-one, they are traditionally split into groups of ~5.

IE Hair on the Head; think about shape, color, where is it located, what does it connect to, how does it age, how it looks when falls out, how it is not same as hair elsewhere, how hair is not skin, how skin is not the hair, how teeth are not the hair, how nails are also not the hair on the head.

I also called body-parts with more loving words like a mother would say it to a child, saying belly or tummy instead of abdomen/stomach and in general tried to use nicer words where was possible as to avoid aversion.

I imagined my own bones and try to feel the hardness when contemplating bones.

Another thing is to 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, 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 one 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 elaborating on vulnerability, thinking of creatures living on skin, bones, sinews, comparing elements inside to elements outside etc.

When i trained it last time it took me some 50 minutes to get thru it, i had it written and planned out. In hindsight i think it might be better to stick to what is working best and rather do several laps.

What i really like about this training is that its just very clear cut instruction, there isnt much room for doubt and mind is really keen on this object

https://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f ... lit=Asubha good thread.
Last edited by User156079 on Wed Apr 05, 2017 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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pink_trike
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by pink_trike »

User156079 wrote:
I think it should be much more popular
Imo, the reason it doesn't resonate with modern Western / Westernized people is that they aren't particularly enchanted with the body ... in fact, nearly all modern people are perceptually dissociated from the body, to pathological degrees. They are enchanted with the appearance of the body but this has more to do with images and ongoing stories all up in the mind.
Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body.
For this reason modern people should probably start by practicing to get a clearer sense of how they are trapped and dragged around by habitual conditioned patterns of thought and unconscious emotional reactivity.
Vision is Mind
Mind is Empty
Emptiness is Clear Light
Clear Light is Union
Union is Great Bliss

- Dawa Gyaltsen

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Disclaimer: I'm a non-religious practitioner of Theravada, Mahayana/Vajrayana, and Tibetan Bon Dzogchen mind-training.
User156079
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by User156079 »

pink_trike wrote: perceptually dissociated from the body, to pathological degrees.
Sorry can you explain this, do you mean that they are blind to its unattractive aspects?
For this reason modern people should probably start by practicing to get a clearer sense of how they are trapped and dragged around by habitual conditioned patterns of thought and unconscious emotional reactivity.
I agree, nothing changes before one sees exactly that :thumbsup:
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pink_trike
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by pink_trike »

User156079 wrote:
pink_trike wrote: perceptually dissociated from the body, to pathological degrees.
Sorry can you explain this, do you mean that they are blind to its unattractive aspects?
I mean that most modern people are barely conscious that there is a body ... and have next to no idea how it works below the surface, how diet affects both body and mind, how it is regulated by the patterns and processes of the terrestrial environment and celestial mechanics, and what it requires to be healthy and to support a healthy mind). Their sense of existence is both externalized and upwardly displaced (obsessive conceptuality).
Vision is Mind
Mind is Empty
Emptiness is Clear Light
Clear Light is Union
Union is Great Bliss

- Dawa Gyaltsen

---

Disclaimer: I'm a non-religious practitioner of Theravada, Mahayana/Vajrayana, and Tibetan Bon Dzogchen mind-training.
binocular
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by binocular »

pink_trike wrote:I mean that most modern people are barely conscious that there is a body ... and have next to no idea how it works below the surface, how diet affects both body and mind, how it is regulated by the patterns and processes of the terrestrial environment and celestial mechanics, and what it requires to be healthy and to support a healthy mind). Their sense of existence is both externalized and upwardly displaced (obsessive conceptuality).
I agree. With the qualifier that many people do believe they know how the body works -- they believe it on the grounds of what (popular) science tells them.
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
binocular
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by binocular »

A couple of years back, I had to pass a course in first aid. On the topic of choking (such as by inhaling foreign objects or ingesting more than one can swallow), the textbook (a European one) noted that this occurs much more often in the US than in Europe.
Choking on food is a good example of being out of touch with one's body.
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
User156079
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by User156079 »

binocular wrote: Choking on food is a good example of being out of touch with one's body.
You are on to something here i think, when im distracted alot im sometimes surprised i dont choke on some food or get hit by a truck or something..
pyluyten
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by pyluyten »

pink_trike wrote:Imo, the reason it doesn't resonate with modern Western / Westernized people [...]
There is no such thing as Western people, nor Westernized people who would share common things. it's like saying "asian people think like this" and mixing japanese people (all ages, all type of works, all types of convictions...) then also mixing Chinese people (muslim, young, farmers, billionaires), then also mixing South East Asia then also mixing India Pakistan Mongolia. Not even Thailand people are the same. not even in one city in Thailand people are the same. not even in one single family in Thailand people are the same.
binocular
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by binocular »

pyluyten wrote:There is no such thing as Western people, nor Westernized people who would share common things. it's like saying "asian people think like this" and mixing japanese people (all ages, all type of works, all types of convictions...) then also mixing Chinese people (muslim, young, farmers, billionaires), then also mixing South East Asia then also mixing India Pakistan Mongolia. Not even Thailand people are the same. not even in one city in Thailand people are the same. not even in one single family in Thailand people are the same.
There are cultural trends though, and they can be studied and measured.
See the work of Richard Nisbett, for example: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nisbett/selected.html
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jabalí
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by jabalí »

User156079 wrote:How powerful and incredibly awesome is the body contemplation friends!.
It's true

Do you practise this contemplation combined with Mahasi method?
User156079
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by User156079 »

jabalí wrote:
User156079 wrote:How powerful and incredibly awesome is the body contemplation friends!.
It's true

Do you practise this contemplation combined with Mahasi method?
I do and i plan to give it more attention in future.

An interesting and relatively short read the Ven. Maha Boowa's "Wisdom develops Samadhi" http://www.luangta.eu/site/books/book9_ ... wisdom.pdf

Describes the Progression quite well.
voitsberg.graz48
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by voitsberg.graz48 »

HOW WONDERFULL BODY MEDITATION
Reading the post first I thought: Yes, how wonderful is the meditation of the body. But later it shows that it boils down just to the 32 body parts which deal mostly with the inner organs. To learn these 32 body parts by heart and meditate them, I think, is not very helpful. Well, it is enough to know once what you carry inside. But that`s it. If you like you can pin an anatomic picture on your wall that shows the intestines. But then what? We have to go on living with these “impurities”. But what is wrong with all the liquids in the body? There are necessary for the functioning of the body machine. Would you also feel distaste to all the oils and liquids in your car only because they make your hands dirty?
I know all these meditations or recollections about the foulness of the body, calling it a bag filled with bones, are poor tricks to break the strong attachment people have to their bodies. These meditations aim to create disgust against the body, a negative attitude which can have dangerous consequences as is also mentioned in one of the posts. Monks at the time of Buddha got so disgusted with their bodies and life that they “took to the knife” and opened their veins. And Buddha did not say much against it even when suicide is not recommended.
I propose a healthier method to get more detached from the body which I call “the Marionette” exercise.
I recommend having such a marionette in your home and moving it. One can learn a lot from this puppet. Didn’t Buddha say we should look at the body as a puppet? Well, let us feel our own body like a puppet. And how?
First: Instead of observing your intestines better observe the flow from one of the mayor position into the next with an unbroken awareness. If you do it for a while you may reach this “marionette” feeling. Instead of being the doer you are just the observer.
Then observe all the minor movements while the “Marinette” is preparing a cup of tea.

But now comes the real work: dismantling the body.
First in an active way (yang)through movements and stretching and then in a passive way (yin) through relaxation and visualization of the body parts.
And how is that done? I just give one example:
The right arm. Moving the fingers in all possible ways, then the wrist, investigating the possibilities of the three joints wrist, elbow, shoulder. Moving the right arm in all possible direction. Then shaking it out and letting it hang like the lost arm of a marionette.
Then “meditate” the arm, the 4 main parts, hand, forearm, upper arm, shoulder. Through all the different movements one “knows” the arm and can go to the next step “exhaling” the arm. That resembles the part of the Anapansati “in/exhaling I calm the body”. But in the case of the marionette exercise, it is more specific. You inhale “figuratively” through the right hand, starting with the fingertips, draw the air up to the shoulder. Hold the air and the visualized arm, then exhale the arm, having the feeling, that the air flows out through the fingertips. At the same time, you let loose of the arm. It lies at the side like cut off.
That should be enough to give you an idea about the “marionette” exercise.
And what is the outcome? One gets a clear image of the body as a marionette. One feels less as a doer.
And one reaches the feeling:(as in the Visuddhimagga)
“Walking is but nobody who walks”
Breathing is but nobody who breathes.
Feeling is but nobody who feels.
Thinking is but nobody who thinks.
The marionette is doing it all by itself.
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JMGinPDX
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Re: Contemplation of the Body Isnt it Wonderful:)

Post by JMGinPDX »

Thanks for this thread. I've just started satipatthana practice in earnest and the ideas here were helpful.
I'm both reading Ven. Analayo's "Satipatthana" book and listening to the podcast of Ajahn Amaro reading it out and commenting on it (and in classic Amaro style his personal commentary takes up much more of the time than the recitation of the book :))
I'm also reading and re-reading all of the sati-related suttas (at least those with "mindfulness of..." in the title ;))
I find it easier to watch my breath in the context of my posture and full body awareness than on focusing on the breath itself, either at the nostrils or the abdomen. It's strange to "look inside" and actually realize...hey, there's a human body here, with blood and ribs and guts and lungs and sinews, etc.! Wow! It's true that especially in the West we seem to have such an objectified view of our own bodies that we fail to remember that they're RIGHT HERE under our heads :)

The simile that resonates the most with me is "animals chained to a post" which is referenced in SN 35. I had recently developed "my own" meditation object I dubbed "mentacles" - for mental tentacles - seeing my thoughts and senses as tentacles from a squid reaching out for external objects, and visualizing the act of "pulling them in" to my body as a way to disconnect from the external. The animals chained to the post visual has a similar flavor but is more powerful for sure!

I've also started visualizing my body parts dissolving as I sit - as the breath goes out my nostrils, my nose actually starts to disintegrate, then my face, head, neck, etc until I'm a pile of dust and liquid and air drifting off in the wind. That's really helping with reinforcing impermanence and not-self.

Thanks again!
Right now, it's like this...
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