buddhayatana wrote thus at 02:50 PM 02-03-09:

>The dark-humoured story at Sa.myutta-Nikâya 54.9 is an indication that
>the ân'âp'âna-sati method was a deliberate and very important method.

It's curious though, and perhaps even unsettling, that the Buddha encouraged the practice of asubha, which many of the monks apparently did not grasp correctly and consequently committed suicide.

As usual, whenever I find something "odd" in the Pali suttas, I'd try to look up the counterpart in the Chinese Agamas. What I found was basically the same. It even contains the additional juicy stuff, making it very much like the Vinaya Pitaka version (the supposed background story to Parajika 3), which is repeated in the commentary to the sutta.

Although the commentary tries to reconcile the matter by giving a background story of a past life and what thoughts occurred to the Buddha, it's curious how the commentator managed to obtain such information.

kb