Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org

such sickness. As we get older, we run the risk of all kinds of
disease; stomach problems, skin problems, teeth problems.
I read a story once about a girl who suddenly went crazy,
and they didn’t know why. She was a normal girl who
suddenly went insane, totally uncontrollable, and they found
that she had an impacted wisdom tooth that was hitting a
nerve, and the nerve was going to the brain and causing the
brain to malfunction. When they removed the wisdom tooth,
she got better. This sort of thing can happen to our body.
This doesn’t mean we should hate or loathe the body or even
disregard it; we should take care of it, just as when we have
a wound, we should take care of the wound. An arahant still
takes care of their body. They take care of it as they would a
festering wound or an injury that never fully heals,
something that always has to be dressed and the bandages
changed. Sometimes you have to pull something out like a
tooth or an organ, like the appendix. Anyone who says, “the
body is perfect,” just look at the appendix. People can die
from appendicitis, let alone the many other incurable
sicknesses of the body. This is the ādīnava of the body.
Really, though, the problems with the body are insignificant
in comparison to the problems of the mind. We think, “Well,
if I’m born an angel, then I’ll have a perfect body.” Even
sometimes as a human, it is possible to have good physical
health for many years. As a result, we can become quite
negligent, not interested in things like meditation or insight
wisdom. We might not be able to see the dangers because
we say, “well, maybe one day I will be sick, but how can I
take that as a meditation subject?” As long as the mind
contains impurity, however, it doesn’t matter what state the
body is in. Some people are very, very sick, but their mind is
pure, like Maha Mogallana or Maha Kassapa. Their minds
were so pure, and yet their bodies still got sick; and so
likewise, those of us who are still in good health, our minds
can become very sick.
Seeing the problems with the body is very useful for helping
us give up kāma tanhā (desire for sensuality), but looking at
the mind is much more useful for giving up bhāva tanhā
(desire for becoming) and vibhāva tanhā (desire for not
becoming), wanting things to be like this or like that, wanting
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