Dear Yong Peng,
op 10-12-2003 15:51 schreef Ong Yong Peng op ypong001@...:

>
> thanks again, Nina. It is amazing how the Buddha understand things.
> Does "body in the body" only applies to breath in the physical body,
> ruupakaaya? Thanks.

N: Rahula developed with this subject samatha to the degree of jhana as well
as insight. He was highly gifted and could attain jhana, by developing calm.
He was mindful of breath, a rupa, material phenomenon, as it touched the
upperlip or nose. But he also developed insight. This means, after emerging
from jhana, absorption, he was mindful of all dhammas that appeared,
jhanacitta that had just fallen away, the accompanying jhanafactors, or
rupas. Breath is actually tangible object, appearing as hardness, softness,
heat, cold, oscillation or pressure. As we read:

>
> We say that breath is a body. Further, the twentyfive classes of
> rupa, namely, the sense-base of visible object (ruupaayatana)....
> nutriment, are called the physical body, ruupakaaya (N:different from
> the mental body). Of these, breathing is ³a certain body² because it
> is included in tangible object base (pho.t.tabbaayatana). ³That is
> why²: because he contemplates the body of wind (vaayokaaya, motion or
> pressure) among the four bodies (N: the four Great Elements)

N: But he had to be aware of all kinds of rupas that the Buddha had
explained to him before and also of mental phenomena. Not only tangible
object, but all kinds: <the twentyfive classes of rupa, namely, the
sense-base of visible object (ruupaayatana)....
nutriment> thus all kinds. This is a whole list, including sound, odour,
flavour, etc.
He had to see the body in the body, we read:< a mere body only, by not
contemplating it as containing anything that can be apprehended as "I" or
"mine" or "woman" or "man" all this is contemplation of the body. >
As we read in the Sutta, Rahula had to realize: < Thus, "this is not mine,
this I am not, this is not myself" is to be seen with right wisdom just as
it is.>
Nina.