The Forty Meditation Themes, Part 1

Last week, we talked about conceptual, or contemplative, meditation. There are forty meditation themes that have become ‚Äúclassic,‚Äù and we’ll cover those today and tomorrow. There are ten ‚Äúrecollections,‚Äù ten ‚Äúfoul objects,‚Äù ten ‚Äúkasinas‚Äù, four ‚Äúdivine abidings‚Äù, four ‚Äúformless absorptions,‚Äù one ‚Äúresolution into elements,‚Äù and one ‚Äúperception of the filthiness of food.‚Äù Don’t worry about memorizing all that. You’ll get the picture soon enough.

These meditations are to be done thoughtfully and slowly, and you would go about them much like the ‚Äúmeditation on a corpse‚Äù that we looked at last Friday. You’ll soon see that there are many different versions of meditating on corpses. Keep in mind while reading the list that buddhists aren’t especially morbid, but death is probably the biggest fear that most of us have, and death, especially in the Buddha’s time period was often an ugly business. Contemplation on some of the foulest ideas can lead to fearlessness and peace.

Ten Recollections:
1. Recollection of the virtues of the Buddha.
2. Recollection of the virtues of the Dhamma.
3. Recollection of the virtues of the Sangha.
4. Recollection of one’s own moral virtue.
5. Recollection of one’s generosity.
6. Recollection of the qualities that lead to rebirth as a heavenly being.
7. Mindfulness immersed in the body.
8. Mindfulness of death.
9. Mindfulness of breathing.
10. Recollection of the virtues of Nirvana — ultimate pleasure; unexcelled ease, free from birth, aging, illness and death.

Ten Foul Objects:
1. A rotten, bloated corpse, its body all swollen and its features distended out of shape.
2. A livid corpse, with patchy discoloration — greenish, reddish, yellowish — from the decomposition of the blood.
3. A festering corpse, oozing lymph and pus from its various orifices.
4. A corpse falling apart, the pieces scattered about, radiating their stench.
5. A corpse that various animals, such as dogs, are gnawing, or that vultures are picking at, or that crows are fighting over, pulling it apart in different directions.
6. Corpses scattered about, i.e., unclaimed bodies that have been thrown together in a pile — face up, face down, old bones and new scattered all over the place.
7. The corpse of a person violently murdered, slashed and stabbed with various weapons, covered with wounds — short, long, shallow, deep — some parts hacked so that they’re almost detached.
8. Corpse covered with blood, like the hands of a butcher, all red and raw-smelling.
9. A corpse infested with worms: long worms, short worms, black, green, and yellow worms, squeezed into the ears, eyes, and mouth; squirming and squiggling about, filling the various parts of the body like a net full of fish that has fallen open.

10. A skeleton, some of the joints already separated, others not yet, the bones — whitish, yellowish, discolored — scattered near and far all over the place.

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