This is a talk given by Ajahn Dtuns (Translated by Ajahn Te)
How essential is body contemplation? Didn’t the
Venerable Ajahn Chah teach ‘letting go’?
It is essential to investigate the body to see the mind clearly.
Sometimes people take Luang Por Chah’s teachings from the end of
the path and forget about the instructions for the beginning. If one
has not passed beyond all attachment to the body, it is impossible to
clearly investigate the mind. The investigation of
citta
and
dhamma
satipatthānas
(the four foundations of mindfulness: the body,
feelings, mind and
dhammas
) is the path of practice for
anāgāmis
.
Before that, they can be investigated, but only superficially.
Sometimes you hear people say, ‘
Kilesas
are in the mind, not in
the body, so it is the mind that should be contemplated.’ But it
is only by passing beyond attachment to the body that the other
khandhas
(the five physical and mental components of personality:
body, feeling, memory, thinking and consciousness) become clear.
Without investigating the body as elements, as
asubha
, as thirty-
two parts, one will not be able to realize
sotāpanna
. Even those with
great
pāramī
, such as Luang Por Tate and Luang Ta Mahā Boowa,
had to go through the body to realize the path.
It is important to note that in the higher ordination ceremony to
become a Buddhist monk, the preceptor must instruct the candidate
for ordination on the five principal objects of meditation: hair, body
hair, nails, teeth and skin. To not give this instruction invalidates
the whole ordination. And why? Because the Lord Buddha knew
that by not instructing a candidate on such an essential topic would
be the cause for those persons Holy-Life to be unfruitful, or more
precisely, they will not realize the noble paths to awakening, their
fruitions, nor Nibbāna