In The Buddha's time, there was a very beautiful courtesan by the name of Sirima.
She's so beautiful, and all the men were so smitten by her, that they would bid thousands of gold coins just to spend a night with her.
One day, The Buddha heard that on the previous night, Sirima had died suddenly.
The Buddha then instructed King Kosala, the king reigning that time, not to cremate Sirima's body; but to keep it safe at the cemetery for 4 days, and to ensure that no animals would get near it.
On the 4th day, The Buddha requested that the king assemble all the people of that city to the cemetery.
At the appointed time, the Buddha arrived at the scene with his disciples.
Upon his arrival, The Buddha asked the king to auction Sirima's body to the crowd.
Though not quite understanding, but having absolute faith/conviction in The Buddha - The Wise and All-Knowing Enlightened One,
The King began the auction, indicating an initial value of a thousand gold coins.
When the request for bids came, there were no bidders.
The king then lowered the price to 500 gold coins.
Still there were no bidders.
Finally, he brought it down to one gold coin, yet there were no bids at all !
When the king offered the body freely to the people,
None wanted it.
That's when The Buddha, seeing the lack of response and interest, pointed to Sirima's body - which by now is bloated and oozing with strange fluids and emitting a foul smell - asked the crowd,
"Isn't she lovely? Isn't she beautiful?"
Startled, the crowd kept silent, hanging their heads down low.
And that's when, and also how The Wise Teacher taught the people the impermanence of beauty, the illusion of beauty, the foolishness, and the futility of being overwhelmed, bewitched and obsessed by beauty.
So, the next time you see a pretty woman / handsome man walk on by,
Remember The Buddha's words -
"Isn't she/he 'lovely'? Isn't she/he 'beautiful'?"
"This two-footed, filthy, evil-smelling, filled with various carcasses, oozing out here-and-there body:
Whoever would think on the basis of a body like this,
To exalt himself or disparage another:
What is that, if not blindness?"
- The Buddha, Sutta Nipata I.11
"The Buddha liken the body to a sack of grains with holes on either ends;
Don't squeeze too hard cos' something may come out from the bottom end !"
- (See Majjhima Nikaya 10),
- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.than.html
"The fool, beset by ignorance, thinks it (i.e. the body) beautiful.
But when it lies dead, swollen, livid, cast away in a charnel ground,
Even relatives don't care for it."
- The Buddha, Sutta Nipata I.11
Actually, Nothing much.
Except Hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, skin and teeth.
No, really, what's there about a body?
Hmmm....okay, nothing much -
But just Decay, Disease, and Death.
And really,
That's ALL there is to the body."
"If you examine the human body, you'll find that it is no different from a tree or a mop.
Just as the leaves of a tree, and the fibers of the mop head falls off,
We drop hair everyday.
So, you want to know / understand the human body?
Go look at a tree;
Or better yet, go study the mop."
