Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Meditate on the Body
Bunks
Australia Veteran
in Meditation
Been doing a little meditation on the 32 parts of the body......
Some fun facts:
- Hair - Every 2 to 5 years there is the replacement of all head hair
- Body hair - Every 3 to 5 months our eyebrows are entirely new
- Nails - A fingernail or toenail takes about 6 months to grow from base to tip
- Teeth - Every individual has two complete sets of teeth during the life cycle - 20 primary then 32 permanent
- Skin - Humans shed about 6kgs (15 lbs) of skin a year
- Bones - Almost every seven years, the body replaces the equivalent of an entirely new skeleton
- Kidneys - About 1,500 kgs (400 gallons) of blood flow through the kidneys in one day
- Heart - The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet
- Lungs - Humans breathe on average about 700 million times in a lifetime
- Stomach - For the average person, it takes eight seconds for food to travel down the esophagus, three to five hours in the small intestine, and three to four days in the large intestine before being excreted out
- Blood - Every inch of human skin consists of 20 feet of blood vessels.
Ha! And you thought we were permanent!!
6
Comments
Indeed.... as I pointed out as much, to @Tor....
(BTW, I'm agreeing with you....!)
What body ???
Whenever I hear this "entirely new skeleton" thing it always makes me think that someday, someone will be knocking on my door with a huge package: "here comes your new skeleton!"
It's funny how universal that statement is...everyone knows the trials and tribulations that come with assembling Ikea furniture. I hope they don't forget the allen key when my skeleton arrives
Whose body?
Presumeably the-body-that-is-not-yours-but-that-you-cause-to-walk-around...
Actually, the item about the Lg. Int. is not strictly accurate... The digestive process varies from person to person, and any two people might have wildly different 'habits'. For example, a person who normally empties their bowels twice a day, is just as normal as someone who normally does so once every other day.
)
I have been known to pass last night's dinner first thing the following morning (sorry....TMI....?
If the habit is 'normal' for that person, and carries no associated symptoms or side effects - then it's perfectly ok. Different large intestines can process foods in different times.
it also depends on a person's diet, too, of course....
Just a bit of Physiology for y'all, there....
Tee Hee!
Moulting is something we lobsters are used to.
I do regular 'body sweeps' being able to direct attention to most body parts. Yoga Nidra is good training in this capacity, as is any focus based meditation such as the breath, which can if needed be used to focus on ... well anything ...
and now a message from my sponsors
One approach is to use the elements model, contemplating the body in terms of the elements, earth, water, wind and fire. Earth for example would be solid tissues like bone and muscle, and water would be fluids like blood and urine.
You can also add space and consciousness to the four basic elements, which is known as six-element practice.
In some suttas there is a distinction between internal and external elements, ie between the bodily elements, and stuff "out there". It's all the same stuff, and all dependently arising.
I've wondered about updating elements practice to chemical elements practice. After all a solid grounding in chemistry leads to much the same insights about non-self and impermanence as the traditional Buddhist study.
Oxygen and iron in the blood... hydrogen and oxygen making up water in saliva... hydrogen and chloride forming hydrochloric acid in the stomach... it would be quite educational.
Sit those body bits on cushion - tips when the going gets tough ...
http://www.wildmind.org/applied/daily-life/dealing-with-resistance
Without the parts, there is no "body".
Zen Biology Lesson
Well, parts of us are...er, particles of us, if you want to get technical about it
Did you know there are particles in your body that were created during the Big Bang 13.7B years ago? It doesn't mean you'll live forever but those particles will live on after you pass on. And some of the higher elements in your body were created a bit later, by supernovae. So sez the physics and quantum physics documentaries on YouTube I was binging on awhile back. Yes, I'm weird.
Was just thinking earlier today about the certain level of ignorance that the Buddha was in because he didn't have quantum physicists to tell him all this cool stuff...but I'll bet he would have had some interesting meditations and teachings on the subject
But on a more serious note, it DOES throw some new light on the notion that we are all interbeing, not just in the present moment but all throughout history. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, but your ancient particles will live on until the Big Crunch, Big Freeze, Trumpocalypse, or whatever it is that brings about the end of the Universe 
Are we assuming there will be an 'end'? Just curious.
Scientists pretty much agree there will be an end to the universe some day, they're just not sure what although I think the Big Crunch has fallen out of favour and they now think it will be The Big Freeze.
But there is an end for us, for sure. The sun will go nova in another five billion or so years and it will swell up and engulf the earth.
time for a short interlude ...
I find bringing it 'back to Brooklyn' or our present situation, rather than 'what if', 'what about' and other childish mind and body angst more helpful/skilful ...
Pah, something else to worry about. Will this be covered by my house insurance?
? que ?
stylemnl.com/half-filipino-hunk-banners-the-latest-campaign-for-charlie-by-mz/
Now, I know I didn't think of this first...
Nice vehicle @silver
What vehicle ???
Love the trunk. (only the British will understand that double-entendre....
)
In the Buddhist tradition, mind and emotions are referred to as citta (often translated as 'mind'). I would suggest Mind is much bigger and includes at least 'Body thought'. Most of us think or are caught by our body pain/thought/dukkha/karma at times ...
In the Chen Yen or Shingon cult I joined, Mind/Body/Speech were our training methodology.