The responsibility of wisdom after we come out of samādhi

“…Our body is just like the car that we use as a means to seek pleasure and happiness through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. But when we have a happiness that is better, that does not need to use the body as an instrument, we will not be anxious when the body deteriorates.

Whenever the body falls sick or dies, we will not be troubled at all, because we no longer use the body as our source of happiness. This refers to the mind of those people who have released themselves from sexual desire, who have come out of the delusion that makes them cling to the body; who have ceased to believe that the body is themselves or belongs to them, or that it provides them with happiness.

Right now we have met the truth that teaches us real happiness does not require a body, does not require a partner, does not require a husband, and does not requires a wife. Those who ordain and stay alone in the forest are able to be happy. Just like the Buddha — after he left the palace he never returned to his old life with his wife. He found a joy and happiness that was even greater, that did not have any drawbacks.

This is the message that Buddhism gives us. It helps free us from Mara’s grasp, which is the delusion that fools us into seeking happiness via the body. It is the Buddha who saw the path, the truth, and the means that can enable us not to use the body as a source of happiness. Therefore, we should visit the cemetery and investigate the body to determine the underlying cause of our suffering.

For if we do not investigate, we will still be deluded and attached to the body, seeing the body as ourselves and belonging to us, seeing the body as beautiful, and wanting to use it to give us happiness. If we investigate, visit the cemetery often, and see the actual conditions of the body — that in reality it is truly not beautiful, with 32 parts that have to deteriorate, rot and disappear — we will then have a means to correct our delusion.

Then every time we see a beautiful body, we can think of the corpses we have seen in the cemetery. This is how we make our escape from the shackles of carnal passion and overwhelming delusion that clings to the body as ourselves and belonging to us. We will not have to suffer with the body any longer. There will be no need to return to birth, to seek a new body, or to become old, sick, and die, like we currently experience.

If we are still unable to see the truth of the body as not beautiful, as simply earth, water, wind, and fire, if we are still unable to extinguish sexual desire, then no matter how many times we die we will still return seeking a new body because we still hunger for sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile sensations. We will need eyes, ears, a nose, tongue and body as the means to fulfil our desire.

However, if instead of being hungry we become disenchanted, we will see the ugly aspects of the body, that its actual condition is composed of earth, water, wind, and fire, and that it will one day age, get sick, and die. This is because the body is only the composition of earth, water, wind, and fire, is not ourselves, and does not belong to us.

If we have the wisdom to investigate in this manner consistently, we will be able to maintain and prolong the peace that arises from sitting in meditation because the mind will not have the desire that causes agitation to arise. This is the responsibility of wisdom after we come out of samādhi…”

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto