Patikulamanasikara

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Pātikūlamanasikāra refers to a mindfulness meditation practice from the Pāli canon used to develop detachment from one's body. Along with cementary contemplations, this type of meditation is one of the two Buddhist meditations on "the foul" (Pāli: asubha).[1]

Contents

[edit] Title's definition

Pātikūla-manasikāra literally means "loathsomeness" (Pāli: pātikūla) plus "attention" or "reflection" or "fixed thought" (Pāli: manasikāra).[2] Traditionally, this whole phrase has been translated as "realisation of the impurity of the body"[3] or "reflections on repulsiveness."[4]

[edit] Source

This form of meditation is mentioned in various texts of the Pāli canon including the Mahasatipatthana Sutta ("The Great Frames of Reference," DN 22)[5] and the Kayagatasati ("Mindfulness Immersed in the Body," MN 119)[6] as well as the post-canonical Visuddhimagga. In each of these sources, this meditation is identified as one of several meditations on the body along with, for instance, the Anapanasati Sutta.

[edit] Benefits

This type of meditation is traditionally mentioned as an "antidote" to bodily lust and narcissism (see five hindrances).[7]

This is also one of the "four protective meditations," along with recollection of the Buddha, metta practice and recollection of death.[8]

[edit] Practice

This mediation involves meditating on 31 different body parts: head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidney, heart, liver, pleura, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, stomach, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, mucus, synovial fluid and urine.[9]

A traditional formulation of how to meditate on these is:

"Just as if a sack with openings at both ends were full of various kinds of grain — wheat, rice, mung beans, kidney beans, sesame seeds, husked rice — and a man with good eyesight, pouring it out, were to reflect, 'This is wheat. This is rice. These are mung beans. These are kidney beans. These are sesame seeds. This is husked rice'; in the same way, the monk reflects on this very body from the soles of the feet on up, from the crown of the head on down, surrounded by skin and full of various kinds of unclean things [as identified in the above enumeration of bodily organs and fluids]...."[10]

Alternately, more generally, one can meditate on these bodily parts by observing the arising and passing away of phenomena (such as internal sensations or mental imagery) associated with them.

By meditating on these bodily parts, one develops detachment (see upekkha) from their body and from other bodies, letting go of delusional clinging (tanha), and seeing "body in body" (to use a term frequently encountered in the body-contemplation section of the Mahasatipatthana Sutta).

S.N. Goenka suggests that, unlike true vipassana, this type of meditation deals with "imagination or intellectualisation." He thus reserves its use for "some cases, when the mind is very dull or agitated" and thus the mind is unable to follow the breath (see anapanasati) or more refined sensations. He concludes:

"Of course, when the actual practice of Vipassana starts, there should be no aversion towards this ugly body. It is just observed as it is – yathābhūta. It is observed as body, with sensations arising and passing. The meditator is now on the path."[11]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Nanamoli (1998), p. 110, n. 16, which references the Anapanasati Sutta and the Visuddhimagga, Ch. VI, VIII.
  2. ^ PTS (1921-25), pp. 392, 521. Similarly, the core Buddhist notion of yoniso manasikāra refers to "bare attention."
  3. ^ PTS (1921-25), p. 393.
  4. ^ VRI (1996), p. 11.
  5. ^ Thanissaro (2000).
  6. ^ Thanissaro (1997).
  7. ^ See for instance Thanissaro (1994), "Translator's Introduction," where he states: "[Khuddakapatha] Passage 3 [which enumerates the 32 parts of the body] gives preliminary guidance [to monastic novices] in the contemplation of the body, a meditation exercise designed to overcome lust.
  8. ^ Bodhi (2002), p.6.
  9. ^ The 31 identified body parts in pātikūlamanasikāra contemplation are the same as the first 31 body parts identified in the "Dvattimsakara" ("32 Parts [of the Body]") verse, Khp 3 (Piyadassi, 1999).[1] The thirty-second body part identified in the latter verse is the brain.
  10. ^ Thanissaro (1997).
  11. ^ Goenka (undated).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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