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When one sees a woman's body

Together with her charming grace,

The foolish, not understanding clearly,

Falsely give rise to thoughts of lustful defilement.

The Buddha taught the bloated and swollen:

Through such contact, lustful thoughts are removed;

By following the words of the World-Honored One,

One gains the supreme fruit without remainder.

Pure in precepts, with hearing and reflection,

Diligently striving, ever cultivating,

Binding mindfulness to contemplate the objects—

This is the cause of liberation.

If a person is tainted by hatred

And by torpor and drowsiness,

Restlessness, remorse, and doubt,

These five hinder the cultivation of concentration.

Hearing little, dwelling among crowds,

Craving pleasure and delighting in base things,

Attachment to the body and to enjoyments

Also hinder the cultivation of concentration.

A scattered mind has five conditions:

The feelings disperse, chasing after objects,

Indulging in flavors, sinking and rising,

Self-pride, and the heavy weight of fame.

The bhikṣu, relying on the Sage's teaching,

Must confess and remove his faults;

Skillfully taking up the condition to settle the mind—

This is the supreme practice.

Next, dwelling in a quiet place

Where there are no obstructions at all,

Thereafter ceasing wrong thoughts—

This is the first task of the bhikṣu.

He should dwell in the charnel forest,

Wear robes of cast-off rags,

Ever seeking tranquil cessation,

Severing the mind of lustful defilement.

While begging for alms, on seeing a woman

He must contemplate her as impure,

Restrain his eyes, remove wrong thoughts,

And with upright mind receive the food.

Much speech and many miscellaneous affairs

All must be kept far away;

When the conditions of affliction again press in,

By the power of wisdom one should cultivate patience.

Beneath a tree, within the grass thickets,

Or dwelling inside a cave—

When contemplating, he should be here:

Quiet and still, easy for cultivating the mind.

When taking the object to gather concentration,

Neither too high nor too low,

It should be neither too near nor too far,

So that one accords with the object.

Skillfully guarding the object that is obtained,

Skillfully observing it clearly and distinctly,

When closing the eyes to settle the mind,

It is just as when seeing with eyes open.

The doors of the sense-faculties are all restrained,

Mindfulness abides, the inner mind is stilled,

The contemplation of the object appears before one,

Thought after thought made continuous.

With the sign that has been grasped before,

Applying the mind, contemplate the form and features:

The bloated swelling beside the woman's organ

Is fearsome and worthy of disdain.

Just like the muddy water of a pond,

Stirred to movement by the blowing wind,

When one looks at the reflections of the trees,

They cannot remain bright and clear.

The water of the mind, soiled by afflictions,

Is blown into turmoil by the wind of passion;

When one calms the mind to contemplate,

It is dark and obscure, unable to abide.

When the mind sinks, one should strive onward,

One should contemplate what is sublime and excellent,

As when the exhausted, drained by a leech sucking blood,

Are revived by sprinkling water upon them.

Again one must swiftly gather it in,

Settling the mind upon the former object,

Making the will capable and competent,

Skillfully tuned, all following mindfulness.

If the mind becomes restless,

One should reflect with weariness on what is evil,

Making the mind abide in tranquil stillness,

Like the hook upon the elephant's head.

Departing far from sinking and restlessness,

One should set the mind in evenness,

According with the feeling, abiding in equanimity—

At that time there are no faults.

From here one gradually comes to abide,

Holding the sign so the mind's image is settled,

Bright and clear, practicing the Middle Way,

Holding the lamp of right mindfulness that shines.

At that time, using Initial and Sustained inquiry,

One should contemplate in due order;

The image of concentration thereupon arises,

Clearly abiding before one.

Pure and bright, unwavering,

Like the form of a Great Worthy Person—

This image is contemplated falsely before,

Yet it is the distinct sign indeed.

Once this sign has arisen,

The evil desires are thereupon removed;

This is the person who has bound this mind—

The sign of the means leading to the First Concentration.

Next, one knows the essence of hatred

Originally springs from the arising of greedy desire;

Once craving and desire have been removed,

One is freed from hatred and anger.

Next, using mindfulness one strives onward,

Removing the mind of torpor;

Having contemplated the distinct sign,

The feeling of doubt thereupon ceases and ends.

Next one must remove remorse,

Skillfully walking the peaceful, secure path;

Tranquil and still, without hindrance,

One guards against restlessness.

One should know that, using the coarse mind,

Contemplating that sign which is grasped,

Then within the mind's image

One seeks with subtle, fine attention.

Seeing the mind of joy, distinct and clear,

By this one attains pliancy;

Next one realizes the bliss of concentration—

The factors of concentration are like this in order.

This is the fundamental concentration,

Skillfully settled upon the mind's mindfulness,

Just as one who wishes to go to the village

And arrives to dwell within the village.

Having attained the fundamental concentration,

One further cultivates other practices,

Attaining the knowledge of others' minds, the recollection of former abodes,

The supernatural powers of the divine eye and divine ear.

Here, when there is still Sustained inquiry,

The mind has not yet attained still abiding,

Just as a river that has waves;

One should know that the higher stages are loftier.

Having attained the First Concentration,

Yet abiding in the object of contemplation,

Next, relying on the Second Concentration,

Initial and Sustained inquiry both cease and end.

Though one abides in this state,

There is still the moving water of joy;

When one enters the Third Concentration,

The mind thereupon attains still abiding.

Because that mind possesses bliss,

It cannot yet make mindfulness abide;

Having realized the Fourth Concentration,

The faults are all severed and removed.

The portion of regression, the portion of advancing triumph,

The portion of abiding, the portion of discernment—

Meditative absorption has four kinds

That the cultivator of concentration must know.

If concentration accords with afflictions,

This is called the portion of regression;

What follows triumph is the portion of triumph;

The abiding gathered in abiding should be known.

Because of prior skillful discrimination

That is the cause of the path of discernment,

This concentration together with what is thereby attained

Is called the portion of discernment.

Upon the signs of impermanence,

Performing the various practices that understand Suffering...

If a person attains this concentration,

These are the portions of the path: Heat...

Regarding the various signs—the green, the swollen—

The contemplation has many avenues;

As in the cultivation taught by the Sage's teaching,

Their differences must be known.

The corpse, with wind entering the belly,

Where pus flows from its cavities,

And the groin too has dried up entirely—

This is called the swollen and bloated.

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

But only lusts after the body's fine smoothness,

For this person of tainted mind

One has him cultivate such contemplation.

Or, regarding a corpse

Where a little white pus flows,

And the remaining flesh is all turned green—

This is called the green-bruised.

Seeing a complexion and giving rise to craving—

This is called a person who craves complexions;

The antidote is to use the green-bruised,

Under the sun in the scorching heat.

The corpse oozing pus all over—

This is the sign of flowing pus;

For that person who craves fragrance

One has him contemplate to halt the tainted mind.

The back of the corpse broken and shattered—

This is called the sign of severance and decay;

For the person who craves the whole body,

The Great Sage, the Honored One, taught it.

As an antidote to craving skin and flesh,

He taught the sign of the devoured remains:

The hands, the feet, the various bones—

Wherever they are, all scattered apart.

For the person who craves the various parts,

He taught the sign of teeth and bones in disorder;

Right at that sign of bones in disorder,

By knife and staff broken and sundered apart.

Also for the craving of the whole body,

He has one contemplate the sign of being beaten in disorder:

The corpse hacked by a knife,

Or broken by staff and arrow.

Blood flowing over the ravaged body—

This is called the sign of the blood-smeared.

Clean, with fragrance anointing the body,

Adorned and clothed in beautiful garments—

Toward this, a person gives rise to craving;

One uses the remedy, skillfully analyzing.

Toward an object that one alone craves,

Not allowing others to look upon it,

Many worms burrowing into the corpse—

One has him contemplate to remove the evil thought.

The flesh of the corpse dissolves and scatters,

Leaving only the teeth and bones;

Where there is craving and attachment to the teeth,

One has him contemplate the sign of teeth and bones.

If one sees a person newly dead

Whose consciousness has departed, the body's remains still there,

Beings who crave and cling to pleasure—

One has him remove the craving for charm and grace.

Excrement, urine, and saliva,

Gathered together to form a body;

Thirty-two kinds of substances

Wrapped in skin are called a person.

Body-hair and head-hair, nails and teeth,

Liver and intestines—the various signs of a person;

Hollow within are three hundred bones,

Bound and wound about are nine hundred bones;

From the nine orifices flow impurities,

Filthy and foul, hard to describe;

Contemplated closely, it is truly loathsome—

The wise should not draw near it.

Having contemplated the woman's body,

One should likewise examine one's own body;

Where there is the cause of craving and defilement,

According to principle one should ever bind mindfulness.

Not escaping the prison of the three realms,

Perhaps because of the mind's defilement by desire—

Therefore the wise and clear person

Most skillfully reflects upon this matter.

Having passed through the many sufferings of the hells,

By good fortune one has obtained a human body;

How could one indulge a deranged mind

And not cultivate the supreme practice?

Lustful craving has many kinds,

Giving rise to evils that are not the same;

A single contemplation can remove them all—

It is the contemplation of the white bones.

When the touch of a charming form,

Of clothing, gives rise to defiled attachment,

What medicine can remove this?

Nothing surpasses the contemplation of white bones.

First, at the big toe,

Settle the mind, conditioning it to create a swelling;

It bursts open and the pus has flowed,

The flesh all follows in falling away.

Then contemplate the form of the toe-bones,

Their color like a conch shell, white;

The swelling has gradually grown larger,

Skin and flesh are all removed and cleaned away.

Contemplating in succession in this way,

The flesh of the body is all removed entirely;

Right mindfulness and supreme understanding accomplished,

One contemplates only those joints of bone.

If even a little flesh remains,

This is called a disordered mind;

How much more so to let the mind run wild,

Galloping off in search of the various objects.

For a long time binding the thought,

One knows oneself able to abide skillfully;

Next, gradually extending to other persons,

One contemplates them all together as joints of bone.

Gradually expanding to the ocean's shore,

Within it filled with white bones;

Once this concentration has been accomplished,

Having broadened it, one again makes it narrow.

When omitting and discarding from without,

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

One again contemplates the bones of the toes—

This is the order of the concentrated mind.

Or again, discarding piece by piece,

Reaching utterly to the crown bone;

One should know that the final mind

Is gathered between the brows and made to abide.

If one cultivates and practices in this way,

One is ever born in the supreme Brahmā palace,

Not falling into the three evil paths,

And gains birth in the heaven of the Five Pure Abodes.

The mind of the human realm, its goodness scattered,

Returns again to the stream of birth and death;

The wise who cultivate the concentrated mind

Are like fire burning the garment on the body.

Then one is able to abandon all conditions

And dwell in the lonely forest;

Do not let impermanence press upon you,

Dying in vain amid a scattered mind.

Using prajñā to purify the mind,

In the end one attains the lovely fruit;

If one does not wish for further existence,

One should cultivate the supreme path.

Shaving the hair, donning the kāṣāya robe,

One must cultivate the Sage's path;

To speak of the various miscellaneous affairs

Will be the cause of birth and death.