And the bodily dimension of jhana attainment of absorptions 1 to 4 is one of these. And if you look at this discourse, at this whole array of different practices presented to us there, this is very helpful because it helps to counterbalance the somewhat disconcerting or somewhat shocking impression that can come if we look only at one of these, the contemplation of anatomical parts, or only at the cemetery contemplations. In fact, the contemplation of anatomical parts comes with an explicit element of evaluation, which sees the body in a negative light. And the cemetery contemplation is about looking at the body that is gradually decaying, which is also somewhat stark practice. And there has been a tendency in early generations of scholars on Buddhism to kind of, I assume, take these practices a little bit out of context, and then draw the conclusion that the early Buddhists, they hate their body, and they don't know anything better than to get rid of the body and want to get out of bodily experiences. And this is really an unbalanced assessment. If you look at the array of practices in Kāyāgatā Siddhi Sūtra, in this discourse on mindfulness of the body, we see that this, let us call it more negative type of attitude, has its counterbalance in the intense happiness and bliss experienced at the bodily level through absorption. And the two stand in a connection with each other. Particularly, contemplation of the anatomical parts is really meant as a tool for those who have strong sensual desires to counterbalance the type of perception that leads to the arousal of sensual desire. And to be able to handle sensual desire is an indispensable condition for being then able to cultivate the mind such that one can attain absorption. So the two stand in a very clear relationship to each other. And on the next, on the other side, absorption yields such refined and intense types of joy and happiness that it automatically divests sensuality of its attraction. And when we see this cross-connection, then we can understand the purpose of this sometimes a little bit negatively formulated attitude towards the body. In a kind of middle position between these two, well,
而禪那達到吸收1到4的身體層面就是其中之一。如果你看看這篇論述,看看那裡向我們展示的一系列不同的修習,這是很有幫助的,因為如果我們只看其中之一,即對解剖部位的思考,或者只看對墓地的思考,這有助於抵消令人不安或震驚的印象。事實上,對解剖部位的思考帶有明確的評價因素,它從負面的角度看待身體。而墓地沉思則是看著逐漸腐爛的身體,這也是有些刻板的做法。早期研究佛教的學者有一種傾向,我猜想是有點斷章取義,然後得出結論說早期的佛教徒憎恨自己的身體,他們不知道什麼比擺脫身體和想要擺脫身體體驗更好。這實在是一種不平衡的評價