In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [239]
35 A detailed explanation of this practice, according to the commentarial method, is at Vism 239–266; Ppn 8:42–144. The mesentery is a fold of tissue that anchors the small intestine to the back of the abdominal wall.
36 These four elements are the primary attributes of matter—the earth element (pathavīdhātu) is solidity; the water element (āpodhātu), cohesion; the fire element (tejodhātu), heat; and the air element (vāyodhātu), pressure or distension. For a more detailed account of the contemplation of elements, see Text IX,4(3)(c). For the commentarial explanation, see Vism 347–72; Ppn 11:27–126.
37 The phrase “as though” (seyyathāpi) suggests that this meditation, and those to follow, need not be based upon actual observation of a decaying corpse but can be performed imaginatively. “This same body” is, of course, the meditator’s own body.
38 Each of the four types of corpse mentioned here, and the three types below, may be taken as a separate and self-sufficient subject of meditation; or the entire set may be used as a progressive series for impressing on the mind the idea of the body’s transience and insubstantiality. The progression continues in §§26–30.
39 Feeling (vedanā) signifies the affective quality of experience, bodily and mental, either pleasant, painful, or neither, i.e., neutral feeling. Examples of the “carnal” and “spiritual” varieties of these feelings are given at MN 137.9–15 (III 217–19) under the rubric of the six kinds of joy, grief, and equanimity based respectively on the household life and renunciation.
40 The conditions for the arising and vanishing of feeling are the same as those for the body (see p. 442 (chapter VIII, n. 32) except that food is replaced by contact, since contact is the condition for feeling).
41 Mind (citta) as an object of contemplation refers to the general state and level of consciousness. Since consciousness itself is the bare knowing or cognizing of an object, the quality of any state of mind is determined by its associated mental factors, such as lust, hate, and delusion or their opposites.
42 The examples of citta given in this passage contrast states of mind of wholesome and unwholesome, or developed and undeveloped character. The pair “contracted” and “distracted,” however, consists of unwholesome opposites, the former due to dullness and drowsiness, the latter to restlessness and remorse. Ps explains “exalted mind” and “unsurpassable mind” as the mind pertaining to the meditative attainments (jhānas and formless states), “unexalted mind” and “surpassable mind” as the mind pertaining to sense-sphere consciousness. The commentary says “liberated mind” should be understood as a mind temporarily and partly freed from defilements through insight or the jhānas. Since the practice of satipaṭṭhāna pertains to the preliminary phase of the path, the commentary holds that this last category should not be understood as a mind liberated by attainment of the supramundane paths; perhaps, however, this interpretation should not be excluded.
43 The conditions for the arising and vanishing of mind are the same as those for the body except that food is replaced by name-and-form, the condition for consciousness.
44 The five hindrances (pañca nīvaraṇā): the main inner impediments to the development of concentration and insight. See above, Text VIII,3.
45 See p. 440 (chapter VIII, n.147).
46 On the five aggregates, see pp. 22, 306–7, and Texts IX,4(1)(a)–(e).
47 The origin and passing away of the five aggregates can be understood in two ways: (1) through their origination and cessation in dependence on their conditions (see Text IX,4(1)(a)); and (2) through their discernible arising, change, and vanishing (see SN 22:37–38). The two ways are not mutually exclusive but can be conceptually distinguished.
48 On the six sense bases, see ppp. 309–11 and Texts IX,4(2)(a)–(e).
49 The fetter is the desire and lust (chandarāga) that binds the sense faculties to their objects; see SN 35:232.
50 On the