清淨道論 義疏通講 · 冊6Visuddhimagga · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 6

Ten names come first, one sign supplies the template: every step toward the charnel ground is governed—this is the most frightening meditation subject in the entire work, and the only one in which absorption can be lost

The Big Picture — The Door of the Ten Kinds of Foulness and the Template of the Bloated

After the ten kasiṇas come the ten kinds of foulness: concentration cultivated upon ten aspects of a corpse’s decay. This unit first explains the word meanings of the ten names (§1), then uses the first sign, the bloated, for the complete demonstration: receiving the meditation subject and cautions on going to the charnel ground (§2), duties in going (§3), where to stand and how to observe the sign all around (§4), the eleven ways of taking the sign (§5), thoroughly taking it and defining the return path (§6), answers to three questions (§7), and the perception of a treasure and the counterpart sign (§8). The remaining nine signs carry this procedure forward with only minor differences (the next unit). Two things make this meditation subject unique: it is the most frightening among all the canonical objects (only here does loss of absorption occur), and the hardest to obtain (the bloated lasts only one or two days). The Commentator accordingly lays down his most detailed operating protocol. 〔Observation〕

§01 Word Meanings of the Ten Kinds of Foulness—Explanation of Each Name → Vernacular §1

The ten names are explained one by one: bloated (as a leather bag is inflated by wind, the body swells in due course after life ends); livid (red where flesh is prominent, white where pus collects, generally blue, like one draped in blue cloth); festering (pus flows where the body has broken open); cut-up (cut in two and no longer connected—cut through the middle); gnawed (eaten in various ways by dogs and jackals); scattered (hand in one place, foot in another, head in another); hacked-and-scattered (hacked into the shape of a crow’s foot and then scattered); blood-smeared; worm-infested (filled with worms); and skeleton (both a chain of bones and a single bone). The ten names apply both to the signs and to the absorptions based on them (Vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕The ten names are the corpse’s chronology of time and circumstance: the first three follow time (swelling, discoloration, suppuration), the middle group follows external force (hacking, eating, scattering, blood), and the final two follow the end state (worms, bones). The list itself is a chronicle of impermanence. Each explanation includes “a repulsive thing because of its repulsiveness”: the ground on which a name is established is also the use to which it is put in practice.

§02 Receiving the Meditation Subject, Cautions on Going to the Charnel Ground, and the Four Matters Cited from the Commentaries → Vernacular §2

Receive the meditation subject from a teacher according to the earth-kasiṇa procedure. The teacher should explain the procedure for going for the sign, observing the sign all around, taking the sign in eleven ways, and reviewing the path going and returning, all the way through absorption. The caution before going: do not rush off upon hearing where a corpse lies—it may be occupied by beasts or nonhuman beings (danger to life); the route may pass a bathing ford or field edge where a form of the opposite sex appears; or a newly dead body of the opposite sex may appear as a sign of beauty (danger to the holy life). Go only after judging yourself able to bear it. Inform the senior before going: someone can care for you if illness arises and testify for you if robbers throw stolen goods nearby and you are falsely accused. Go with joy as a khattiya goes to consecration, a sacrificer to the sacrificial hall, or a poor person to hidden treasure. The long commentary passage is quoted in full: alone and without a companion, with mindfulness established and the faculties turned inward, review the path, use stones, anthills, trees, bushes, and creepers to make the place possessed of a sign and object, and take the sign in eleven ways—all the way through entry into the first absorption (Vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕The warning about “danger to the holy life” shows the Commentator’s honesty: even a corpse may arouse greed. Foulness contemplation is not a safe; a body of the opposite sex is precisely the breach. The two reasons for informing the senior—illness and being mistaken for a thief—show the monastic system with both feet on the ground.

§03 Duties in Going—Going Alone, Restraining the Faculties, and Going Downwind → Vernacular §3

A group may go together merely to view a charnel ground, but one practicing a meditation subject must go alone: do not abandon the fundamental meditation subject, carry a crooked staff or stick against dogs, establish mindfulness, and turn the faculties inward. On leaving the monastery, note the gate and define the road segment by segment (left and right turns; where there is a stone, anthill, tree, bush, or creeper). Do not go upwind (the corpse’s stench strikes the nose, disturbs the brain, causes vomiting, and brings remorse); if there is no alternative, cover the nose with the corner of the robe (Vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕The route is not memorized merely to prevent getting lost—§7 later reveals the purpose: it is a stored save-point that will bring the meditation subject “into its track.” Even wind direction enters the protocol: this operating manual reaches the resolution of smell.

§04 Determining Where to Stand and Observing the Sign All Around—Stone, Anthill, Tree, Bush, and Creeper → Vernacular §4

Do not look immediately upon arrival: first determine the direction. Avoid a place where the object is unclear or the mind unwieldy; avoid upwind (stench drives the mind away) and excessively downwind (nonhuman beings become angry); stand neither too far (unclear) nor too near (fear), neither at the feet nor at the head (uneven view), but at the body’s midpoint. Observe the sign all around: define each stone, anthill, tree, bush, and creeper by height, size, color, and shape, then pair them two by two—“This stone is this foulness sign; this foulness sign is this stone.” Repeated defining is making it possessed of a sign; paired defining is making it possessed of an object. Finally define it by its intrinsic sign, the bloated state belonging to it alone—“swollen after becoming a sore” (Vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕The surrounding stones and trees are used as coordinate stakes so the sign can still be found when the eyes close. This is the same principle as memorizing the route in §3: pinning the sign to its environment. Yet the sentence on the intrinsic sign draws the boundary clearly: the coordinates are supports; the object is solely the bloated state itself.

§05 Taking the Sign in Eleven Ways—Six and Five → Vernacular §5

First come six ways: by color (black, white, or yellow-brown skin); by characteristic (do not take the female or male characteristic, but early, middle, or late life); by shape (the shapes of head, neck, hand, belly, navel, waist, thigh, shin, and foot); by direction (the two directions above and below the navel); by location; and by delimitation (soles below, tips of the head-hairs above, skin across—the delimited area filled only with thirty-two corpses). A man does not take a female body, nor a woman a male body: with a body of the opposite sex the object fails to appear and only agitation results. The Commentary to the Majjhima says, “Even when a woman has been broken open, she remains taking possession of a man’s mind.” For someone with past preparation (one who has practiced meditation subjects, maintained ascetic practices, worked over the great elements, comprehended formations, defined name-and-form, and broken through the perception of a being), the counterpart sign appears where he looks. If not, use five more ways: by joints (fourteen major joints), gaps, low places, high places, and all around. If it still does not appear, establish the mind at the end of the belly, where swelling is greatest (Vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕“By characteristic, do not take male and female” and “do not take a body of the opposite sex” are two layers of one safeguard. The eleven ways form a search algorithm proceeding from coarse to fine—if the six fail, switch to five; if the five fail, lock onto the most conspicuous feature (the end of the belly). The sentence from the Majjhima Commentary is as cold as a knife, one of the chapter’s best-known citations.

§06 Analysis of Thoroughly Taking the Sign and Determining the Return Path → Vernacular §6

The criterion for thorough acquisition is this: a hundred times, a thousand times, open the eyes and look, close them and advert, until open and closed alike enter the range in the same form. Only then is the sign thoroughly grasped. If practice cannot be completed on the spot, return with the faculties restrained according to the procedure used in coming. Define the route segment by segment as soon as you leave the charnel ground. Once back, walk only on ground facing the sign and sit facing it; if the terrain prevents this, keep the mind facing it (Vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕“The same with eyes open and closed” is the sign’s acceptance test—the moment when the image leaves the eyes and takes up residence in the mind. The rules for the return journey and one’s orientation afterward continuously recharge the still-tender sign so that its connection is not broken.

§07 Answers to Three Questions—Non-Delusion, Binding, and Bringing into the Track → Vernacular §7

Observing the sign all around has non-delusion as its purpose. Someone who goes at the wrong time may see the corpse as though rising, bearing down, and pursuing; the mind becomes mad with distraction, fear, trembling, and horripilation. Among the thirty-eight objects none is so frightening, and only this meditation subject admits loss of absorption. The remedy is to brace oneself and establish mindfulness: “A stone or creeper will not come; neither will this body. This sign that appears to you is born of perception and produced by perception. Bhikkhu, your meditation subject has appeared today. Do not be afraid.” Taking the sign in eleven ways has binding as its purpose: looking with open eyes gives rise to the learning sign, making the mind travel over it gives rise to the counterpart sign, continuing gives rise to absorption, and abiding in absorption while developing insight brings the direct realization of arahantship. Reviewing the path going and returning has bringing into the track as its purpose. If asked the date, a question, or greeted along the way, respond normally (do not continue silently), and fulfill all Khandhaka duties—even though the tender sign may vanish. Because the bloated lasts only one or two days and the charnel ground may no longer be accessible, replay the path going and returning segment by segment from the sitting place; the sign then reappears as though placed before the eyes, and the meditation subject enters its track (Vernacular §7). 〔Reading〕Each answer saves one difficulty. Non-delusion saves one from fear (the antidote to fear is knowledge—the phrase “born of perception” is already the seed of later insight); binding gives the entire chain from one look to arahantship; bringing into the track is the most affecting—courtesy and duties may not be abandoned, and if the sign vanishes, walk the whole route again in memory and it returns. The severity of route memorization was for this moment.

§08 Perception of a Treasure and the Counterpart Sign—the Five Hindrances Are Abandoned and the Absorption Factors Appear → Vernacular §8

Seeing the benefit (“By this path I shall surely be liberated from aging and death”), form the perception of a treasure: like a poor person who finds a precious jewel. The four-elements practitioner apprehends the great elements in one’s own body, the breathing practitioner the breath at one’s own nose, and the kasiṇa practitioner can make and cultivate a kasiṇa at will; all are easy to obtain. This sign lasts only one or two days; none is harder to obtain. Repeatedly bind the mind in the night and day lodgings to “Repulsiveness of the bloated,” striking it again and again with thinking and applied thought, and the counterpart sign arises. The difference: the learning sign is ugly, disgusting, and frightening; the counterpart sign is like a big-limbed person lying down after eating his fill. The moment it is obtained, sensual desire is abandoned by suppression, ill will as pus goes when blood is removed, sloth and torpor through energy, restlessness and remorse through peaceful states, and doubt through directly evident attainment—the five hindrances are abandoned. The factors of applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, tranquillity, pleasure, and one-pointedness appear, and access concentration arises in that very moment. From there through first-absorption mastery follows the earth-kasiṇa procedure (Vernacular §8). 〔Reading〕The simile for the counterpart sign is startling: once purified, the frightening corpse sign appears as “a person lying down after eating his fill”—foulness is no longer ferocious upon entering concentration; the purity of the concentration sign does not follow the impurity of its object. The perception of a treasure is the psychological lever of this meditation subject: the most frightening object must be treated with the most cherishing mind. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

This unit is a complete “operating manual for a high-risk meditation subject”: inform the senior, go alone and downwind, memorize the road segment by segment, set coordinate stakes with stones and trees, stand at the body’s midpoint, take the sign in eleven ways, continue until open and closed eyes see the same, answer people normally on the way, and replay the route if the sign is lost. Two sentences deserve to be carried away on their own. The first is the antidote to fear: “This sign is born of perception and produced by perception” (the corpse does not stand; your perception does). The second is the perception of a treasure: guard the most frightening object with the mind of one who has found a jewel. What has this to do with a modern reader? The practice treats greed, while its complete method of environmental stakes, acceptance criteria, and reconstruction after loss can be applied to any discipline of attention. The next unit cultivates the other nine signs by carrying this method forward.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–8 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the ten names; receiving the meditation subject and cautions on going; duties in going; where to stand and how to stake the five surrounding objects; the eleven ways of taking the sign and the warning about the opposite sex; the criterion for thorough acquisition; the three questions and three answers (non-delusion, binding, bringing into the track); and the perception of a treasure, the counterpart sign, the five hindrances, and the absorption factors.

Nine signs follow one template while each records its own distinction: every learning sign follows its particular impurity, every counterpart sign returns to purity—even a skeleton must not be seen as white

The Big Picture — Following the Template and Stating the Distinctions

Once the template of the bloated has been established in the preceding unit, only the distinctions of the other nine signs are stated—exactly the same expository method by which the chapter on the remaining kasiṇas follows the earth kasiṇa: change the name, record the distinction between the learning and counterpart signs, and understand the rest as before. This unit completes the nine signs in three stages (livid, festering, cut-up, gnawed, scattered, and hacked-and-scattered in §1; blood-smeared, worm-infested, and skeleton in §§2–3), then reconciles two commentary positions and closes with verses (§4). Read the whole unit through a single comparative table: each learning sign follows its particular impurity—mottling, oozing, a hole, what is eaten, gaps, a wound, movement—while the counterpart signs all return to wholeness and stillness. This is the same principle as the counterpart sign of the bloated, “like a person lying down after eating his fill.” 〔Observation〕

§01 General Rule and the Six Meditation Subjects from the Livid through the Hacked-and-Scattered → Vernacular §1

The general rule is one sentence: every characteristic from going onward is the same; only the word “bloated” is replaced in each place by the appropriate name. The distinctions of the six are these. Livid—the learning sign is mottled color, while the counterpart sign appears according to what is most prominent. Festering—the learning sign appears as though oozing, while the counterpart sign is motionless and settled. Cut-up—it is obtained on a battlefield, in a robbers’ forest, at an execution ground, or where someone has been torn apart by lions or tigers. When it does not enter the practitioner’s range, one must not touch it with one’s own hand (touch gives rise to familiarity); a park attendant, novice, or another person places the parts together, or one draws them together with a crooked stick, leaving a finger’s space—the learning sign is like a hole in the middle, and the counterpart sign is whole. Gnawed—the learning sign appears eaten here and there, and the counterpart sign is whole. Scattered—it is arranged as with the cut-up, with one finger’s space between the parts—the learning sign displays the gaps clearly, and the counterpart sign is whole. Hacked-and-scattered—the learning sign is like a visible wound-opening, and the counterpart sign is whole (Vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕The injunction against touching the corpse with one’s own hand is precise to the finest degree of psychology: familiarity arises through touch—in a foulness meditation subject, familiarity with the object is the very thing to avoid. Yet the placement at “one finger’s space” shows the other side: a damaged form must retain a discernible whole, and the interval leaves room for contemplation.

§02 The Three Meditation Subjects of the Blood-Smeared, the Worm-Infested, and the Skeleton → Vernacular §2

Blood-smeared—obtained where a wounded person lies on a battlefield or where a burst abscess bleeds: the learning sign moves like a red banner struck by the wind, and the counterpart sign is settled. Worm-infested—two or three days afterward, when worms flow from the nine wound-openings; on the corpse of a dog, jackal, human, cow, buffalo, elephant, horse, or python they remain like a heap of rice. Cūḷapiṇḍapātika Tissa Thera obtained the sign on an elephant’s corpse in the Black Long Pool: the learning sign appears to move, and the counterpart sign is settled like a ball of rice. Skeleton—in its various forms (a chain of bones with flesh and blood, bound by sinews, down to a single bone); at the place where it was discarded, set markers according to the preceding method, observe by its intrinsic sign, “This is a skeleton,” and take the sign in eleven ways (Vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕The law of movement and stillness has now appeared three times (the blood-banner moves and then rests; the mass of worms moves and then rests; compare the moving learning signs and still counterpart signs of the water, fire, and air kasiṇas): the learning sign is the world’s appearance; the counterpart sign is the mind’s appearance—the world moves, while the mind in concentration does not. The single list for the worm-infested includes animal corpses as well: the domain of the object extends to “wherever it may be.”

§03 The Eleven Ways of Taking the Sign of a Skeleton → Vernacular §3

Taking the sign of a skeleton carries one unique warning: if one observes by color, “It is white,” the sign does not appear and instead becomes mixed up with the white kasiṇa—one should observe only “skeleton,” by way of repulsiveness. “Characteristic” shifts meaning in this unit to the names of hand, foot, head, chest, arm, waist, thigh, and shin (different from its use in the preceding unit to exclude female and male characteristics, a distinction the treatise itself marks). Shape is defined by long, short, round, square, small, and large; delimitation by the boundary of each bone (take whichever appears clearly and bring it to absorption); low and high according both to the bone and to one’s location; joints where two bones meet; gaps between the bones; and all-around by applying knowledge. If it still does not appear, establish the mind on the forehead bone (Vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕“Do not see white bones as white” is a textbook case of the boundary between meditation subjects: with the same object, taking its color makes it a color kasiṇa, while taking its repulsiveness makes it foulness—the meditation subject is distinguished not by the thing but by the doorway of attention. The forehead bone is the final landing place, the same method as the “tip of the belly” for the bloated: when searching yields nothing, lock onto the most conspicuous place.

§04 Application to the Preceding Nine, Reconciliation of Two Commentary Positions, and Concluding Verses → Vernacular §4

The eleven ways of taking the sign apply to the preceding signs as appropriate. The skeleton succeeds with a whole chain of bones and with a single bone. The statement that “the learning sign and the counterpart sign are the same” is appropriate only for a single bone; with a chain of bones, the learning sign has gaps while the counterpart sign is whole. Even with a single bone, the learning sign should be disgusting and frightening, while the counterpart sign should produce joy and gladness—because it conduces to access. The two commentary positions are reconciled as follows: the earlier statement, “There is no counterpart sign in the ten kinds of foulness,” was “said after giving it a doorway” (opening through one aspect, not an ultimate determination), because immediately afterward it says, “Here the sign is twofold.” The Commentator therefore considers the matter and establishes the account of two signs. The illustration is Mahātissa Thera: merely seeing the bones of a woman’s teeth, he saw her whole body as a mass of bones. The concluding verses state that the ten kinds of foulness were taught by the Possessor of the Ten Powers praised by the Thousand-Eyed One, each as the cause of one absorption; after knowing their method of cultivation, one should understand the Miscellany Discussion (Vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕The Commentator appears in person twice in this section. First, he openly reconciles a self-contradiction in the commentaries and declares that “what we have stated after consideration is what is appropriate here”—a demonstration of critical reading from within the tradition. Second comes the incident of Mahātissa Thera: one glimpse of the bones of the teeth and the whole body becomes a mass of bones. This is the extreme point at which the elevenfold taking of the sign has matured into “whatever is seen becomes contemplation,” and it anticipates the same incident’s return in the chapter’s final unit. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

What most rewards attention in this unit is the law running through the nine signs: each learning sign follows its particular impurity, while every counterpart sign returns to purity—mottling returns to prominence, movement to stillness, brokenness to wholeness. As the mind receives the world, it also smooths its turbulence. Three detailed injunctions each show an exact insight into human nature: do not touch with one’s own hand (familiarity arises through touch); do not see a skeleton as white (the doorway of attention determines the meditation subject); and the counterpart sign should produce joy and gladness (a foulness practice does not end in self-torment). The case of Mahātissa Thera seeing a mass of bones in a single glimpse of the teeth appears first here and again at the chapter’s close—watch for it. The Miscellany Discussion closes the chapter in the next unit.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–4 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the general rule; the learning and counterpart signs for each of the nine; the method of arranging the cut-up; the worm-infested and the elder’s example; the eleven ways of taking the sign of a skeleton and the warning about the white kasiṇa; the reconciliation of the commentary positions; Mahātissa Thera’s example; and the concluding verses.

Two reasons why ten kinds of foulness are established, one reason why they reach only the first absorption—and then the camera turns: a living person’s body is the same foul thing, merely covered by adornment

The Big Picture — the Chapter Closes with Three Questions

The Miscellany Discussion closes the chapter by answering three questions: Why establish ten? (because of the intrinsic condition reached by the body and because they counteract ten kinds of greed-tempered person, §1); Why only the first absorption? (because the object is weak and the mind remains there only through applied thought, §2); and Does the single characteristic of the ten apply to a living body? (as to characteristic they are one—impure, foul-smelling, disgusting, and repulsive; living and dead belong to the same class, §§3–4). The third question is the chapter’s closing blow: the whole chapter has contemplated corpses, yet its final section declares that the living body is equally foul—it is only covered by “adventitious adornment.” The verses on the jackal and the kiṃsuka turn this reversal into a fable. 〔Observation〕

§01 Two Reasons for Establishing Ten Kinds of Foulness—the Body’s Intrinsic Condition and Ten Kinds of Greed-Tempered Person → Vernacular §1

Someone who has attained absorption has thoroughly suppressed greed and conducts themself without greedy seeking, like one free from greed—so why establish ten? The first reason is the intrinsic condition reached by the body: a corpse reaches the condition of the bloated, the livid, or one of the others, and whichever is obtained becomes the sign. The second is the divisions of the greed-tempered person: the bloated displays the ruin of shape and treats one who delights in shape; the livid displays the ruin of skin color and treats one who delights in bodily color; the festering exposes the illusion of bodily fragrance and treats one who delights in fragrance; the cut-up displays inner hollowness and treats one who delights in solidity; the gnawed displays the ruin of amassed flesh and treats one who delights in its fullness; the scattered displays the dispersal of the limbs and treats one who delights in graceful posture; the hacked-and-scattered displays the body’s broken whole and treats one who delights in bodily wholeness; the blood-smeared treats one who delights in the beauty of adornment; the worm-infested displays that the body is shared with many worms and treats one whose greed takes the body as “mine”; the skeleton treats one who delights in beautiful teeth (Vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕These ten pairings are an anatomy of greed: “love of beauty” can be divided into love of shape, color, fragrance, posture, teeth, and the rest. The medicine has ten flavors because the illness has ten roots. The worm-infested pairing cuts deepest: if the body is shared with many worms, on what ground can it be called “mine”?

§02 Why There Is Only the First Absorption and How Joy Arises on a Repulsive Object → Vernacular §2

Why only the first absorption? The simile answers: in a swift-flowing river, a boat stays in place only by the strength of its rudder. The object is weak—a repulsive object—and the mind becomes one-pointed only through the strength of applied thought. Without applied thought it cannot remain, so there is no second or higher absorption (the second absorption abandons applied thought). Why, then, can a repulsive object produce joy? Because its benefit is seen—“By this path I shall surely be liberated from aging and death”—and because the hindrances have been abandoned: like an excrement remover who thinks at a heap of excrement, “Today I shall earn a great deal of pay,” and like a severely ill person when vomiting and purging occur (Vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕The rudder simile makes “only the first absorption” a matter of mechanics: the foul object has no attractive force of its own, so applied thought must keep bracing the mind against it. In contrast with the ten kasiṇas, which can lead to the fourth absorption, the object’s “habitability” determines the ceiling of concentration. The excrement remover’s simile is endearingly candid: joy need not come from a lovely object; it comes from seeing what the object can secure.

§03 The Ten Kinds of Foulness Have One Characteristic—the Living Body Is Foul Too → Vernacular §3

As to characteristic, the ten kinds of foulness are only one: the state of being impure, foul-smelling, disgusting, and repulsive. This characteristic appears not only in corpses but also in living bodies (Mahātissa Thera of Cetiyapabbata seeing the bones of the teeth; the novice attendant of Saṅgharakkhita Thera looking at the king mounted on an elephant). Foulness in the living body is merely concealed by adventitious adornment. The author then writes a long passage in his own voice: this body is by nature an accumulation of more than three hundred bones, connected by one hundred and eighty joints, bound by nine hundred sinews, plastered with nine hundred pieces of flesh, enveloped in wet hide, pierced throughout, continually oozing and dripping like a pot of fat, and continually discharging through nine wound-openings like an old burst abscess. Without grooming, the body of a king is no different from that of an excrement remover or caṇḍāla. People groom it with tooth-sticks, face-washing, clothes, perfumes, flowers, and ornaments, turn it into an appearance graspable as “I” and “mine,” fail to know its actual intrinsic taste, and become infatuated. In the ultimate sense, there is not even an atom that could rightly be delighted in. Once a hair, nail, or spittle falls from the body, people recoil from it, yet while it remains on the body those enveloped by ignorance and stained by self-love grasp it as agreeable, lovely, permanent, pleasurable, and self—becoming like the old jackal who mistakes a fallen kiṃsuka flower for meat (Vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕“Adventitious adornment” is the chapter’s central idea: adornment is not a property of the body but a visitor. Tooth-stick, perfume, clothing, and ornament visit each day and cover the host. “Repulsive once it has fallen away” is the sharpest reductio: the same hair is cherished on a head and reviled in a bowl of soup. What is cherished, then, was never the hair itself.

§04 The Verses on the Jackal and the Kiṃsuka Tree, the Cited Verses on the Body’s Nine Sores, and the Chapter Ending → Vernacular §4

The verses of the simile: the jackal sees a flowering kiṃsuka and runs toward it thinking, “I have found a meat tree.” It bites a fallen flower yet insists, “This is not meat; what is on the tree is meat.” A wise person should not take only the fallen part as foul; what remains upon the body is the same. A fool grasps the body as pure, grows intoxicated, does evil, and gains no freedom from suffering; one endowed with wisdom should observe that the intrinsic nature of the living or dead putrid body is devoid of purity. The cited verses: the body is foul-smelling and impure like a heap of excrement, a great sore with nine doors that discharges all around—if the inside of the body became the outside, one would have to take up a stick to drive away crows and dogs. The close: a bhikkhu of good nature should take the sign wherever an aspect of foulness appears, whether in a living or dead body, and bring the meditation subject to absorption. The colophon says that the sixth chapter is complete (Vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕The jackal verses are the chapter’s philosophy in cartoon form: the fallen flower plainly is not meat, yet the animal remains convinced that “the one on the tree is.” To recoil from fallen hair and nails while loving those still attached to the body is to become that jackal. The thought experiment of “inside becoming outside” is just as exact: the thin wrapping of skin is the foundation of the whole aesthetic illusion. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

The chapter’s three answers each leave one sentence worth carrying away. Ten kinds of foulness are established because greed has ten roots—is it shape, color, fragrance, or posture that you love? Only the first absorption is reached because the repulsive object is like a swift current and the mind needs applied thought as its rudder. Most important is the third answer: foulness makes no distinction between living and dead, and adornment is adventitious. One daily exercise: the next time you recoil from a hair in a bowl of soup, consider that an hour earlier it may have been cherished on someone’s head. Only “falling away” separates lovely from repulsive. This chapter, perception of repulsiveness in food (Chapter 11), and mindfulness of the body (Chapter 8) belong to one family of practice and furnish suitable paths for one another. Only one chapter remains before the concentration division closes.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–4 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the two reasons for establishing ten and the ten pairings, the rudder and excrement-remover similes, the long passage on the foulness of the living body (more than three hundred bones, nine hundred sinews, nine wound-openings; no difference between king and caṇḍāla; adventitious adornment; not an atom fit for delight), the verses on the jackal and kiṃsuka, the cited verses on the nine sores, and the chapter colophon.