Abstract
Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra is an Indian Buddhist sutra dating to the first half of the first millennium. Chapter 7 of the sutra consists of a very long meditation on the body, unusual in Buddhist literature for its anatomical, especially osteological, detail. The meditation also includes extensive descriptions of many internal worms as well as the internal winds that destroy the worms at the moment of death. The sutra has several elements not found in other Buddhist texts. For example, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra meditation on the body includes extensive descriptions of things in the external world (e.g., rivers, mountains, flowers) and designates them as the “external body”. Most strikingly, the meditation on the body found in Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra differs from the general scholarly perception of Buddhist meditations on the body in that it does not emphasize impurity or generate repulsion. Instead, the sutra guides the meditator through a dispassionate and “scientific” observation of the body and the world.
Highlights
The Buddhist meditation on the body is found in many texts and in several different contexts.The most comprehensive context is the category of kāyānupaśyanā or kāyasmr.tyupasthāna, one of the four smr.tyupasthānas
The eyes, as representative of the sense organs, are analyzed. They are described as “lumps of the four Great Elements”, and the practitioner is instructed to understand the physical sensations in the eyes in terms of these elements, for example: “As for this material cause of the experience of hardness when something a little hard is in these internal eyes of mine, which are lumps of flesh, it is the earth element of my internal eyes, which are lumps of flesh” (D sha 110b2–4; T721.379a26–29)
He is not bound by the craving that is simultaneous with desire for pleasure and will not be harmed by the afflictions of rebirth (D sha 137a4–b2; T721.388a23–b2)
Summary
The chapter begins with a frame story (nidāna), which narrates the occasion on which the Buddha preached the sutra and in which the Buddha announces the title of the sermon: Kāyasmr.tyupasthāna (D sha 110a2; T721.379a11). The eyes, as representative of the sense organs, are analyzed They are described as “lumps of the four Great Elements (mahābhūtas)”, and the practitioner is instructed to understand the physical sensations in the eyes in terms of these elements, for example: “As for this material cause of the experience of hardness when something a little hard is in these internal eyes of mine, which are lumps of flesh, it is the earth element of my internal eyes, which are lumps of flesh” (D sha 110b2–4; T721.379a26–29). Unlike texts like Visuddhimagga, which focuses from the outset on the repulsiveness of the body, the sutra dispassionately presents an extraordinary amount of “scientific” information, interspersed with reminders of the benefits of correctly understanding both the internal body and the external world
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