"The livers and intestines of even the most attrative people,
If paraded down a walkway, would never capture a title in a beauty contest;
If featured in an advertisement,
They wouldn't sell."
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Have you ever wonder what the body really is?
In 'Isn't She Lovely' ( http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2009/09/isnt-she-lovely.html ), I said that it is nothing but Hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, skin and teeth.
In the same entry and in "Body Burden - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2010/02/body-burden.html, I also mentioned that it's nothing but Decay, Disease, and Death.
If you think about it, the body is really nothing but dead stuff.
Ajahn Boowa said this body is a cemetry.
And he's right.
Look at all the food we eat - plants, animals, fruits etc - it's ALL dead.
Unless you are barbaric, inhumane, cruel, evil, wicked (and demonic) enough to eat them (the animals) alive. (Read "The Cow That Cried" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2008/06/cow-that-cried.html)
And I am not suggesting you do,
Cos if you do, please do remember Kamma and its manifold implications. (Read "Kamma" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2009/03/kamma.html)
In "Pile of Dung" ( http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2007/09/pile-of-dung.html ), I described the body as nothing but a pile of dung which we decorate, beautify, and enhance in both smell and looks.
In "Food for Thought" ( http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2006/12/food-for-thought-chew-on-it.html ), I also mentioned that regardless of what and who we are (i.e. our status, position, designation etc) in this life, when we die, we all end up as nothing but fertilizer for the soil.
Ajahn Boowa said this body is nothing but shit and urine.
Likewise, Ajahn Mun, his predecessor, also describe this body as an assemblage of excrement, urine and filth. (Read "Body Burden" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2010/02/body-burden.html)
They're so right!
The Buddha and His Arahants are so right.
They saw through something which we all missed, or deny, or refuse to see/admit. (Read "Truth/Honesty" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2009/07/truth-honesty.html )
So what's there about the body?
Nothing much, but just a piece of shit.
And really, that's what the body REAL-ly is -
A piece of shit.
"There is the case where a monk reflects on this very body, from the soles of the feet on up, from the crown of the head on down, surrounded by skin, and full of various kinds of unclean things :
'In this body there are head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, pleura/membrane, spleen, lungs, large intestines, small intestines, gorge, faeces, bile/gall, phlegm,pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, skin-oil, saliva, mucus, fluid in the joints, urine."
- The Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya 10 and Samyutta Nikaya L I.20
"Eating, drinking and tasting are not important tasks -
Their result is body-waste."
- Ajahn Maha Boowa Nanasampanno
"The body is nothing but a waste-making/producing machine."
"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 I11.
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"Behold this beautiful body - a painted image
A mass of heaped up sores,
Infirm, full of hankering -
Of which nothing is lasting, permanent or stable.
Fully worn out is this body,
A nest of diseases, and fragile.
This foul mass breaks up;
Truly, life ends in DEATH."
- The Buddha, Dhammapada verse 147, 148.
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"There is the case where a monk — having gone to the wilderness, to the foot of a tree, or to an empty dwelling — reflects thus:
'This body was 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.'. — AN 10.60
- The Buddha, Anguttara Nikaya 10:60..
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"A healthy negative image sees that ALL bodies,
No matter how attractive, young, or healthy they may seem at the skin level,
Are composed of the very same parts,
All equally unattractive.
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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