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If one beholds a woman's body

Together with her alluring grace,

The foolish, lacking clear discernment,

Falsely give rise to thoughts of lustful defilement.

The Buddha taught: the swelling and distension,

When met and touched, dispel the thought of lust;

Those able to follow the World-Honored One's word

Attain the supreme fruit without remainder.

With pure precepts, with hearing and reflection,

Striving onward in constant cultivation,

Binding mindfulness to contemplate all objects—

This is the cause of liberation.

If a person harbors the defilement of hatred,

Along with torpor and drowsiness,

Restlessness, remorse, and doubt,

These five things obstruct the cultivation of samādhi.

Hearing little, dwelling among crowds,

Craving pleasure and delighting in base things,

Cherishing the body and its enjoyments—

These too can obstruct the cultivation of samādhi.

A distracted mind has five conditions:

Feeling scattered, pursuing the various objects,

Indulging in flavors, sinking and surging,

Self-conceit, and craving fame.

The bhikṣu, relying on the noble teaching,

When there is a fault must declare and remove it,

Skillfully taking a condition to settle the mind—

This is the most excellent practice.

Next, dwelling in a place of stillness

Where there is never any obstruction,

Thereafter ceasing all wrong thinking—

This is the foremost work of the bhikṣu.

One should dwell in the forest of corpses,

Wearing robes of discarded rags,

Constantly seeking calm cessation,

Cutting off the mind of lustful defilement.

When begging alms and seeing a woman,

One must contemplate her as impure,

Restraining the eyes, removing wrong thoughts,

With an upright mind receiving the food.

Much talk and many miscellaneous affairs

Should all be kept far away;

When conditions of affliction again press upon one,

By the power of wisdom one should cultivate patience.

Beneath a tree, within a thicket of grass,

Or dwelling within a cave,

When contemplating one should stay here,

For calm and stillness make the mind easy to cultivate.

When taking an object as condition to gather samādhi,

It should be neither too high nor too low,

Nor should it be too near or too far,

So that one may accord with the object.

Skillfully hold the object that has been taken as condition,

Skillfully observe it clearly and distinctly,

So that when one closes the eyes and settles the mind

It is just as when the eyes are open and one sees.

The sense-gates are all restrained and watched,

Mindfulness abides, the inner mind is stilled,

The object taken as condition appears before one,

Thought after thought made continuous.

With the sign that has been held beforehand,

One applies the mind to contemplate the form and feature:

The swelling and distension beside the female organ,

Fearsome, fit to be despised and loathed.

Just as the water of a turbid pond,

Stirred by the wind, is made to ripple and sway,

So when one looks at the reflections of the trees

They cannot abide bright and clear.

The water of the mind, defiled by afflictions,

Is blown into turmoil by the wind of passion,

So when one settles the mind to contemplate

It is dark and obscure and cannot abide.

When the mind sinks, one should strive onward,

One should contemplate the supreme and wondrous,

As one in distress, with a leech sucking blood,

Sprinkles water to bring it back to its senses.

Again one must swiftly draw it in,

Settling the mind upon the former object,

So that the mind becomes capable and fit,

Skillfully tempered to follow mindfulness throughout.

If the mind becomes restless,

One should reflect with weariness upon the evil,

Causing the mind to abide in quiet stillness,

Like the hook that restrains an elephant's head.

Departing far from sinking and from restlessness,

One should set the mind in motion with equanimity,

Abiding in equanimity according to the disposition—

At that time there is no fault or error.

From here one gradually comes to abide,

Holding the sign, the reflected image, the mind at peace,

Bright and clear, practicing the middle way,

Holding the lamp of right mindfulness that shines.

At that time, using applied thought and sustained thought,

One should contemplate in due order;

The image of samādhi then forthwith arises,

Clear and distinct, abiding before one.

Pure, bright, and without wavering,

Like the form of a Great Hero;

This image, contrasted with the earlier contemplation,

Is indeed the sign of difference.

Once this sign has arisen,

The various evil desires are at once removed;

This, then, is the person binding this mind—

The sign of skillful means of the first dhyāna.

Next, knowing the substance of hatred,

That it originally arises from greed and desire,

Once craving and desire have been removed,

One becomes free of hatred and ill will.

Next, using mindfulness to strive onward,

One removes the mind of torpor;

Having contemplated the sign of difference,

The disposition of doubt at once ceases and ends.

Next one must remove remorse,

Skillfully treading the path of peace and ease;

Quiet and still, without obstruction,

One guards against and prevents restlessness.

One should know to use the coarse mind

To contemplate that sign which has been held,

And then, within the mind's image,

To seek it with subtle and fine attention.

Beholding the difference of the mind's joy,

Through this one attains pliancy;

Next one realizes the bliss of samādhi—

The factors of samādhi are like this.

This, then, is the fundamental samādhi,

Skillfully settling upon the mindful thought,

Just as one who wishes to reach a village

And then comes to dwell within the village.

Having attained the fundamental samādhi,

One further cultivates other practices,

Gaining knowledge of others' minds, recollection of past abodes,

The supernatural powers of the divine eye and the divine ear.

Here, when there is sustained thought,

The mind has not yet attained calm abiding,

Just as a river that has waves;

Know that the stages of grounds are high.

Having already attained the first dhyāna,

Yet abiding upon the object of condition,

Next, relying on the second dhyāna,

Applied thought and sustained thought both cease and end.

Though one is able to abide in this state,

There is still the water of joy in motion;

When one enters the third dhyāna,

The mind then attains calm abiding.

Because that mind possesses bliss,

It cannot yet make mindfulness abide;

Having realized the fourth dhyāna,

All faults are utterly cut off.

The portion of decline, the portion of advancing in distinction,

The portion of abiding, the portion of investigation—

The dhyānas have four kinds;

One who cultivates samādhi must know this.

If the samādhi accords with the afflictions,

This is called the portion of decline;

What follows is distinction—that is the portion of distinction;

Abiding gathered in abiding, one should know.

Because of skillful discrimination beforehand,

Which is the cause of the path of investigation,

This samādhi together with that which is attained

Is called the portion of investigation.

In regard to all the signs of impermanence,

One performs the practices of understanding suffering and the rest;

If a person attains this samādhi,

These are the portions of the path: heat, and so forth.

In regard to the various signs of bluish discoloration and swelling,

The contemplation has many avenues;

As one cultivates according to the noble teaching,

The differences should be known.

When wind enters the belly of the corpse,

And from the orifices pus flows,

And the groin too becomes wholly dried—

This is called the swelling and distension.

For one who does not crave the coarse parts of the body

But only craves the body's fine and smooth flesh,

For this person with a defiled mind

One has him cultivate such a contemplation.

Or upon a corpse

There is a little white pus that flows,

And the remaining flesh is wholly bluish—

This is called the bluish bruising.

Beholding form and giving rise to craving,

Such a one is called a person who craves form;

To counteract it, one uses the bluish bruising,

When the sun is scorching in its heat.

When the corpse everywhere oozes pus,

This is the sign of flowing pus;

For that person who craves fragrance

One has him contemplate it to stop the defiled mind.

When the corpse's spine is broken and torn,

This is called the sign of severance and decay;

For the person who craves the whole body

The Great Sage, the Venerable One, has spoken of it.

To counteract the craving of skin and flesh,

He spoke of the sign of devoured remnants—

The bones of the hands, the feet, and the various parts,

Each scattered wherever it may lie.

For the person who craves the various parts,

He spoke of the sign of teeth and bones in disarray;

Right upon the sign of bones in disarray,

By knife and staff they are broken and parted asunder.

Also for one who craves the whole body,

He has him contemplate the sign of beating and disarray:

The corpse hacked by the knife,

Or broken by staff and arrow.

When blood flows over the whole ruined body,

This is called the sign of bloody smearing.

Cleanly anointing the body with fragrance,

Adorned and clothed in beautiful garments,

Where a person gives rise to craving for this,

One uses a remedy that is well able to analyze it.

For the object that one alone craves,

Not allowing others to look upon it,

When many worms burrow into the corpse

One has him contemplate it to remove the evil thought.

When the flesh of the corpse is consumed and dispersed,

And only the teeth and bones remain,

Where one gives rise to craving and attachment to the teeth,

One has him contemplate the sign of teeth and bones.

If one beholds a person newly dead,

Whose consciousness has departed while the body remains ruined,

Sentient beings craving and clinging to pleasure—

One has them remove the craving for charm and beauty.

Excrement and urine, spittle and drool

Are gathered together to form the body;

Thirty-two kinds of substances

Wrapped in skin are called a person.

Hair of the head and body, nails and teeth,

Liver, intestines, and the various human features,

Within, hollow, three hundred bones,

Bound and entwined, nine hundred bones;

From the nine apertures impurity flows,

Filthy and foul, hard to describe;

Contemplated carefully, it is truly detestable—

The wise should not draw near.

Having contemplated the body of a woman,

One again examines one's own body,

Where, on account of craving and defilement,

According to principle one should constantly bind mindfulness.

One does not escape the prison of the three realms,

Whether on account of the mind defiled by desire;

Therefore the wise, who are clear-sighted,

Most skillfully reflect upon this matter.

Having passed through much suffering in the hells,

By good fortune one obtains a human body;

How then could one indulge a deranged mind

And not cultivate the supreme conduct?

Greed and lust are of many kinds,

Giving rise to evils that are not the same;

A single contemplation can remove them all—

It is precisely the contemplation of the white bones.

When one is touched by lovely and charming forms,

By garments, giving rise to craving and attachment,

What remedy can remove this?

Nothing surpasses the contemplation of the white bones.

First, upon the big toe,

Settle the mind and take as condition the making of swelling;

It bursts open and the pus has flowed,

The flesh all in turn falls away.

Then contemplate the form of the bone of the toe,

Its color like a branch, or a white conch;

The swelling having gradually grown larger,

The skin and flesh are wholly removed and cleansed.

Contemplating thus in due order,

The flesh of the body is wholly removed;

Right mindfulness and the supreme resolve accomplished,

One contemplates only that joint of bone.

If a little flesh still remains,

This is then called a disordered mind;

How much more, then, to let the mind run wild,

Galloping about in pursuit of the various objects.

When for a long time one binds the perception,

One knows of oneself that one can skillfully abide;

Next, gradually proceeding to other people,

One contemplates them all together as joints of bone.

Gradually extending to the shore of the sea,

Therein filled with white bones;

When this samādhi has been accomplished,

One abandons the broad and again makes it narrow.

When abbreviating and casting away from the outside

Down to the bones of one's own body alone,

One again contemplates the bones of the toe—

This is the due order of the settled mind.

Or again, casting away piece by piece,

Reaching utterly to the bone of the crown,

One should know that for the final mind

One gathers and holds it between the brows to make it abide.

If one cultivates and practices in this way,

One is constantly born in the supreme Brahma palaces,

Does not fall down into the three paths,

And is born in the heaven of the Five Pure Abodes.

The mind of the human realm, with its scattered virtue,

Returns again to the stream of birth and death;

The wise person who cultivates the settled mind

Is as one whose garment and body are burning with fire.

Then one is able to abandon all the conditions,

And so should dwell in the empty forest,

Lest impermanence press upon one

And one die in vain amid a scattered mind.

Using prajñā to purify the mind,

In the end one attains the lovely fruit;

If one does not hope for further existence,

One should cultivate the supreme path.

Shaving the hair and donning the kāṣāya,

One must indeed cultivate the noble path;

To speak to oneself of various miscellaneous affairs

Will be a cause of birth and death.