Contemplating the Impurity of the Physical Body

Ru Chun: For a while I accompanied my family member who was hospitalized. In the same ward were two retired officials. One had undergone a tracheotomy, with two tubes installed in his throat—one for breathing and one for eating. He could not manage his own urination and defecation, and at night he was always choked by phlegm and unable to breathe; he could neither spit it out nor swallow it, coughing and gasping desperately, nearly suffocating. It was painful to watch. At such a time, even if he had a lot of money in the bank, high status, power, fame, talent, excellent and loving family members, and so on—what use were they in the face of illness, suffering, aging, and death? Could they exempt him from these miseries? Could he trade his money, status, success, and loving relationships with the great ghost of impermanence for one more day of life or a little less suffering? Certainly not.

The other patient had Parkinson's disease. He could basically take care of himself in daily life—he could eat by himself and go to the bathroom by himself. But his family caregivers were very impatient, constantly scolding him and showing disgust toward him. When he ate, sticky liquid dripped from the corner of his mouth as he chewed, and he could never clean himself properly after using the toilet. Think about what a human being really is—what things are packed inside this skin-bag of ours? Such a wretched, foul skin-bag, and yet we consider it quite lovable and noble, greedily clinging to our own and others' five aggregates, achieving merit and establishing enterprises for its sake, exhausting all our strength to create all kinds of appearances to make it look mighty and splendid. How foolish and shameful this truly is!

Assessment: Judging from these various phenomena, the physical body is indeed impure. Pure seeds of the four great elements, according to impure karmic seeds, combine in various ways to create an impure physical body, and then to crave and cling to it is truly foolish. In a whole lifetime, one creates too much karma and pays too much for this impure thing; most of a person's time is spent busying oneself for it—one should have long since grown weary of it. For the sake of one's cultivation of the Path, one need not abandon this physical body; one merely uses it, making use of it to cultivate the Way, cultivate blessings, cultivate goodness, and establish virtue, accomplishing all kinds of merit. Apart from this, it really has little significance. Yet many people cling to this thing intensely. Beings of the six realms all cling to this thing, not knowing that using it temporarily is enough—clinging is useless and unnecessary. Having attachment means losing right mindfulness; it is wrong knowledge and wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), it is delusion and karma, and it can lead to the suffering of birth-and-death transmigration. When the Buddha was in the world, he pointed at a group of ants and said: Because this group of ants clings to their own physical bodies, even after seven Buddhas have appeared in the world, they are still ants. One can see that clinging and greedy love cause oneself to fail to evolve toward higher forms of life through countless kalpas, let alone attain liberation.

Now we have encountered the dharma of liberation of both the Great and Small Vehicles. Although we can have faith in, accept, and practice it, that attachment still remains deeply rooted and cannot be shaken in the slightest. With regard to eating, clothing, dwelling, using, and traveling, we are extremely attached to, greedy for, treasuring, and valuing the physical body, unwilling to lower our standard of living even a little, unwilling to enjoy a little less—otherwise we feel we are losing out. Yet we are losing out and suffering great losses at every moment without knowing it; we have no feeling for how foolish we are, lacking the power of awareness.