Paikkūlamanasikāra is a Pāli term that is generally translated as "reflections on repulsiveness". It refers to a traditional Buddhist meditation whereby thirty-one parts of the body are contemplated in a variety of ways. In addition to developing sati and samādhi, this form of meditation is considered conducive to overcoming desire and lust. Along with cemetery contemplations, this type of meditation is one of the two meditations on "the foul"/unattractiveness.
Translation
Paikkūla literally means "against" "the slope" or "embankment" and has been translated adjectivally as "averse, objectionable, contrary, disagreeable" and, in its nounal form, as "loathsomeness, impurity". Manasikāra, derived from manasi and karoti and has been translated as "attention" or "pondering" or "fixed thought". In contemporary translations, the compound termpaikkūla-manasikāra is generally translated as "reflections on repulsiveness" or, adding contextual clarity at the expense of literal accuracy, "reflections on repulsiveness of the body". Alternate translations include "attention directed to repulsiveness" and "realisation of the impurity of the body".
Benefits
This type of meditation is traditionally mentioned as an "antidote" to sensual passion. This is also one of the "four protective meditations", along with anussati, mettā practice and recollection of death. In individual discourses, this type of contemplation is identified as a contributor to a variety of mundane and transcendental goals. For instance, in the Girimananda Sutta, Ananda's recitation of this and other contemplations immediately cures an ailing monk. In the Sampasadaniya Sutta, Ven. Sariputta declares that meditating on these 31 body parts leads to "the attainment of vision, in four ways", and briefly outlines how this method can be used as a springboard by which one "comes to know the unbroken stream of human consciousness that is not established either in this world or in the next". In addition, in the Iddhipāda-samyutta's Vibhanga Sutta, this meditation subject is used to develop the four bases of power by which one is able to achieve liberation from suffering. While the Pali Canon invariably includes this form of contemplation in its various lists of mindfulness meditation techniques, the compendious fifth-century Visuddhimagga identifies this type of contemplation as one of the few body-directed meditations particularly suited to the development of samādhi.
Practice
In Buddhist scriptures, this practice involves mentally identifying 31 parts of the body, contemplated upon in various ways.
Objects of contemplation
This meditation involves meditating on 31 different body parts: In a few discourses, these 31 body parts are contextualized within the framework of the mahābhūta so that the earth element is exemplified by the body parts from head hair to feces, and the water element is exemplified by bile through urine. A few other discourses preface contemplation of these 31 body parts in the following manner: "Herein... a monk contemplates this body upward from the soles of the feet, downward from the top of the hair, enclosed in skin, as being full of many impurities." The 31 identified body parts in pātikūlamanasikāra contemplation are the same as the first 31 body parts identified in the "Dvattimsakara" verse regularly recited by monks. The thirty-second body part identified in the latter verse is the brain. The Visuddhimagga suggests the enumeration of the 31 body parts implicitly includes the brain in ahimiñja, which is traditionally translated as "bone marrow".
Methods of contemplation
A canonical formulation of how to meditate on these is: In regards to this and other body-centered meditation objects, the Satipatthana Sutta provides the following additional context and expected results: According to the post-canonical Pali atthakatha on the Satipatthana Sutta, one can develop "seven kinds of skill in study" regarding these meditation objects through:
repetition of the body parts verbally
repetition of the body parts mentally
discerning the body parts individually in terms of each one's color
discerning the body parts individually in terms of each one's shape
discerning if a body part is above or below the navel
discerning the body part's spatial location
spatially and functionally juxtaposing two body parts
The name for this type of meditation is found in the sectional titles used in the Mahasatipatthana Sutta and the Satipatthana Sutta, where the contemplation of the 32 body parts is entitled, Paikkūla-manasikāra-pabba. Subsequently, in the post-canonical Visuddhimagga and other atthakatha works, paikkūlamanasikāra is explicitly used when referring to this technique. This form of meditation is mentioned in the following suttas in the Pāli Canon :
Elsewhere in Pali literature, this type of meditation is discussed extensively in the post-canonical Visuddhimagga. In several of these sources, this meditation is identified as one of a variety of meditations on the body along with, for instance, the mindfulness of breathing.
