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TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 37

Reclining Meditation Posture

These are also to be observed objectively. In this case that corpses were thrown into the graveyard, here the
the Buddha gave a simile. That is a simile of the cow. Buddha admonished his disciples to observe them
When a butcher is feeding a cow or is nourishing it, objectively and to understand the different stages of
and then takes it to the slaughtering place, ties it to a a corpse decomposing and to compare it to their own
post and kills it, he still has the notion that it is a being, bodies. The practitioners should go to these places and
a cow. If someone would ask him what he is doing, he observe the corpses objectively and reflect that one
would say. “I am feeding the cow” or “I am killing the day their bodies would undergo the same fate. That
cow.” Even after having killed it, before he cuts it up into then is another kind of objective observation. When
pieces, he still maintains the same notion that it is a practitioners practice in this manner they contemplate
cow. But, after cutting the slaughtered cow into pieces, the body as a body.
he takes the pieces and puts them on a table at the
crossroad to sell, from that point on, he loses the notion Observe Feelings and Mind as They Are
of a cow. If someone were to ask him what he is selling, Also while practicing in this manner, if the practitioner
he would not say, “I am selling a cow.” So, after cutting feels any sensation that too is to be observed objectively.
the cow into pieces, he loses the concept of a cow. In the There are three kinds of sensations; pleasant sensations,
same way, when practitioners “cut” themselves into four painful sensations and neutral sensations. Along
elements, whatever is in their body, just four elements, with them, there can arise different kinds of mental
then they will lose the concept of being, a person. thoughts like lustful thoughts, hateful thoughts, and
deluded thoughts. The practitioner is then advised to
When practitioners see the elements clearly, they lose also observe those different thoughts objectively. The
the concept of a being; they see that there are just these Buddha has explained nine kinds of feelings and 16
four elements; four elements going, four elements kinds of mental states here in this Sutta.
standing, and so on. When they see only these four
elements going and so on, they cannot see a person and Finally, the Buddha described the observation of the
therefore lose the concept of a being. This form came Dhammas. In this section of the Sutta, the Buddha
to exist as the results of four elements. Everything is explained how the practitioners experience different
composed with these four elements that dissolve to the characteristics of physicality and mentality (nāma-
same elements at the end of death. rūpa). The Buddha very clearly said that the practitioner
then would be able to see clearly the real nature of
Nine Charnel Ground Observations the five hindrances and completely abandon them all
The Buddha enunciated the nine charnel ground without an iota of hindrances. And then the practitioner
observations as the sixth subsection of this Sutta. In this realizes the five aggregates of existence as they really
section, one has to observe these objects objectively. are, the twelve internal and external bases as they
Since it was the custom at the time of the Buddha are. When the practitioner further observes things as