9 Cemetery Reflections text
The Nine Cemetery Contemplations or Stages of Decomposition
Again, Bhikkhus, as though one were to see a corpse thrown aside in a charnel ground, one, two, or three days dead, bloated (swollen), livid (blue), and oozing matter (pus flowing), a bhikkhu compares this same (one’s own) body with it thus: “This body too is of the same nature, it will be like that, it is not exempt from that fate.”
In this way one abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally…And abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.
Again, as though one were to see a corpse thrown aside in a charnel ground being devoured (eaten) by crows, hawks, vultures, dogs, jackals, or various kinds of worms…
In this way one abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally…And abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.
Reduced to a skeleton with flesh and blood adhering to it (still remaining), held together with tendons…
In this way one abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally…And abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.
Reduced to a fleshless skeleton smeared with blood (although no flesh, the blood is still not dry), held together by tendons…
In this way one abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally…And abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.
Reduced to a skeleton without flesh and blood, held together by tendons…
In this way one abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally…And abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.
Reduced to disconnected bones scattered in all directions – here a hand bone, there a foot bone, here a shin bone, there a thigh bone, here a hip bone, there a back-bone, here a rib-bone, there a breast bone, here an arm-bone, there a shoulder bone, here a neck bone, there a jaw bone, here a tooth, there the skull…
In this way one abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally…And abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.
Reduced to bones bleached white, the color of shells…
In this way one abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally…And abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.
Reduced to bones heaped up, more than a year old…
In this way one abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally…And abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.
Reduced to bones rotted and crumbled to dust, a bhikkhu compares this same body with it thus,
“This body too is of the same nature, it will be like that, it is not exempt from that fate.”
In this way he abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally…And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.