Luang Por Liem: The Ways of the Peaceful - Wat Pah Nanachat

the mind states of a normal, unenlightened being – where the
mind experiences greed, disagreement or all kinds of negligence
and errors.
Peace from these defilements arises because of seeing their
drawbacks, dangers and inappropriateness. The Buddha’s mind
was secluded from defilements in just this way. Looking at the
way he lived, however, the Buddha seemed just like an ordinary
person. He needed clothes to cover his body, ward off cold, heat,
mosquitoes and gadflies. He ate food for sustaining the physical
condition of his body, eating in moderation, consuming it only for
stilling the hunger that arises due to the work of the body’s
digestive system, and not overcome by desire.. His dwelling place
could be considered ‘good enough’. It was merely a shelter from
sun and rain, a place of relief from having exposure to insects. It
couldn’t be called ‘good’ by worldly standards. The Buddha was
indifferent towards it. He lived just well enough to sustain his life
and to have some relief from the heat and cold that nature brings,
from the sun and the rain. The same with medicines: the Buddha
wouldn’t use medicines thinking of curing his illnesses – but only
for the sake of a little relief, as the situation of having to
experience the physical conditions of a body always has to
involve constant changes, according to causes and conditions.
Eventually the physical body will have to reach its end,
disintegrate and transform into its original state: earth goes to
earth, water to water, wind to wind, and fire to fire. Seeing that
this is the way it goes, the Buddha didn’t think of his physical
body being a “person” or an entity in and of itself. The body is
merely a manifestation of the elements and khandhas 40 – arising,
40 khandha (Pali): aggregates; the five causally conditioned groups of
existence forming a human being: rupa or physical form, vedana or feeling,
112