"Good people, this body is impermanent, without durability, without strength, without firmness, a thing that decays in a moment, not to be relied on. It suffers, it is tormented, a meeting place of manifold ills. Good people, no person of enlightened wisdom could depend on a thing like this body This body is like a cluster of foam, nothing you can grasp or handle. This body is like a bubble that cannot continue for long. This body is like a flame born of longing and desire. This body is like the plantain that has no firmness in its trunk. This body is like a phantom, the product of error and confusion. This body is like a dream, compounded of false and empty visions. This body is like a shadow, appearing through karma causes. This body is like an echo, tied to causes and conditions. This body is like a drifting cloud, changing and vanishing in an instant. This body is like lightning, barely lasting from moment to moment. This body is like earth that has no subjective being. This body is like fire, devoid of ego. This body is like wind that has no set life span. This body is like water, devoid of individuality. This body has no reality but makes these four elements its lodging. This body is void, removed from self and self's possessions. This body is without understanding, like plants or trees, tiles or pebbles. This body is without positive action, blown about by the wind. This body is impure, crammed with defilement and evil. This body is empty and unreal; though for a time you may bathe and cleanse, clothe and feed it, in the end it must crumble and fade. This body is plague-ridden, beset by a hundred and one ills and anxieties. This body is like the abandoned well on the hillside, old age pressing in on it. This body has no fixity, but is destined for certain death. This body is like poisonous snakes, vengeful bandits, or an empty village, a mere coming together of components, realms, and sense-fields."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Vimalakirti, in Chapter II
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_the_body
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Buddhism and the body
6 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Buddhism and the body →
Related Quotes
"“Well, Lord, is the soul the same as the body, is the soul one thing and the body another?”"
"Joined together with bones and sinews, having a plastering of skin and flesh, covered with hide, the body is not seen…"
"Friends, this body is so impermanent, fragile, unworthy of confidence, and feeble. It is so insubstantial, perishable…"
"Therefore, you should be revulsed by such a body. You should despair of it and should arouse your admiration for the …"
"Good people, a thing like this is irksome and hateful, and therefore you should seek the Buddha body. Why? Because th…"
"It was a foot in name only. The misshapen mass looked more like a hoof bisected by a crack."
"Strange to think it was an erotic thing. To us, the smell of rotting flesh would be unbearable. But back then men wro…"
"The bandages that women used for footbinding were about 10 feet long, so it was difficult for them to wash their feet…"
"There's not a single other woman in Liuyicun who could fit their feet into my shoes. When my generation dies, people …"
"Looking back on it, I am not sure what I was expecting. Such cruel and ugly words are used to describe bound feet. I …"