法苑珠林 67.4

67.4

As the Chan miyao jing says: 'Furthermore, Śāriputra, when a practitioner enters dhyāna-concentration, if sensual awareness arises and the wind of lust stirs, it agitates the four hundred and four channels, from the eyes down to the body sense-faculty, shaking them all at once. The senses become obstructed, stirring the heart-wind and driving the mind mad. Driven mad because of this, they are possessed by ghosts and demons, yearning for sensual desire day and night as if trying to extinguish fire from their hair. One must urgently remedy this. The method of remedying it is to teach this practitioner to contemplate the womb. The womb is located below the receptacle for raw food and above the receptacle for digested food, with ninety-nine layers of membranes resembling the bladder of a dead pig. Four hundred and four channels branch out from the womb like the scrapings of a tree, dispersing through the faculties like sacks filled with faeces, with nineteen hundred joints resembling plantain leaves. Eighty families of worms encircle the four hundred and four channels as well as the womb, like a horse's intestines, extending straight to the birth canal like an armlet, round in size, circular above and pointed below, shaped like cowrie teeth, in ninety-nine layers. Between each single layer there are four hundred and four worms, each worm having twelve heads and twelve mouths. When a person drinks water, the essence of the water enters the channels and disperses among the worms, entering the crown of the vilā worms straight to the birth canal. Fortnight by fortnight impure water discharges; the worms each vomit it out like rotten pus, entering the mouths of ninety worms, and discharging from the six apertures of twelve worms like spoiled crimson juice. There are further worms, finer than autumn down, disporting within it. Due to the past misdeeds of men, the four hundred and four channels disperse from the eye faculty through the four limbs, flowing through the intestines down below the receptacle for raw food and above the receptacle for digested food. On either side of the channels of the lungs, spleen, and kidneys, there are each sixty-four worms, each with twelve heads and twelve mouths, coiled together like finger rings, filled with bluish pus like the semen of a wild boar, foul and repulsive beyond measure. Reaching the hidden place of the genitals, they divide into three branches: two-ninths are above, like plantain leaves, having one thousand two hundred channels. In each channel, wind worms are born, fine as autumn down, resembling the beaks of vilanta birds. Among the worms are born sinew-coloured worms (the form of these worms resembles chopsticks, binding and holding the womb, able to agitate the channels and suck essence in and out; the male worms are bluish-white, and the female worms are red), seventy-eight thousand entwined together, shaped like stacked rings, resembling the eyes of kuśīra birds. Ninety-eight channels rush upward to the heart and up to the topknot. When men's eyes contact visible forms, the wind stirs the heart faculty, and the four hundred and four channels are driven by the wind to churn without ceasing. The eighty families of worms simultaneously open their mouths, and pus issues from the eyes, flowing into the channels and reaching the worms' crowns, throwing the worms into chaotic agitation, driven utterly mad. Upon contacting the female genitals, the man's bluish-white semen is the tears of these worms; the woman's yellowish-red essence is the pus of these worms. These are the practices perfumed by the ninety-eight defilements; the movements of the eighty families of worms and the earth, water, fire, and wind all proceed from this.' The Buddha told Śāriputra: 'If any among the fourfold assembly wear the garments of shame and conscience, take the medicine of shame and conscience, and wish to seek liberation and cross beyond worldly suffering, they should train in this method as if drinking ambrosia. One who trains in this method visualises the aforementioned womb, down to the female genitals and the male body, with all the worms large and small opening their mouths, pricking their ears, glaring with anger, and vomiting pus. Turning it over with the hand, place it on the tip of the left knee, counting breaths to settle the mind for one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine cycles. When this visualisation is perfected, place it on the tip of the right knee and contemplate it as before. Again turning it over with the hand, cover the head with it, causing these worms and all manner of impure matter first to touch both eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, reaching everywhere. Having seen this, when looking with one's eyes upon beautiful female forms and beautiful male forms, or even sons of devas and daughters of devas, it is like seeing a leper's worm-infested ulcers, like the hellish arrows of the pantara demons and spirits, like the blazing fire and scorching flames of the Avīci Hell. One should contemplate attentively: one's own body, others' bodies, and the bodily parts of all sentient beings in the desire realm are all impure in just this way. Śāriputra, do you know now? The primal seed of the bodily faculties of sentient beings is entirely impure and cannot be described in full. One should simply count the breaths and contemplate it single-mindedly. One who takes this medicine is a great man, a teacher of gods and humans, a taming leader of humans. They are spared the mire of desire, and are not drowned by the water of the defilements and the great river of attachment, nor harmed by licentious, inauspicious phantoms and demonic spirits. You should know that though such a person has not yet escaped saṃsāra, their body is fragrant and pure like an utpala lotus, unsurpassed by the fragrant elephants among humans, nāga kings, mighty wrestlers, or Maheśvara; they are a great man of vast strength, revered by gods and humans.' The Buddha told Śāriputra: 'Receive and uphold this well, and preach it to the fourfold assembly; take care not to forget or lose it.' Then Śāriputra, Ānanda, and the others, hearing what the Buddha had spoken, rejoiced and put it into practice.