Dear Yong Peng,
op 16-11-2003 10:47 schreef Ong Yong Peng op ypong001@...:

>> asubha.m, raahula, bhaavana.m bhaavehi.
>> Cultivate, Rahula, the mental development of foulness.
> thanks Nina. I have made a slight alteration for asubha.m to
> be 'foulness (of a corpse)'. Am I correct?

N: What do you think of this option: foulness of the body. We read about the
corpses in different states of decay and also about parts of the body. Both
kinds of meditation are asubha meditations. If we use foulness of the body
it can include all kinds, and also: we can be reminded that our body too is
a bag of bones. We read in the Sa.laayatanavagga, (Third Fifty, the
Housefather, § 127, Bhaaradvaaja, S IV, 110) that Pi.ndola said to raajah
Udena, that the Buddha had said: <Come ye, brethren, look upon this same
body, upwards from the soles of the feet, downwards from the top of the
head, enclosed by skin, full of manifold impurities. There are in this body
hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, skin...>
It is a meditation subject for every occasion. When we see a dead animal we
can be reminded: as that body is, so is our body. Or, nails, skin, etc.
these are right at hand. Rahula was attached to the body. He was not sitting
at a cemetery, but he should realize the foulness of his body. This could
bring him back to reality: his body consisted of the four great elements,
and he should develop vipassana realizing these elements as: this is not
mine, etc.
Nina.
P.S.
I have incorporated all my co. sections of A series into series B, returning
to the very beginning of the Co. so that I could add some corrections. There
are two more to come. I shall erase A series.