PROPERLY DONE, BODY CONTEMPLATION is intense and the mental effort is unrelenting; so, eventually, the mind begins to tire. It is then appropriate to stop and take a rest. When meditators who are engaged in full-scale body contemplation take a break, they return to the samadhi practice they have developed and maintained so assiduously. Reentering the still peace and concentration of samadhi, they abide in total calm where no thoughts or visualizations arise to disturb the citta. The burden of thinking and probing with wisdom is temporarily set aside so that the mind can completely relax, suspended in tranquility. Once the mind is satiated with samadhi, it withdraws on its own, feeling reinvigorated and refreshed and ready to tackle the rigors of body contemplation again. In this way, samadhi supports the work of wisdom, making it more adept and incisive.

如果正确地修行，身念住非常猛烈，对心力消耗很大。所以慢慢的，心会开始累，这是时候休息一阵了。专修身念住的禅者休息时，会回到之前建立好和辛辛苦苦保持的三摩地修行去，重新进入三摩地的平静和定，安住在完全的宁静中，没有念头或观相生起干扰心。把智慧思维和探索的负担暂时放在一旁，以便心可以完全地放松，恬息在宁静中。一旦心在三摩地中休息够了，它自己会退出来，感到精神饱满精力充沛，预备好着手再次进行严酷的观身。三摩地以这种模式支持智慧的工作，使它更熟练尖锐。

Upon withdrawal from samadhi, the investigation of the body immediately begins anew. Each time you investigate with mindfulness and wisdom, the investigation should be carried out in the present moment. To be fully effective, each new investigation must be fresh and spontaneous. Don’t allow them to become carbon copies of previous ones. An immediacy, of being exclusively in the present moment, must be maintained at all times. Forget whatever you may have learned; forget what happened the last time you delved into the body’s domain—just focus your attention squarely in the present moment and investigate only from that vantage point. Ultimately, this is what it means to be mindful. Mindfulness fixes the mind in the present, allowing wisdom to focus sharply. Learned experience is stored as memory, and as such should be put aside; otherwise memory will masquerade as wisdom. This is the present imitating the past. If memory is permitted to replace the immediacy of the present moment, then genuine wisdom will not arise. So guard against this tendency in your practice.

一退出三摩地，身体的观察立刻重新开始。每一次你用念住和智慧观察，那个观察必须是针对当下的情况。要充分有效的话，每次新观察必须是崭新和临场的，不要让它们成为过去的复印纸，任何时候都必须保持在直接、全面的当下，把你所学过的放下，忘掉上一次你潜入身体领域时所发生过的——只是把注意力专注在面对的当下，掌握有利的形势去观察。毕竟，这就是念住的意思，念住把心专注在当下，让智慧尖锐地集中。过往的经验已经储存在记忆中，所以应该放在一旁，不然记忆会伪装成智慧，这是当下的在模仿过去的。如果记忆被允许代替当下的现场，那么真正的智慧就不会生起，所以修行时要防止这种倾向发生。

Keep probing and analyzing the nature of the body over and over again, using as many perspectives as your wisdom can devise, until you become thoroughly skilled in every conceivable aspect of body contemplation. True expertise in this practice produces sharp, clear insights. It penetrates directly to the essence of the body’s natural existence in a way that transforms the meditator’s view of the human body. A level of mastery can be reached, such that peoples’ bodies instantly appear to break apart whenever you look at them. When wisdom attains total mastery of the practice, we see only flesh, sinews and bones where a person once stood. The whole body is revealed as a viscous, red mass of raw tissue. The skin will vanish in a flash, and wisdom will quickly penetrate the body’s inner recesses. Whether it’s a man or a woman, the skin—which is commonly considered so appealing—is simply ignored. Wisdom penetrates immediately inside where a disgusting, repulsive mess of organs and bodily fluids fills every cavity.

修行时，一次又一次地用尽各种智慧所能设想出来地透视，不断探索分析身体的本质，直到你全面掌握身念住法门所能想象到的每一方面。真正专精这修行可以产生尖锐清晰的内观，直接渗透身体自然存在的本性，使禅修者改变对身体的看法。当精通到这个程度，你一看到人的身体，它会立刻分崩离析地呈现在眼前。当智慧全面透彻这修行技巧时，任何人一出现，我们就只是看到肉、肌腱和骨头罢了。整个身体呈现为一团粘乎乎、红色的原始组织，皮肤在瞬息间消失，智慧迅速地渗透身体内部隐秘处。不管是一个男人或女人，皮肤——通常被认为是最吸引人的——被舍弃不管，智慧立即渗透入这整团厌恶反感的器官以及各个充满了体液的体腔之内。

Wisdom is able to penetrate to the truth of the body with utmost clarity. The attractiveness of the body completely disappears. What then is there to be attached to? What is there to lust after? What in the body is worth clinging to? Where in this lump of raw flesh is the person? The kilesas have woven a web of deception concerning the body, fooling us with perceptions of human beauty and exciting us with lustful thoughts. The truth is that the object of that desire is a fake—a complete fraud. For in reality, when seen clearly with wisdom, the body by its very nature repels desire. When this delusion is exposed in the light of wisdom, the human body appears in all its gory detail as an appalling sight. Seen with absolute clarity, the mind shrinks from it instantly.

智慧清晰无比地看穿身体的真相。当身体的吸引力完全消失时，还有什么值得执着的？还有什么令人贪染的？身体内有什么值得依恋的？人存在这堆生肉团里面的什么地方？烦恼以身体编织了一个虚妄的网，欺骗我们认为身体漂亮，用贪欲思想刺激我们。事实是，欲念的对象是个赝品——整个是彻头彻尾的骗局。实际上，用智慧清楚地观察的话，身体的本质会令欲念产生排斥，依靠智慧把这幻象揭穿时，身体呈现在视线前的是令人震惊的血肉淋漓。彻底看透它，心会立刻避开。

The keys to success are persistence and perseverance. Always be diligent and alert when applying mindfulness and wisdom to the task. Don’t be satisfied with partial success. Each time you contemplate the body, carry that investigation through to its logical conclusion; then quickly reestablish an image of the body in your mind and begin the process all over again. As you delve deeper and deeper into the body’s interior, the various parts will gradually begin to break up, fall apart, and disintegrate right before your eyes. Follow the process of disintegration and decay intently. Mindful of every detail, focus your wisdom on the unstable and impermanent nature of this form that the world views with such infatuation. Let your intuitive wisdom initiate the process of decay and see what happens. This is the next stage in body contemplation.

修行成功的关键是持之以恒和精进，应用念住和智慧时，永远要勤奋和警觉，不要满足于某个阶段的成就。每一次观察身体，必须确保获得合乎逻辑的结论。然后迅速地在你的心中观一个新的身相，重新开始整个过程。当你渗透进身体内部越来越深时，不同的部位会在你眼前分裂、掉落和崩溃。仔细跟随这分解和腐烂的过程，专注每一细节，把你的智慧专注在这世间那么热恋的身相上，专注在它的不稳定和无常本质上。让你直觉的智慧启动腐烂的过程，并观察会发生什么。这是身念住的另一阶段。

Follow the natural conditions of decay as the body decomposes and returns to its original elemental state. Decay and destruction is the natural course of all organic life. Eventually, all things are reduced to their constituent elements, and those elements disperse. Let wisdom be the destroyer, imagining for the mind’s eye the process of decay and decomposition. Concentrate on the disintegration of the flesh and other soft tissue, watching as it slowly decomposes until nothing remains but disjointed bones. Then reconstruct the body again and begin the investigation once more. Each time that intuitive wisdom lays waste to the body, mentally restore it to its former condition and start anew.

身体分解回到它原来的元素时，观察腐烂的自然过程。腐烂和分解是一切有机生命的自然过程，所有的东西都回归到组成它们的元素，最后这些元素也分离。让智慧当毁灭者，替心眼想象腐烂和分解的过程，专注在肉和其他软组织的分解，观察它们逐渐分解至什么都不剩，只有散落的骸骨。然后重建整个身体再次开始观察。每一次让直觉的智慧把身体毁灭，心里再把它装设回原来的样子，接着重新来过。

This practice is an intense form of mental training, requiring a high degree of skill and mental fortitude. The rewards reflect the power and intensity of the effort made. The more proficient wisdom is, the brighter, clearer and more powerful the mind becomes. The mind’s clarity and strength appear to have no bounds—its speed and agility are amazing. At this stage, meditators are motivated by a profound sense of urgency as they begin to realize the harm caused by attachment to the human form. The lurking danger is clearly seen. Where previously they grasped the body as something of supreme value—something to be admired and adored—they now see only a pile of rotting bone; and they are thoroughly repulsed. Through the power of wisdom, a dead, decaying body and the living, breathing body have become one and the same corpse. Not a shred of difference exists between them.

这个修行是种猛烈的心灵训练，需要高度的熟练和毅力。它的成就反映出修行所付出的力量与密集程度，智慧越纯熟，心就越光明、清晰和有力。心的清晰度和力量显得没有止尽——它的速度和灵活令人惊叹。在这个阶段，禅修者开始觉悟到执着身相带来的害处，潜伏着的危险清晰可见，而产生强烈的急迫感，驱使自己修行。

他们对之前所执着，认为无比珍贵——令人爱恋崇拜——的身体，现在视之为仅是一堆深感厌恶的烂骨头。通过智慧的力量，一具死的、腐烂的身体和一具活的、呼吸着的身体变成同一副尸体，两者之间没有一丝的不同。

You must investigate repeatedly, training the mind until you become highly proficient at using wisdom. Avoid any form of speculation or conjecture. Don’t allow thoughts of what you should be doing or what the results might mean to encroach upon the investigation. Just concentrate on the truth of what wisdom reveals and let the truth speak for itself. Wisdom will know the correct path to follow and will understand clearly the truths that it uncovers. And when wisdom is fully convinced of the truth of any aspect of the body, it will naturally release its attachment to that aspect. No matter how intently it has pursued that investigation, the mind feels fully satisfied once the truth manifests itself with absolute certainty. When the truth of one facet of body contemplation is realized, there is nothing further to seek in that direction. So, the mind moves on to examine another facet, and then another facet, until finally all doubts are eliminated.

你必须重复观察，训练心，直到你对智慧的应用高度纯熟。避免任何形式的推想和臆测。观察时不要被你应该做什么和结果意味着怎么样的看法干涉。只需专注在智慧揭露的真相上，让真相显现自己。智慧知道追随正确的道路，并且会清楚明白它所揭发的真相。当智慧对身体某个侧面的真相坚决相信后，它自然会放下对这侧面的执着。不论心之前多么专注地观察，一旦真相绝对清楚地显示出来之后，它会感到心满意足。当觉悟了身念住的某一方面的真相，那方面就没有必要再进一步深入。因此，心会转移观察其他方面，然后再其他方面，直到最后所有的疑惑消除。

Striving in this way, probing deeper and deeper into the body’s inherent nature with an intense focus on the present moment, a heightened state of awareness must be maintained; and the intensity of the effort eventually takes its toll. When fatigue sets in, experienced meditators know instinctively that the time is right to rest the mind in samadhi. So they drop all aspects of the investigation and concentrate solely on one object. Totally unburdening themselves, they enter into the cool, composed, rejuvenating peace of samadhi. In this way, samadhi is a separate practice altogether. No thoughts of any kind infringe upon the citta’s essential knowing nature while it rests peacefully with single-minded concentration.

在这种模式中奋斗，以高度的专注力不断深入探索身体内其当下的本质，一定要维持着一个强大的觉知。而且密集地努力最后也须付出代价。开始疲惫时，有经验的禅者本能地知道心是时候进入三摩地休息了。他们会放下所有的观察然后置心于一境，断然放下负担，进入清凉、宁静、令人恢复活力的三摩地。这样，三摩地是一种截然不同的修行。心平静安住在一境性的定中，没有任何念头干扰它能知的根本特性。当心渗透进全面的静止，身体和外在的世界暂时从觉知中消失。一旦心饱满了，它自己会退回正常的意识。此时念住和智慧就好像一个吃饱与充分休息过的人，精神焕发地准备回去工作。然后，抱着目标明确的决心把三摩地的修行放在一边，重新开始智慧的修行。在这种修行模式中，三摩地是智慧卓越的支援。

With the citta absorbed in total stillness, the body and the external world temporarily disappear from awareness. Once the citta is satiated, it withdraws to normal consciousness on its own. Like a person who eats a full meal and takes a good rest, mindfulness and wisdom are refreshed and ready to return to work with renewed energy. Then, with purposeful resolve, the practice of samadhi is put aside and the practice of wisdom is reestablished. In this way, samadhi is an outstanding complement to wisdom.

思维身体非常重要，我们主要的欲望都和它结合在一起。关注一下我们的周遭，可以看到一个紧紧抓着性欲和疯狂贪恋人体的世界。身为禅修者，我们一定要面对自身淫欲的挑战，这问题源自于对性欲爱染根深蒂固的执着。禅修时，这个杂染是进步最大的障碍。我们越深入观身，就看得越明显，没有任何形式的烦恼，像淫欲那样强烈地障碍着心，对心施加那么强大的力量。由于这执着植根于肉体，揭露它的本质会逐步解除心对肉体胶粘着的系缚。