Sutta Nipāta — Antologia de Discursos — 1.11 — Victory Over Desire for the Body

1Walking and standing,
sitting and lying down,
extending and contracting the limbs:
these are the movements of the body.

2Linked together by bones and sinews,
plastered over with flesh and hide,
and covered by the skin,
the body is not seen as it is.

3It’s full of guts and belly,
liver and bladder,
heart and lungs,
kidney and spleen,

4spit and snot,
sweat and fat,
blood and synovial fluid,
bile and grease.

5Then in nine streams
the filth is always flowing.
There is muck from the eyes,
wax from the ears,

6and snot from the nostrils.
The mouth sometimes vomits
bile and sometimes phlegm.
And from the body, sweat and waste.

7Then there is the hollow head
all filled with brains.
Governed by ignorance,
the fool thinks it’s lovely.

8And when it lies dead,
bloated and livid,
dumped in a charnel ground,
the relatives forget it.

9It’s devoured by dogs,
by jackals, wolves, and worms.
It’s devoured by crows and vultures,
and any other creatures there.

10A wise mendicant here,
having heard the Buddha’s words,
fully understands it,
for they see it as it is.

11“As this is, so is that,
as that is, so is this.”
They’d blanch desire for the body
inside and out.

12That wise mendicant here
rid of desire and lust,
has found the peace free of death,
extinguishment, the state that does not pass.

13This two-legged body is dirty and stinking,
full of different carcasses,
and oozing all over the place—
but still it is cherished!

14And if, on account of such a body,
someone prides themselves
or looks down on others—
what is that but a failure to see?