“Everything in the body is made up of earth, water, wind, and fire”

Questioner : When my meditation is going well I’m aware of the ‘one who knows’, but when I get involved in work such as washing the dishes, I lose that awareness.

Tan Ajaan: It is alright; you don’t have to be too concerned about it. Just pay attention to the work at hand.

Questioner : So I should just continue to observe the body as I wash the dishes?

Tan Ajaan: Yes, we simply pay attention to the work at hand. As for other matters, we don’t have to be concerned, unless it requires our involvement. If someone comes to talk to us, we just listen and examine whether it deserves a reply, or how we should respond. If it is not proper to speak, then we don’t have to reply. We just continue with what we are doing. We hear, and just leave it at that. We know; it’s just that we don’t respond emotionally to what we know.

Emotions disturb the mind. When we know anything, the mind becomes uneasy. If we know and remain equanimous, that is good. If we know and emotion arises in response, then that is not good. The reason we meditate is because we do not want our mind to react emotionally to whatever might come up.

Questioner : I am already used to following the breath, but I am not used to observing the body. Should I be trying to observe the body?

Tan Ajaan: Observation of the body can be done in two ways. The first way is to observe the body in order to develop mindfulness, so that the mind does not drift about thinking about all kinds of things. This is called observing the body in order to develop mindfulness.

Another way is to observe the body in order to give rise to wisdom. We consider that soon our body will have to decline, become old, get sick and die. We consider the aspects of the body that are not beautiful, such as the various organs covered by the skin. We consider them, both in ourselves and in others, especially in those people who arouse our desire.

If we want to cut off sexual desire for those people, we have to focus on the disgusting parts of their bodies. If we have clearly seen the loathsomeness of their bodies, then in the future we will not want to be near them; we won’t want them as our partners. We can then live alone. When the time comes when they leave us, if we have not contemplated this, our sexual desire will want to hold them close to us for a long, long time. So, when they do not stay with us, we will be lonely and sad, because we still long for them to be close. But if we have seen the unattractive aspects of their bodies, then we will not want to be near them at all. This is what we call contemplating the body in order to develop wisdom.

We have to see that the body is impermanent, that it must grow old, get sick, and die. We have to see that the physical body is not beautiful, is not us, and that there is no self in a body. The body is just a compilation of earth, water, wind, and fire. Everything in the body is made up of earth, water, wind, and fire, which we get from the food we eat. Our food, such as rice, vegetables, and meat, all are made up of earth, water, wind, and fire.

So everything in our body is in essence just earth, water, wind, and fire, and one day these will separate and return to their original condition. This is how we observe the body to teach the mind the truth, so that it will not cling to the body and be deluded into thinking that it belongs to us, that it should stay with us for a long time, or that other people should always stay with us to bring us happiness.

Actually, other people are not beautiful like we usually believe. We do not look at the aspects that are not beautiful. We look only at the beautiful side, which arouses sexual interest and makes us want to enjoy being with them or live close to them. But there are drawbacks to living with someone.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto