分別功德論 2.5

2.5

As for the "mindfulness of the suffering of the body in seclusion", it means contemplating the thirty-six impure substances and foul discharges of the body to awaken oneself, through which the path can be attained. How is this demonstrated? In the past, there was a monk who practiced āraṇyaka conduct and begged for food. He encountered a gṛhapati's daughter and begged food from her. The monk and the woman were both handsome. Seeing the monk, the woman gave rise to lustful thoughts; seeing the woman, the monk also gave rise to lustful thoughts. His mind agitated and his hands trembling, he dropped the food into the bowl, missing it so that it fell onto the ground. The woman smiled in amusement. Seeing the woman's white teeth, the monk immediately awakened to himself, saying: "Inside the woman's mouth there is purely just bone. As the Buddha said: 'In the human body there are three hundred and twenty bones, six hundred joints, seven hundred thousand vessels, and nine hundred thousand pores. One pore enters and nine orifices discharge, leaking impurity, with not one thing worthy of greed.'" Carefully contemplating the thirty-six substances of the woman's body, his hair stood on end with dread; focusing solely on examining himself, he immediately understood the emptiness of the body and attained the path of stream-entry. He then thought to himself: "Because of this woman I have seen the Dharma; she is my spiritual friend. Now I should repay her kindness." He then explained to the woman the contemplation of the body that he had just understood. The woman's mind immediately opened, and she too attained the path of stream-entry. For this reason, mindfulness of the body is superior.