https://suttacentral.net/dn28/en/sujato ... ript=latinFirstly, some ascetic or brahmin—by dint of keen, resolute, committed, and diligent effort, and right application of mind—experiences an immersion of the heart of such a kind that they examine 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, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, undigested food, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, snot, synovial fluid, urine.’ This is the first attainment of vision.
Furthermore, some ascetic or brahmin attains that and goes beyond it. They examine a person’s bones with skin, flesh, and blood. This is the second attainment of vision.
Furthermore, some ascetic or brahmin attains that and goes beyond it. They understand of a person that their stream of consciousness is consistent on both sides .This is the third attainment of vision.
Furthermore, some ascetic or brahmin attains that and goes beyond it. They understand of a person that their stream of consciousness is consistent on both sides: not established in either this world or the next. This is the fourth attainment of vision.
This is unsurpassable when it comes to attainments of vision.
Its interesting as it discusses the practice in ever more deeper levels, more than we see in other suttas. I also found this interesting, as it's similar to Sarvāstivādin texts which, when discussing foulness meditation, talk of contemplating the body until one visually strips away the flesh and sinews until there is only the white of the bones remaining. I'm also reminded of the Visuddhimagga, where it is said monks (and nuns I assume) are able to see everyone as nothing but a skeleton, given their mastery over perception. This made me want to look at the parallels. For this I looked at T 18 and DĀ 18. For DĀ 18 I used Charles Patton's translation here: https://canon.dharmapearls.net/01_agama ... DA_18.html. For T 18 I had to rely on an AI translation, so please read with caution. Anyway I've put all three parallels into a table below. As you can see, there is quite a lot of correlation between these texts which reveals an outline for an early Buddhist practice of body part/foulness meditation. In all of them the meditator first needs to attain Jhāna to fully contemplate the body parts. This suggests to me that one uses the body part meditation both as a means to enter Jhāna and then whilst in it, as a means of insight whilst in said Jhāna. This is then followed by examining the body either by visually stripping away the flesh and sinews until only the bones are left, or by examining the body in terms of flesh, sinews and bones. After this the meditator then contemplates the foul nature of the body as it relates to this life and other lives, whilst also contemplating the conditioned nature of consciousness both in this life and future lives. In this regard we are reminded of the insight gained in DN 2
"When his mind is thus concentrated, pure and bright, unblemished, free from defects, malleable, wieldy, steady and attained to imperturbability, he directs and inclines it to knowledge and vision. He understands thus: ‘This is my body, having material form, composed of the four primary elements, originating from father and mother, built up out of rice and gruel, impermanent, subject to rubbing and pressing, to dissolution and dispersion. And this is my consciousness, supported by it and bound up with it.’
