Sanghamitta wrote:Perhaps it should form the basis for another thread. The OP refers specifically to the traditional practice of contemplating the loathsomeness of the body and its functions.
Sanghamitta wrote:...from building a false sense of self by means of sensory and sensual experience.
Manapa wrote:Asubha
Greeting Sanghamitta,
I wonder if we're talking about the same practice. Its been a long time since I was taught and regularly engaged this practice, but I seem to remember that it doesn't directly address sensory and sensual experiences, as it isn't practiced while eating - and isn't a direct contemplation on the loathsomeness of the body - it is an emphasized and direct contemplation on the loathsomeness of food. If I'm remembering correctly, the contemplation on the loathsomeness of food includes but is limited to the observation of:
1. problems associated with obtaining food related to issues of food safety and harm to other living beings
2. food's continuous rotting (impermanent) nature and it being home to parasites (the causes of ill-health)
3. the ugly and disgusting forms food takes within the body
4. that food can feed harmful parasites and dis-ease that exist within the host organism (the body)
5. that food has the potential to produce excretions that are hazardous to other living beings.
I see issues of both health ( #1, 2, 4 , and 5) and food ethics (#1, 5) in this practice.
I wonder if we may be speaking of different practices? Both your comments and Manapa's comments about translation seem to be pointing at something different from the practice I'm familiar with (described above). This practice, if I'm remembering correctly, is included in a very specific list of practices related to the cultivation of a very specific awareness related to materiality. I'm not remembering the pali name of this practice or the name of the list of practices that this particular practice is a part of and the google god isn't cooperating.
Anybody else know what specific practice I'm pointing at?