Body Contemplation

The body is something that we are familiar enough with that we can take parts of it in our mind and keep our attention on them, turning them around and thinking about them to see their attributes and their associations and to see their cause-and-effect relationships. Because we know so much about the body already, it’s a very good basic subject for meditation.

Body contemplation takes two basic directions. One is the way of samatha, using calm and concentration as a basis; the other is the way of vipassanā, using insight and wisdom as a basis.

To practice the way of samatha, you keep your attention on one aspect of the body, like the skin, without thinking much about it. Just keep the skin fixed in your mind as much as you can. One advantage of using this method is that the mind becomes calm and focused. And because the focus of your attention has been concentrated on a part of the body, it’s easy to then turn and investigate that body part to develop a deeper understanding of its true nature.

The vipassanā way of doing body contemplation begins by questioning the nature of the body. What is the nature of skin? Where does skin come from? What is it composed of? What happens if I don’t wash it? Suppose I cut off a piece? What lies underneath it? What internal organs is the skin covering up and what are they like? Consider all aspects of the parts that make up the body. This is the way of developing wisdom—questioning all the time, searching for what’s really there.

To begin with, take the body as the body; that is, take it in the way you normally experience it in your life. You are not attempting to superimpose a radical new view on the body. Rather, you want to go more deeply into what is right there in front of you and expose some obvious truths about it.

You are trying to see this body in what might be called “the light of truth”—trying to see what bodily existence means in such a deep and profound way that you realize the body is not you. It is not yours. This is the important point.

Later on, you can examine the body as a mental image. At the beginning of body contemplation, however, you must look at the body in the way you normally do. Otherwise, the investigation becomes too nebulous and the practice doesn’t progress properly.

The first aim of the practice is to discover for yourself the body’s repulsive nature, repulsive in the sense that it doesn’t reflect the nice image you have of yourself. This discovery counters the normal view that the body is an attractive and desirable part of who you are, a part that deserves your constant fondness and attention.

On the other hand, you also understand that the body is a necessary and valuable instrument because without it you do not have a physical basis for your mental faculties. Without a physical body, you would not have access to the faculties of thinking and recollection. There’d be just bare knowing, and that’s all. Therefore, you must have the body to function. So, although it is seen as undesirable, you are also aware of its necessity.

As long as you maintain that balanced view of the body in your practice, you can avoid negative states of alienation and aversion.

This reflection by Ajaan Paññāvaḍḍho is from the book Uncommon Wisdom, (pdf) pp. 190-191.