The Practice Which leads to Nibbana - A Buddhist Library

w 1043. My life will end in death (maraöpariyosana× me j´vita×).4. Death, death (maraöa×, maraöa×).Taking whichever amongst these that you like as a way to payattention you can then note it in any language. You should putforth effort and practise until you are able to calmly concentrate onthe object of the cutting off of life in the image of your own corpsefor one or two hours. When you are able to do this you will findthat the five jhŒna factors arise, but with this meditation subjectyou can only attain access concentration.The four meditation subjects of Lovingkindness, Recollectionof the Buddha, Corpse Meditation and Recollection of Death arecalled the Four Protections, or the Four Protective Meditationsbecause they are able to protect the meditator from various dangers.For this reason it is worthwhile to learn and develop them beforeproceeding to develop insight.In the Meghiyasutta (ang. 3. 169) it states that:For the removal of lust meditation on repulsiveness should bedeveloped, for the removal of anger lovingkindness should bedeveloped, and mindfulness of breathing should be developed forthe cutting off of discursive thought.According to this sutta asubha meditation can be considered asthe best weapon for removing lust. If you take a corpse as anobject and develop meditation based on that, as taught above, it iscalled repulsiveness on a lifeless corpse (avi––Œöaka asubha). Totake a living beings 32 parts of the body and pay attention to themas repulsive as taught in g´rimŒnanda sutta (ang 3, 343) is calledrepulsiveness based on a living corpse (savi––Œöaka asubha). Bothof these forms of asubha meditation whether based on a living orlifeless corpse are weapons for removing lust.Developing loving kindness can be considered as the best