In the past, I didn”t use such a great amount of detailed knowledge and refined theory in my practice. The important thing was to gain clear understanding and refine the practice within the mind itself. If I looked at my own or anyone else”s physical form and found there was attraction to it, I would seek out the cause for that attraction. I contemplated the body and analyzed it into it”s component parts: kesa (hair of the head), loma (hair of the body), nakha (nails), danta (teeth), taco (skin) and so on. The Buddha taught to contemplate the different parts of the body, over and over again.
Separate them, pull them apart, peel the skin off and incinerate it all. Keep meditating like this, until the mind is still, firm and unwavering in its meditation on the unattractiveness of the body. When you are walking on alms round, for instance, and see other monks or lay people ahead, visualize them as corpses, tottering along the road in front of you. As you walk, keep putting effort into this practice, taking the mind deeper and deeper into the contemplation on the impermanence of the body. If you see a young woman and are attracted by her, contemplate the image of a corpse which is rotten and putrid from the process of decomposition. Contemplate like this on every occasion, so that the mind maintains a sense of distance, not becoming infatuated with that attractiveness. If you practice in this way, the attractiveness will not last long, because you see the truth very clearly, no longer doubting the truth that the body is really something which is rotting and decomposing.
Use this kind of reflection until the perception of unattractiveness becomes clearly fixed in the mind, and it goes beyond doubt. Wherever you go it won”t be wasted. You must really determine to do this practice to the point where whenever you see someone, it”s exactly the same as if you were actually looking at a corpse. When you see a woman, you see her as a corpse; when you see a man you see him as a corpse; and you see yourself as a corpse in just the same way. In the end, everybody becomes a corpse. You have to put as much effort into this contemplation as you can. Train yourself until it becomes part of the mind. It”s actually quite enjoyable – if you really do it. But if you just become absorbed in reading lots of books, it”s difficult to get results. You have to practice sincerely and with real determination so that the kammatthana becomes established as an integral part of the mind.
Studying the Abhidhamma can be beneficial, but you have to do it without getting attached to the books. The correct way to study is to make it clear in the mind that you are studying for the realization of truth and to transcend suffering. These days there are many different teachers of vipassana and many different methods to choose from, but actually, the practice of vipassana isn”t such an easy thing to do. You can”t go and do it just like that, it has to develop out of a strong foundation in sila. Try it out. Moral discipline, training rules and guidelines for behavior are a necessary part of the practice – if your actions and speech are untrained and undisciplined, it”s like skipping over part of magga and you won”t meet with success. Some people say you don”t need to practice samatha, you can go straight into vipassana, but people who speak like that tend to be lazy and want to get results without expending any effort. They say that keeping sila isn”t important to the practice, but really, practicing sila in itself is already quite difficult and not something you can do casually. If you were to skip the sila, then of course the whole practice would seem comfortable and convenient. It would be nice if whenever the practice involved a bit of difficulty you could just skip …
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