[312] 11.
Whether walking or standing,
sitting or lying down,
one draws in and stretches out—
this is the movement of the body.
Joined together with bones and sinews,
plastered over with skin and flesh,
the body, concealed by its outer skin,
is not seen as it really is (yathābhūta).
It is full of intestines, full of stomach,
of the lump of the liver, of the bladder,
of the heart, of the lungs,
of the kidneys, and of the spleen;
of mucus, of saliva,
of sweat and of fat,
of blood, of synovial fluid,
of bile, and of grease.
Then from its nine streams
impurity flows at all times:
from the eye, eye-filth;
from the ear, ear-filth;
and mucus from the nose;
through the mouth it at times vomits—
it vomits up bile and phlegm—
and from the body, sweat and grime.
Then its hollow head
is filled with brain;
the fool, led on by ignorance (avijjā),
conceives it to be beautiful.
But when it lies dead,
bloated and livid,
cast away in the charnel ground (susāna),
relatives are without regard for it.
Dogs devour it, and jackals,
and wolves, and worms;
crows and vultures devour it,
and whatever other living creatures there are.
Having heard the word of the Buddha,
the bhikkhu endowed with understanding here—
he indeed fully understands it,
for he sees it as it really is.
"As this is, so is that;
as that is, so is this."
Both internally and externally,
one should dispel desire for the body.
That bhikkhu endowed with understanding here,
detached from desire and lust,
has attained the deathless, the peace—
the imperishable state of Nibbāna.
This two-footed (body), impure,
foul-smelling, is carried about,
filled with manifold carrion,
oozing here and there.
With such a body as this,
whoever should think to exalt himself,
or should despise another—
what is this but a failure to see?
The Vijaya Sutta, the eleventh.
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In the Suttanipāta, the twelfth of the Uragavagga: the Muni Sutta.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.