On June 13th intuitive guide, teacher, and energy healer Tracey Whittet and I chatted about her integrative healing method Transmosis, corporate America, how she works with folks in healing and energy work and clearing, meditation, channeling, A Course In Miracles, Love Is Letting Go Of Fear, reiki, inner realms, archetypes, love, energetic hygiene, Tracey’s training and teaching as a healer, multidimensional body balancing, DNA, epigenetics, embodiment, deserts, free will, equanimity, light and dark, darkness as ignorance, interconnectivity, empowerment, service work, transmutation, consciousness, golden light, self-care, wholistic care, inspiration, support, etc.
An unconscious transfer and assimilation of higher energies to raise the recipients energy to equal the source energy
Custom Orgonite from alternativelifeguide.com where I provided the crystals (except for the wire wrapped quartz) and the intent: “to support any and all required transformations and transmutations for the well-being, awakening and liberation of all as allowed by, and in alignment with true cosmic law”
The included stones are sources for some of the seven traditional (external) alchemical metals. Shout out to Peace, Love, Happy for the gold flakes. Salt and sulfur (and mercury) significantly mentioned in alchemical lore are also included.
May you all share in its beneficial intent and resultant beneficial merit
This June 23 Insight Timer live event was described thus:
A (brief) experiment where (you) the audience teach me anything you’d like. It could be from the spiritual journey, inner work, everyday life, work, play, groups, family, friends, enemies, frenemies, relationships, etc. I may fill in gaps with how to approach teachers and others for information, wisdom, knowledge, teachings, etc.
“When the student is ready the teacher/master will appear. When the student is really ready the teacher/master will disappear.”
On June 9th Happiness Coach Dannie De Novo chatted about her story, what she does, how she helps folks, honesty, vulnerability, forgiveness, addressing shame, worthiness, pain, and plenty more. From her website:
Dannie De Novo is a happiness coach and international bestselling author. After having battled depression and anxiety for most of her early life, Dannie set out on a course to learn what true happiness was for her and for the sake of her baby girl. Now, Dannie regularly appears on ABC, Fox, NBC, and CBS TV news and talk shows as an expert on creating happiness, combating loneliness and depression, and managing anxiety.
Audio: Get Happy With Happiness Coach Dannie De Novo
Grateful and fortunate enough to put a few things to Ajahn Amaro via his zoom teaching on the NiramisaSutta hosted by Mid America Buddhist Association on May 22, 2022. Also thankful for the patience of the audience while I stammered and stuttered around in the process of sharing and question formulation with plenty of “I-making” — even more noticeable in the full unedited version which I encourage all to watch below (which includes my (guess) response to a question Ajahn asks):
Experimental and unedited transcript (attempt) of this podcast via assemblyai.com:
I would make a comment, maybe question about Atayamata at the end here. But I really wanted to just thank you for this long talk of yours that I listened to a podcast on the island book, The Island, all about the goal. And I love how it was structured because there were readings from the entire book, but then there was also discussions and questions and answers. I found it really helpful and how just kind of dug into that and just kind of turn over every stone and would come back later with references that came up and included those. So I’m very grateful for that too. In the lineage of A Johnson, I wanted to relate very briefly kind of teaching that I’ve benefited up here. Is that so? Question and then so I found that really helpful. So I have to skip the story. I’ll tell Yamata. I’ve also heard it. If I’m getting this right, uncocked ability. Thought that was a very interesting way to put it too. And if I’m getting this right too, whatever we think the truth is, the truth is always other than that, maybe my question would just be to kind of wrap up the stuff that I said and if addressing the accuracy or expanding on those points. Thanks again. Yeah, thank you. Unconcoctability. I think that’s Ajun Santi Caro’s translation of atomic. And he was Agin Buddhasa’s translator for quite a number of years. And they worked together, they did a lot of person to person collaboration. And Buddha Dasa had quite a bit of English as well. I was there visiting Swanwalk when he was giving talks on this. And he would sometimes stop Santa Cara and say, no, not that it should be like this. So unconcompatibility that is Charlotte translation. So all of those are relevant. So Ajim. Buddhasa would also say this is the final divorce of the mind from the conditioned realm. I ain’t going to mess with you no more with Santa caros of more kind of Midwestern rendering, I ain’t going to mess with you no more. And it’s that kind of a tone of there’s no more of this unconscionibility. So it’s one of those terms you can’t really find a perfect English word for it. But that’s why I was saying how it’s in a way, most important to get a feel, a felt sense of what this quality is in our own practice, in our own hearts, and then let the word follow the reality as it’s known, rather than trying to pin down the perfect word. Somebody gave me a copy of Jean Paulo Sarka’s being and Nothingness a few weeks ago and a very substantial tone. The way that there’s this effort to try and pin everything into the reality, into the words, I keep getting this feeling of starting from the wrong place. Guys, I realize that could be a bit of an inflated perception, but I feel one of the great blessings of Buddhist practice is you’re starting with the experience, letting the words match the experience, or evoke that as best they can, but you can’t pin that down. So the passage you’re quoting, the party is ya and yatati. Whatever you conceived to be the reality is necessarily other than that. So, again, not to belittle Jean Paul Sartre and his efforts and the other good European philosophers, but to me that’s an extraordinarily potent and useful principle. Whatever you conceived to be the reality is necessarily other than that. But you can’t put three dimensional tea into a drawing of a two dimensional drawing of a tea cup. The reality has got too many dimensions to fit into concepts and language. So that’s one of the reasons why I say, with my attire, you’re letting go of time, identity, location, causality, language, time, even number. Those are conditioned constructions that we give more reality and substantiality to than they really possess. So that simple phrase or whatever you can see if it to be the truth, is always other than that. It doesn’t mean that you guessed the wrong answer to the puzzle. No, it’s like saying words can’t do it. You can’t put three dimensional t into the drawing of a teacup. It won’t go. It’s got too many dimensions. That’s why it’s not that if you just had a better drawing, it would work. No, the concept hasn’t got enough dimensions. So in that level of realization of practice, it’s letting the heart abide in that three dimensional or more higher dimensional reality and not trying to represent the fundamental reality just in concepts and words, which is one of the reasons why the Buddha was quite happy to not try and describe the nature of ultimate reality, but spend 99% of his time pointing to the pathway to realize it for the individual. Rather than trying to describe the nature of the goal or the qualities of the goal, he put 99% of his attention on the pathway to the realization of that. And then it’s like how to make a teacup rather than how to draw the perfect teacup, how to actually make a three dimensional teacup that can contain the t. Thank you. Thank you, Josh, for the question. We have several other questions, and a lot of them are focusing on the mechanics, suggestions of types of meditation, how to sustain and move on to the next levels and function in the world. There’s various different approaches. I think what I was saying at the end and also what Josh was quoting about this practice of the Virginia asking the questions, is that so or so? That both informal meditation. But also, the more we develop it in formal meditation, the more that can be applied in the flow of everyday activity is to use that kind of questioning, who is meditating? Does this moment have an owner who is here to progress or to not progress? It’s not that the effort is not being made or direction is not being given. But it’s flagging that I’m making and mind making the mamancara habits to flag those, to illuminate those and as soon as that is known, it’s like shining the light on those habits. It’s like you’re slowing the film down so you can see how the conjurer did the trick. It’s like that intrinsically, seeing how the eye is that there’s an eye being formed here. Oh, that’s a formation, that’s a presumption, a heart. So that by using that kind of reflection, questioning who is walking, who’s asking this question that it’s shining a light on those eye making and mind making habits and then the effect of shining that light because it’s not just like a mantra that you’re repeating just to who am I, who am I? Who’s walking? Who’s walking? Who’s walking? Who’s thinking? Who’s thinking? It’s not a simple repetition. The more it’s a genuine question, then the more that breaks up the habits of I’m making and mind making. And then what that does is rather than disabling our life from attunement or effectiveness in the world like that non attachment or non identification, non fashioning, it doesn’t mean we suddenly freeze in the middle of the sidewalk and suddenly stopped existing. I need someone to come along and start moving my limbs again. That’s not the way it works at all. It’s rather that when their eye making and mind making is recognized and let go of, then the system of this life functions in a far more attuned and effective way.”
Types of callers to his call in show Adventures Into Reality from now compared to when Andrew started it in 2012
(transferring) merit
stepping on other’s journey
“Your responsibility is equal to your level of awareness and your level of awareness is equal to your responsibility”
chakra removal industry
chakra teachings
energy centers
types of energy, i.e. sexual energy
energetic hygiene
protecting sleep space
astral realms:
as being out of phase
similarities and difference to dreaming and dreamworlds
purposes and significances of north pole [ancestry] and south pole [future generations]
(perception) deception (filter)
discernment via hindsight
journaling
our understanding of physics not applying in other realities/realms
high levels of creativity to breach limitations
cell phones as unprotected psychic technologies bonding with our energy fields
empathy as the entry level psychic skill and as a habit
using empathy as radar instead of a sampler and on to intuition; precognition and postcognition [ability to (positively) edit perception deception filters)]
observer effect
(cats as first example of) unentangled observer technology and similar stealth techniques/tech
sound, light, time, no-time in language processes
Akashic records:
necessity of neutrality in accessing, reading and relating information from them
their integrity
how they can and can’t be manipulated
contrast to channeling and information stored on library Crystal Discs
suggestions on timeline work and grid work
mainstreaming of conspiracy theories
how Andrew classifies various groups, alliances, collectives, etc
messianic or non-messianic
religious or non-religious
god-based or myth based
🧵 Photo thread of Denver International Airport from yesterday. If this is not your kind of thing keep scrolling please.
Due to ongoing construction much of their infamous “terminal art” is supposedly stashed. pic.twitter.com/cA1MFFKLfB
Author D. Neil Elliot and I recorded this conversation on June 7th. From Neil’s website:
To any outsider, D. Neil Elliott was highly educated, owned a profitable consulting firm, and had a successful career and an amazing wife and family. But things were not all they seemed to be … Neil was facing a lot of challenges. In a phrase, he was in a dark place. Quite by accident, he discovered a Higher Road. As he traveled that road, he found the key to transforming his life.
Over the course of the following year, Neil lifted himself to an inner state of love, peace, joy, and abundance. His perspectives on life changed entirely. His troubles and tribulations were his impetus to find the key that enabled him to revolutionize his life. He learned that the search for a better life does not entail positive thinking, saying affirmations, chanting mantras, or traveling to India to sit at the feet of a guru—or any other popularized method of “finding yourself.” …The key? To ascend in both spiritual perception and truth, you need to use the right process to break through your entrenched, human-ego barriers.
For nearly three decades, Neil read hundreds of self-help and spiritual books and took self-development courses. All of them offered hope for change and improvement, but nothing fulfilled his needs or genuinely delivered on its promises.
Neil’s desire—and his new mission in life—is to share the knowledge he gained and the process he used on his journey to self-awareness, together with the blueprint document he discovered that was instrumental in transforming his life. He wants to give you, regardless of your station in life, the tools and opportunity to empower yourself, transform your life, and draw peace, joy, love, and prosperity into your personal situation and environment. Neil believes that as more and more people follow this Higher Road to true spiritual perfection, a New Era of Love and Peace will dawn for everyone throughout the world.
We chat about:
Neil’s life to the brink of suicide and how it turned around
The divinely ordained process of how Neil received the teachings in his book “A Higher Road: Cleanse Your Consciousness to Transcend the Ego and Ascend Spiritually”
Purpose
Waking up
“Returning home”
Neil’s understanding of soul
Unconditional love
ego
individuality and personality
(connection and disconnection with/from) divinity
Brahmaviharas
My intent of having Neil on
Consciousness
electromagnetic impulses
will to move out and create
the purpose to give form to creation
(a high) frequency and vibration
Energy
Karma / Action / Consequences / Cause and effect
Life plans
bonding and rejection
duality
unity
atrocities due to letting ignorance and ego run amok
transmuting negativity
Bridging science and spirituality
Willingness to be open and learn
Our goal is to get back to where we came from while we are here on earth but in reality we have never really left it
A Higher Road: Cleanse Your Consciousness to Transcend the Ego and Ascend Spiritually reveals secrets hidden since the beginning of creation that enabled Neil to transform himself—body, mind, and soul. Now, in this book, he guides you through a process that will help you achieve the best possible outcomes for your life.
Neil’s book begins with a memoir of his early years—and shows how his life experience pushed him to the edge. He uses his life story to illustrate how, through the use of our creative consciousness tools, each of us creates our every tomorrow. He expands on concepts of personal consciousness and the mechanisms of how each of us is unknowingly impacting our individual and collective lives, creating our current turbulent and destructive global reality.
Next, the book reviews scientific works on memetics, biology, epigenetics, neuroplasticity, and neurogenesis, to emphasize how scientific discoveries and the repercussions of science’s “mind over matter” paradigms affect our daily lives. To assist us in understanding the concept of self, consciousness, and life, Neil shares a vivid description of a Near-Death Experiencer’s afterlife vision that shows clearly what happens to us when we die. Then, he moves on to share with us the revelatory blueprint document that inspired him to take a Higher Road. This manuscript held the key to his personal transformation.
Oops! For those joining the live *(Jhanic Factors And) Formless Realms Contemplation/Meditation* I unplugged the internet while moving seats only realizing this afterwards! Obviously I need more mindfulness! We’ll see if I schedule something live like this again
Here’s the description for this June 12th Insight Timer live event:
Addressing the politics and emotional charges often associated with Jhana & nimitta before talking about jhanic factors then placing this aside for a guided meditation/contemplation based on “The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness (MN 121)” involving village, wilderness, earth & the four formless states
And the notes:
Can stay with breath during talk
Disclaimers: big can of worms. Can’t rule out the possibility this could delay advancement in practicing the jhanas. Seek out master teachers who teach jhana and study and practice with them. I may have been indirectly called out for an over simplification of jhanas and am grateful for this calling out.
No clear consensus on jhana and nimmita and even the jhanic factors as I discovered when looking into them. Perhaps interesting why not taught more in the west. Wild guess that maybe lack the proper levels conducive to the type of disagreement and division for those seeking to further divide and conquer tactics.
I have heard of the controversial nature in east of gaining “psychic powers” with jhanas. . . again, not really mentioned much why jhana hasn’t been taught more in the west. So this polarity of maybe being overly revered, protected, maybe even coveted with a dismissal or absence of availability. Maybe a stretch, but I wonder if this kind of a parallels perhaps of the Buddha’s mastery of Jhana then a kind of abandoning of this as a sole, ultimate teaching/practice
Teachers claiming their method is the correct way and others not, also claims of how the Buddha taught and didn’t teach jhana. How it ought and ought not be taught
These politics and emotional charges involved in what is and isn’t jhana and nimmita seem further complicated by monastic rule of not revealing attainments and lay practitioners not really knowing how attainments are verified.
Left with: why all of the above? From base level one can see the danger of spending so much time of one’s life practicing these and then be invalidated. On the other hand, some level of concentration mastery seems necessary for right samadhi the eighth of the eight fold noble path
Jhanic factors (not the (8) meditative absorption states known as jhana):
(Vitakka)
directed contact initial application of mind applied attention/thought thinking coarse engagement
Bringing the mind to the object (arousing, applying)
(Vicara)
sustained application/attention/thought/contact more thinking/examination subtle engagement
Keeping the mind with the object (sustaining, stretching)
Bell and bowl polishing analogies
(Píti)
joy, rapture
goose pimples or pleasantness (minor joy)
flashes or sudden rushes of coolness (momentary joy)
may make one feel lighter or hop or jump (uplifting/transporting joy)
overwhelmed in wave-like, joyful feelings and sway (overwhelming/flood/showering joy)
entire body and mind system suffused to every single particle with joy and comfort (suffusing joy)
Finding, having interest in the object (joy)
(Sukha)
happiness deep bliss within or as if a very high and rapturous state
Being happy and content with the object (happiness)
(Ekaggata)
One-pointedness
Unifying the mind with the object (fixing)
Relationship to hinderances:
joy =as overcoming= restlessness
bliss = ill-will
one-pointedness = sensual desires because it stops the mind from flitting to sense objects and fixes onto the meditation object
And/or:
Vitakka/directed contact – craving for sensual pleasures
While I reference some non-Buddhist material most everything in the notes and podcasts for this series on The Iddhipāda-Vibhaṅga Sutta are solely my effort to relate considerations, questions, experiences, explorations, suggestions, interpretations and practices involved and associated with this sutta.
This series comes via seven categories/blog posts/podcasts:
In more detail, the four Iddhipāda — sometimes translated as bases of psychic power, basis of psychic power, bases of power, base of spiritual power, wings to success, paths of accomplishment, accomplishments, or roads to power — are:
vīmaṃsā: investigation; inquiry; discernment; discrimination; reason; interest; intelligent curiosity; [(perhaps a new contribution, or for chanda:) balanced and helpful enthrallment, fascination]; feedback and fine tuning, adjustment; learn from doing; circumspection
Along with aiding our even mundane accomplishments and mastery, perhaps the Iddhipāda play a significant role in approaching will — the way one decides on and initiates action — and at the core of The Iddhipāda-Vibhaṅga Sutta is an analysis of will along with instructions for its training, development, and use.
32 Parts Of The Body
Practice Warning Disclaimer: There are ‘accounts of a mass suicide by monks disgusted with their own bodies, which reportedly happened after the Buddha had praised seeing the body as bereft of beauty.’ If you’re getting a clear “no” when considering these practices please don’t do them for now. Also please look into this topic more deeply if there’s any doubt before engaging in these practices as I take zero responsibility for anyones actions (other than my own).
Part four of the series addresses the 32 parts of the body mentioned within the sutta. In the first portion I speak without notes while I reference the notes below in the other portion.
Regarding the portion:
“And how does a monk dwell so that what is below is the same as what is above, and what is above is the same as what is below? There is the case where a 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, & full of various kinds of unclean things: ‘In this body there are head hairs,…..
or translated:
“And how does a mendicant meditate as below, so above; as above, so below? It’s when a mendicant examines their own body up from the soles of the feet and down from the tips of the hairs, wrapped in skin and full of many kinds of filth. ‘In this body there is head hair, ……
Expanded version with metaphor from the Satipatthana Sutta:
4. The Reflection on the Repulsiveness of the Body
And further, monks, a monk reflects on this very body enveloped by the skin and full of manifold impurity, from the soles up, and from the top of the head-hairs down, thinking thus: “There are in this body hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidney, heart, liver, *midriff*, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, gorge, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, nasal mucus, synovial fluid, urine.”
Just as if there were a double-mouthed provision bag full of various kinds of grain such as hill paddy, paddy, green gram, cow-peas, sesamum, and husked rice, and a man with sound eyes, having opened that bag, were to take stock of the contents thus: “This is hill paddy, this is paddy, this is green gram, this is cow-pea, this is sesamum, this is husked rice.” Just so, monks, a monk reflects on this very body enveloped by the skin and full of manifold impurity, from the soles up, and from the top of the head-hairs down, thinking thus: “There are in this body hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidney, heart, liver, *midriff*, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, gorge, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, nasal mucus, synovial fluid, urine.”
Thus he lives contemplating the body in the body internally, or he lives contemplating the body in the body externally, or he lives contemplating the body in the body internally and externally. He lives contemplating origination factors in the body, or he lives contemplating dissolution factors in the body, or he lives contemplating origination-and-dissolution factors in the body. Or his mindfulness is established with the thought: “The body exists,” to the extent necessary just for knowledge and mindfulness, and he lives detached, and clings to nothing in the world. Thus also, monks, a monk lives contemplating the body in the body.
Is there a skillful, wholesome, wise counterpart to the provisions bag metaphor? Could going through a provisions bag be a means for identifying the aspect of nourishment too? These unclean things need care and maintaining so knowing them in order to also how to relate to them internally and external?
Also divided into 5 mostly external parts, 13 internal parts, 13 bodily substances and (then) you’re in, I mean urine . . .
why no sexual organs or sexual fluids?
joint fluid’s similarity to sexual fluids?
urine’s involvement with sex organs?
joint fluid and urine are listed last
sex organs covered/included indirectly in skin and body hair
A note that’s not directly in the audio:
Pretty sure Kilomakam is the Pali word with garnering the different translations of midriff, pleura, diaphragm, membranes, maybe even fascia
Techniques, Avenues of Approach and Considerations for Development
Head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, and skin as entry point. ([These are meditation objects for newly ordained in some of the Thai Forrest traditions] These are visible so we can notice internally and externally as reference points for parts not so noticeable externally)
If one has familiarity with Chinese medicine, meridians and five element system — Denny and I did shows on this — it may be helpful to look for comparisons of the 32 parts (order) to Chinese pairing and tripling of organs in regards to masculine/feminine and treasure organs and protector organs like liver and gall bladder
visual image vs. word labels as guiding (instructions) for practicing with the 32 parts
How are external images of body parts different from living version we can’t physically see the same way? How would one know?
technique of scanning through and around the 32 parts without naming or labeling, just seeing and knowing them
include the energy interactions with each part while each part remains the primary object of meditation (if addressing the 32 parts individually as well as variations on this) or vice versa where observing (each of the) 32 parts’s energy is the primary object and the physical components are included
technique of using whole, entire, total and complete (physical) body awareness at once for the 32 parts; each part individually; and/or other ways of approaching the 32 parts (and how would such a technique be used for samatha?)
What are the (four) elemental natures — earth, water, wind and fire — for each part and combinations of parts? Chinese relegate certain organs for certain elements. How predominate is one element in an organ? What constitutes a balance of the elements in each organ? How might this be different through various times and places?
(natural) breath to feel and discern what parts are being noticed and how. Also deliberately breathing into and out of each of the 32 parts
How is each part (inter)connected with other parts, the whole body and the external?
Can the whole body and each of the 32 parts be meditated on like the given “double-mouthed provision bag full of various kinds of grain” — like if invisible hands of awareness went through the skin sack of the body. And then on increasingly micro levels can contents within be meditated on again in like manner?
What are the causes and conditions internally and externally affecting/effecting the 32 parts? Similarly, reflect on when and how various parts are more fully and completely penetrated and noticed
death contemplations for each and/or combos of 32 parts to make them less abstract and more immediate. What would the heart look like due to certain causes of death; after certain durations of decay; and given various environments?
More esoteric but some reference beings/entities involved with/for each and/or combos of 32 parts and how bhramavihara practice may relate to this
It’s interesting to practice returning again and again to one part. Also interesting to switch between 32 parts randomly or upon distraction (and/with mental labeling of part and/or when theres’s distraction).
What is the relationship of nervous system with the 32 parts?
32 parts condensed down (for easier access) into: 1) skin level, 2) bone and joint/synovial fluid level and 3) everything else in between
Findings, Insights and Noticings
Body as convergence point:
Human experience is tethered to body
Midgard — other realms accessible here
Discarding hierarchy, perhaps, in a way, in regards to discarding the type of sameness reflected in the esoteric saying “as above so below” vis-à-vis how this sutta somatically expresses “what is below is the same as what is above, and what is above is the same as what is below” [perhaps to add more immediacy to the practice instead of the attention going off into higher and lower gods, spirits, other beings, entities, etc.]
Possession? Body as a temple
Epigenetics and DNA’s role
just like many areas of study if we inquire deeply enough into the functions of the 32 parts to where modern science’s understanding halts we then get into metaphysics, or science beyond our current public understanding; particularly what beings, forces, processes, and energies are involved at these levels, as well as the causes and conditions that come into play and how all this functions
what is going on in the unseen realms in the immediate environment that’s influencing and/or “crossing over” into the physicality of each of the 32 parts? How is this happening and why?
Could such a deep, immersive, intimate, visceral relationship with the shape and form of physical matter, its design and function — with mastery of the four great elements — then be applied to pretty much all matter (leading to the physical powers mentioned in this sutta)?
Naturally that’s speculation from me but in my experience with the 32 parts I spent extra time on the liver and noticing the (possible) benefits on gall bladder (meridian) which is said to protect liver and how blockages along gall bladder meridian seemed to unclog. Liver seemed to (energetically) detox then I noticed how much toxicity there is on many layers: gross and subtle, emotions, moods, attitudes, noises, projections, and all the dukkha or suffering/ stress/ unsatisfactoriness inherent in this current consensual reality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patikulamanasikara — ‘Paṭikkūlamanasikāra (variant: paṭikūlamanasikāra) is a Pāli term that is generally translated as “reflections on repulsiveness”. It refers to a traditional Buddhist meditation whereby thirty-one parts of the body are contemplated in a variety of ways. In addition to developing sati (mindfulness) and samādhi (concentration), this form of meditation is considered conducive to overcoming desire and lust. Along with cemetery contemplations, this type of meditation is one of the two meditations on “the foul”/unattractiveness (Pāli: asubha).’
(3) heart, liver, membranes (around the lungs), spleen, lungs;
(4) large intestines, small intestines, stomach-contents, faeces [, brain];
(5) bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat;
(6) tears, grease, saliva, snot, oil of the joints, urine.‟
In this meditation of parts of the body, groups (1)-(4) constitute the earth element; groups (5)-(6) constitute the water element. The same sutta describes the fire element as that by which one is warmed, ages, and burns, and that by which what is eaten, drunk, chewed and tasted gets completely digested, or whatever else that is liquid, liquefied and clung to internally and individually [belonging to oneself]; and the wind element as up-going winds [burping], down-going winds, winds in the belly [flatulence], winds that course through the limbs, in-breath and out-breath, or whatever else that is air, airy and clung to internally and individually [belonging to oneself].
Asubha Sutta — Unattractiveness:
“Monks, there are these four modes of practice. Which four? Painful practice with slow intuition, painful practice with quick intuition, pleasant practice with slow intuition, & pleasant practice with quick intuition.
“And which is painful practice with slow intuition? There is the case where a monk remains focused on unattractiveness with regard to the body, percipient of loathsomeness with regard to food, percipient of non-delight with regard to the entire world, (and) focused on inconstancy with regard to all fabrications. The perception of death is well established within him. He dwells in dependence on the five strengths of a learner — strength of conviction, strength of conscience, strength of concern, strength of persistence, & strength of discernment — but these five faculties of his — the faculty of conviction, the faculty of persistence, the faculty of mindfulness, the faculty of concentration, the faculty of discernment — appear weakly. Because of their weakness, he attains only slowly the immediacy [1] that leads to the ending of the effluents. This is called painful practice with slow intuition.
“And which is painful practice with quick intuition? There is the case where a monk remains focused on unattractiveness with regard to the body, percipient of loathsomeness with regard to food, percipient of non-delight with regard to the entire world, (and) focused on inconstancy with regard to all fabrications. The perception of death is well established within him. He dwells in dependence on these five strengths of a learner — strength of conviction, strength of conscience, strength of concern, strength of persistence, & strength of discernment — and these five faculties of his — the faculty of conviction, the faculty of persistence, the faculty of mindfulness, the faculty of concentration, the faculty of discernment — appear intensely. Because of their intensity, he attains quickly the immediacy that leads to the ending of the effluents. This is called painful practice with quick intuition.
“And which is pleasant practice with slow intuition? There is the case where a monk — quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful qualities — enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. With the stilling of directed thoughts & evaluations, he enters & remains in the second jhana: rapture & pleasure born of concentration, unification of awareness free from directed thought & evaluation — internal assurance. With the fading of rapture he remains equanimous, mindful, & alert, and senses pleasure with the body. He enters & remains in the third jhana, of which the noble ones declare, ‘Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.’ With the abandoning of pleasure & pain — as with the earlier disappearance of joy & distress — he enters & remains in the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity & mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. He dwells in dependence on these five strengths of a learner — strength of conviction, strength of conscience, strength of concern, strength of persistence, & strength of discernment — but these five faculties of his — the faculty of conviction, the faculty of persistence, the faculty of mindfulness, the faculty of concentration, the faculty of discernment — appear weakly. Because of their weakness, he attains only slowly the immediacy that leads to the ending of the effluents. This is called pleasant practice with slow intuition. [2]
“And which is pleasant practice with quick intuition? There is the case where a monk — quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful qualities — enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. With the stilling of directed thoughts & evaluations, he enters & remains in the second jhana: rapture & pleasure born of concentration, unification of awareness free from directed thought & evaluation — internal assurance. With the fading of rapture he remains equanimous, mindful, & alert, and senses pleasure with the body. He enters & remains in the third jhana, of which the noble ones declare, ‘Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.’ With the abandoning of pleasure & pain — as with the earlier disappearance of joy & distress — he enters & remains in the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity & mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. He dwells in dependence on these five strengths of a learner — strength of conviction, strength of conscience, strength of concern, strength of persistence, & strength of discernment — and these five faculties of his — the faculty of conviction, the faculty of persistence, the faculty of mindfulness, the faculty of concentration, the faculty of discernment — appear intensely. Because of their intensity, he attains quickly the immediacy that leads to the ending of the effluents. This is called pleasant practice with quick intuition.
According to the Commentary, this means the concentration forming the Path. This is apparently a reference to this passage in Sn 2.1:
What the excellent Awakened One extolled as pure and called the concentration of unmediated knowing: No equal to that concentration can be found. This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Dhamma. By this truth may there be well-being. 2.
Because the description of pleasant practice here contains the standard jhana formula, while the description of painful practice contains no mention of jhana, some writers have taken this as proof that there is an alternative path to awakening that does not involve the jhanas.
However, this reading ignores the description of how painful practice and pleasant practice can yield either slow or quick intuition. Intuition comes slowly when the five faculties are present in a weak form, and quickly when they are present in an intense form. Now, in both cases, the faculty of concentration — which is defined with the standard formula for the jhanas (SN 48.10) — has to be present for the ending of the effluents. Because this is true both for painful practice and for pleasant practice, both sorts of practice need jhana in order to succeed.
Brief Ajahn Succito audio on 32 Parts of the Body:
Selection from the Dhātuvibhaṅgasutta on how the 32 Parts correspond to the elements — earth, water, fire, air and space:
And what is the earth element? The earth element may be interior or exterior. And what is the interior earth element? Anything hard, solid, and appropriated that’s internal, pertaining to an individual. This includes head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, undigested food, feces, or anything else hard, solid, and appropriated that’s internal, pertaining to an individual. This is called the interior earth element. The interior earth element and the exterior earth element are just the earth element. This should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ When you truly see with right understanding, you reject the earth element, detaching the mind from the earth element.
And what is the water element? The water element may be interior or exterior. And what is the interior water element? Anything that’s water, watery, and appropriated that’s internal, pertaining to an individual. This includes bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, snot, synovial fluid, urine, or anything else that’s water, watery, and appropriated that’s internal, pertaining to an individual. This is called the interior water element. The interior water element and the exterior water element are just the water element. This should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ When you truly see with right understanding, you reject the water element, detaching the mind from the water element.
And what is the fire element? The fire element may be interior or exterior. And what is the interior fire element? Anything that’s fire, fiery, and appropriated that’s internal, pertaining to an individual. This includes that which warms, that which ages, that which heats you up when feverish, that which properly digests food and drink, or anything else that’s fire, fiery, and appropriated that’s internal, pertaining to an individual. This is called the interior fire element. The interior fire element and the exterior fire element are just the fire element. This should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ When you truly see with right understanding, you reject the fire element, detaching the mind from the fire element.
And what is the air element? The air element may be interior or exterior. And what is the interior air element? Anything that’s air, airy, and appropriated that’s internal, pertaining to an individual. This includes winds that go up or down, winds in the belly or the bowels, winds that flow through the limbs, in-breaths and out-breaths, or anything else that’s air, airy, and appropriated that’s internal, pertaining to an individual. This is called the interior air element. The interior air element and the exterior air element are just the air element. This should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ When you truly see with right understanding, you reject the air element, detaching the mind from the air element.
And what is the space element? The space element may be interior or exterior. And what is the interior space element? Anything that’s space, spacious, and appropriated that’s internal, pertaining to an individual. This includes the ear canals, nostrils, and mouth; and the space for swallowing what is eaten and drunk, the space where it stays, and the space for excreting it from the nether regions. This is called the interior space element. The interior space element and the exterior space element are just the space element. This should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ When you truly see with right understanding, you reject the space element, detaching the mind from the space element.
