VIJAYA SUTTA: VICTORY translated from the Pali byThanissaro Bhikkhu© 1997–2010

VIJAYA SUTTA: VICTORY

translated from the Pali byThanissaro Bhikkhu© 1997–2010

Whether walking, standing,

sitting, or lying down,

it flexes & stretches:

this is the body's movement.

Joined together with tendons & bones,

plastered over with muscle & skin,

hidden by complexion,

the body isn't seen

for what it is:

filled with intestines, filled with stomach,

with the lump of the liver,

bladder, lungs, heart,

kidneys, spleen,

mucus, sweat, saliva, fat,

blood, synovial fluid, bile, & oil.

On top of that,

in nine streams,

filth is always flowing from it:

from the eyes : eye secretions,

from the ears : ear secretions,

from the nose : mucus,

from the mouth : now vomit,

now phlegm,

now bile.

from the body : beads of sweat.

And on top of that,

its hollow head is filled with brains.

The fool, beset by ignorance,

thinks it beautiful.

But when it lies dead,

swollen, livid,

away in a charnel ground,

even relatives don't care for it.

Dogs feed on it,

jackals, wolves, & worms.

Crows & vultures feed on it,

along with any other animals there.

Having heard the Awakened One's words,

the discerning monk

comprehends, for he sees it

for what it is:"

As this is, so is that.

As that, so this.

"Within & without,

he should let desire for the body

fade away.

With desire & passion faded away,

the discerning monk arrives here:

at the deathless,

the calm,

the undying state

of Unbinding.

This two-footed, filthy, evil-smelling,

filled-with-various-carcasses,

oozing-out-here-&-there body:

Whoever would think,

on the basis of a body like this,

to exalt himself or disparage another:

What is that if not blindness?

**************

I was looking through my facebook account and I saw this post. Vision 2010 posted it.  I am very tired and it spoke to me.  Some will understand, some won't, and that is ok.
Life is a journey, at present I am a weary traveler.
Mary E. Robbins
Robbins Run Ranch
307.788.0202