Reflections on the Parts of the Body

[4] "Furthermore...just as if a sack with openings at both ends were full of various kinds of grain — wheat, rice, mung beans, kidney beans, sesame seeds, husked rice — and a man with good eyesight, pouring it out, were to reflect, 'This is wheat. This is rice. These are mung beans. These are kidney beans. These are sesame seeds. This is husked rice,' in the same way, monks, 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, spleen, lungs, large intestines, small intestines, gorge, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, skin-oil, saliva, mucus, fluid in the joints, urine.'

"In this way he remains focused internally on the body in & of itself, or focused externally... unsustained by anything in the world. This is how a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself.

This is my work for about the next month or so. Essentially my job is to mentally disect the parts of the body and become familiar with the characteristics and become aware of them as distinct elements of the body as much as possible.

This serves a couple of purposes. First is just mindfulness of the body, which will help with identifying feeling tone (several weeks down the road). Separating out the parts and defining what's what builds sensitivity and subtleness of the practice, since many of these are hard to identify just by trying to set your mind to noticing something like bile. It's like someone starting out wine tasting as a hobby. At first there's a large broad sense of, this is what red tastes like, this is what white tastes like. But as the person refines their palete, then the distinctions become stronger because their senses and mind have become more sensitive.

Second, the contemplation of the body in such a analytical way helps with subduing sensual and bodily desire, simultaneous developing a certain amount of admiration for the human body and how intricate and amazing it is, and also disenchantment from the trappings and attachment and identification to it. This is especially the case with the supposition that seems to come so naturally, that somehow body is self.