The sutta moves more quickly through \u2018body\u2019 and \u2018feelings\u2019 but these are no less important. In the section on the body, the Buddha has his monks imagine a beautiful young woman. He suggests that the gratification of \u2018body\u2019 arises in dependence upon her beauty and the monks all agree.<\/p>\n
Bhikkhu Bodhi comments that he finds it a bit odd (and I agree) that the Buddha would use the beauty of a young woman here; because isn\u2019t the gratification here already covered under sense-desires? Bodhi suggests that a more apt example would be our own bodies, which are not in themselves objects of sensual desire (for us), but are nonetheless material forms that keep us attached to the world of suffering.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Buddha then walks them through the aging of that woman, from the height of her beauty to the point at which she is old and frail, laying in a pool of her own urine and\u00a0excrement\u00a0and finally dead. And not just dead in the \u2018funeral home\u2019 sense we know, but in the \u2018charnel ground\u2019 sense of ancient India, where one would watch the daily decomposition of a body.<\/p>\n
The Buddha simply then asks if the beauty is vanished and the danger clear. \u201cOh yes,\u201d reply the monks! \u00a0But the Buddha, always a show-man, doesn\u2019t let up there. He goes on to have the monks imagine that body being eaten by crows, hawks, vultures, dogs and \u201cvarious kinds of worms.\u201d <\/p>\n
The escape is identical to that above, replacing\u00a0k\u0101ma (sense-desire) with r\u016bpa (body).<\/p>\n
Last covered, and perhaps because it is the most subtle of the two, is feeling (vedana). In Buddhist psychology, feeling can be of only three kinds: pleasant, unpleasant, or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant (i.e. neutral). Here the gratification may surprise some people, the pleasures arising from meditative\u00a0absorption, or jh\u0101na.<\/p>\n
The Buddha covers the standard four levels of\u00a0jh\u0101na, with each state cultivating the freedom from all \u00a0affliction. This, the Buddha says, is the best feeling in the world. But, warns the Buddha, it too has a danger because it is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and subject to change. So, as much as they love their meditative absorptions, the monks are warned and urged to escape even the desire or lusting after these refined states of being.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
As I noted, one gets a sense of progression here, from<\/p>\n
\n- more \u2018mundane\u2019 pursuits like a nice house and wealth to\u00a0<\/li>\n
- the relatively \u2018higher\u2019 pleasures of a sexual partner and finally (or simply our harmful identifications with our own body)<\/li>\n
- the pinnacle of feelings we can crave in the world, the sublime bliss of meditative absorption.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
And that\u2019s all for me; there\u2019s not much I can think of in terms of commentary. But I\u2019ll be happy to receive questions and try to give answers if you have any.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I highly recommend Bhikkhu Bodhi\u2019s recordings, writings, and teachings in general. Next up from me will be MN 57: Kukkuravatika Sutta \u2014 The Dog-Duty Ascetic<\/b>; on karma\/kamma<\/i>\u00a0and its lawfulness.<\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-6682572409337731452?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\")
<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"