Identity and Experience_Hamilton_1996

I74
Identity and Experience
indicated by 'in the world' - loka), and to dukkha, the unsatisfactoriness
with which sa~ira is associated. So one might paraphrase the last part of
the sentence as: "in order to remove [himself] from desire and unsatisfactoriness,
which are associated with saysira". Precisely this is the purpose of
the meditation.
In the meditation exercise on the body, the bhikkhu then concentrates in
turn on different aspects of the body, such as breathing, posture, the
standard list of bodily parts, and functions (walking, sitting down) and so
on. He also meditates on a corpse in progressive states of decomposition,
which the texts describe in considerable detail. The bhikkhu trains himself
(sikkhati) to 'experience' (pa6arndvid) each object of meditation very precisely,
excluding every thought other than that it is a part of the body. In this way
the bhikkhu establishes that while the body, or part thereof, exists, he also
becomes aware of and observes its impersonal nature: there is nothing
about it which constitutes separate selfhood. The Suttas state:
. . . his mindfulness is present precisely to the extent necessary for knowledge,
sufficient for mindfulness, and he proceeds unattached, not grasping [i.e.
identifying with] anything in the world.20
The attitude of detached observation required for this exercise is
suggested by Nyanaponika when he states that a bhiWGhu meditates on each
object "without reacting to them by deed, speech or mental comment".21
The commentary confirms that the purpose of the meditation exercise is to
gain insight into selflessness when it glosses 'not grasping anything in the
world' as: "he does not grasp at [false notions] such as having a soul, or
thinking 'this is my self' of anything in the world, whether it be the body or
any of the other Wlandhas" .22
The Suttas also strongly imply in these exercises that there is nothing
about any particular part, or condition, of the body that is intrinsically
desirable or repugnant: be it breathing or posture, hair or pus, a young
body or a rotting corpse, a bhikkhu is merely to obserue it quite free from any
connotation. The purpose of such mindfulness exercises is so to
concentrate on each specific subject of meditation that there follows clear
comprehension of its precise nature, which is that it is impersonal and
conditioned. The exercise is purely analytical, and in experiencing each of
the objects of meditation in this way as distinct from each other, a bhikkhu
understands that there is nothing inherently disgusting, or hateful, or
desirable, or anything else about the body; nor is there anything inherently
desirable or repugnant about pleasurable or painful feelings.
Desire (sariga citta; lit: 'a state of mind with desire') and hatred (dosa),
along with other volitions, are meditated on as part of the mindfulness
exercise on citta, the third of the four objects described in the Satz$a#hina
S~ttas.~~ In this exercise the bhikkhu observes and understands (pnjrntlh) every
state of mind he experiences. Included here are volitions, such as those just