In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha teaches a number of ways to practice mindfulness of the body. One of them is mindfulness with anatomy, oftentimes referred to as 32 parts of the body practice. Here is what the discourse says:
“Again, monks, he reviews this same body up from the soles of the feet and down from the top of the hair, enclosed by skin, as full of many kinds of impurity thus: ‘in this body there are head-hairs, body-hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, bone-marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, bowels, mesentery, contents of the stomach, faeces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, spittle, snot, oil of the joints, and urine.’
“Just as though there were a bag with an opening at both ends full of many sorts of grain, such as hill rice, red rice, beans, peas, millet, and white rice, and a man with good eyes were to open it and review it thus: ‘this is hill rice, this is red rice, these are beans, these are peas, this is millet, this is white rice’; so too he reviews this same body.…
“In this way, in regard to the body he abides contemplating the body internally … externally… both internally and externally. He abides contemplating the nature of arising … of passing away … of both arising and passing away in the body.”
Traditionally, this is an asubha practice meant to lessen the clinging we have toward our own and others’ bodies by seeing clearly the constituent parts of the body. Asubha, a Pali word, means ‘unattractive’ or ‘undesirable’, and thus the thrust of this meditation is to bring attention to the parts of the body that might typically be thought of as gross, disgusting, or unattractive. In doing so, we might begin to cultivate a balanced attitude toward the body.
The key word is balanced. In practicing with anatomy in this way, we do not aim to become disgusted with the body. Our aim is to break the bondage of clinging without swinging in the other direction toward aversion, ill will, or disgust. The simile of the bag of grains, quoted in the above passage, demonstrates the balanced attitude one might have toward the body.
One can practice with anatomy by contemplating all 32 parts of the body or more if one chooses, but this can be a complex task for beginning practitioners. Thus, Bhikkhu Analayo offers a simplified approach to working with this part of the Satipatthana Sutta, collapsing the practice into three basic categories: skin, flesh, and bone. In this talk offered for San Jose Insight Meditation, I share the basic premises and instructions for practicing with anatomy in this way.
You can find Bhikkhu Analayo’s guided meditation here. And you can find my own guidance for the meditation here.
