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

Advice on Robe Washing Day
From Luang Por’s daily reflections after the meal on
May 5 th , 2006.
Today is Friday the 5 th of May, the 7 th day of the waning moon
of the 6 th lunar month. It is the day when we do the work of
cleaning and washing the requisites that we use for covering our
bodies, the robes. These things always need washing. They get
soiled and stained by this loathsome and filthy thing called our
body.
Our body is a dirty and unclean thing. It oozes and drips out of
its openings, the ones in the upper parts of the body and the ones
in the lower. It excretes filthy stuff even from its pores. This
transforms the cloth we use to cover our body into a state where it
starts smelling. We all like to see the human body as something
nice and beautiful, but the truth is that there is nothing at all about
it that is desirable.
The body is a dirty, filthy thing and smells. If we don’t bathe
and wash it, it will develop quite a strong smell – similar to
uncivilized people that haven’t yet developed in terms of looking
after their bodies: hill tribes or people living in the woods, for
example. When one meets these tribes, a strong smell tells one
that this is an area where there hasn’t yet been any development
of hygiene and care for the body. They can live with it, though.
They are used to it.
The Buddha taught to take the unattractiveness of the body as
an object of meditation, pointing out that its nature is not
desirable. Simply the fact that the body excretes and drives out
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