38 / 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

19 Quaint gate.jpg
一百八法明門
IPPYAKUHACHI-HOMYOMON
One Hundred and Eight Gates of Dharma-Illumination

[38] Reflection on impurity is a gate of Dharma-illumination; for [with it] we abandon the mind that is tainted by desire.

In Buddhism, reflection on impurity is a core practice designed to dismantle attachment to the physical body and overcome intense desire, lust, and sensuality. By contemplating the body's true nature as a collection of transient, decaying, and unappealing elements, practitioners develop detachment, which leads to mental purification and, ultimately, freedom from suffering.

Having spent fifteen years doing embalming, I know how my reflection on impurity works in regard to abandoning the mind. What I'd like to hear is how this gate affects you and how you feel about it,

合掌,生開
gassho, Shokai
stlah
仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai
"Open to life in a benevolent way"

[Ryūdō-Liúdào]

Impurities, like sickness, decay, aging, and death, are usually painted as something negative, but they're really just another phase of happening-ness. I've noticed that a lot of modern life, especially in a "spiritual and wellness" business Mecca like Bali, is soaked in toxic positivity, encouraging people to hide from or deny half of reality. But life isn’t only the Instagrammable parts.

If you want to eat a fish, you should be willing to catch it, kill it, clean it, and cook it. If any of those steps are unbearable, why eat fish at all? In the same way, people delight in buying a cute, healthy puppy, yet recoil from a mangy, sick street dog. And yet—aren’t both equally alive? Don’t both deserve care, or at least honest recognition?

Beauty fades. Muscles weaken. The body leaks, breaks down, and the mind eventually follows. To reject these facts is to reject half of existence in favor of chasing a pleasant but fragile dream. When we reflect on impurity, not as something wrong, but as something real, craving loses its grip. What’s left is a fuller, steadier way of living, one that doesn’t flinch from life as it actually is.

From my thirteen years as a rum distiller, I've found the same lesson in making good rum as in reflecting on impurity. Nothing clean appears without first passing through waste, rot, heat, and death. Molasses is a byproduct. Dunder is filth. Yeast lives, breeds, and dies. Fire separates without judgment. If any part of the process is rejected, nothing good is made. When impurity is understood rather than avoided, transformation happens naturally.

Seen this way, impurity isn’t a problem to fix. It’s a teacher.

Gasshō,
流道-Ryūdō-Liúdào
Satlah

[Tenryu]

Each time I encounter words like “impurity,” there is a brief inner resistance. They can sound like judgement, and judgement is something I try to be careful with. The Heart Sutra immediately comes to mind: “not stained, not pure.” From that view, nothing stands outside suchness, nothing needs to be rejected.

Read this way, the gate does not point to condemning the body or experience. It points to seeing things just as they are. When desire arises, it is often because something provisional is treated as solid and lasting. Dōgen’s way of practice gently interrupts that move. Body and mind are seen as activity, as process, already expressing the Dharma.

When this is clear, grasping loosens by itself. What remains is not distance from life, but intimacy with it. Desire no longer needs to be fought; it simply has less ground to stand on, and the mind settles naturally.

Gasshō,
Tenryū
sat&lah

[Seikan]

With regard to the physical body, all of the "gross" or "impure" aspects lose their ability to cause aversion when we consider that they have just as much purpose and value as the more "pleasant" bodily aspects of life. Pure and impure, clean or dirty, pleasant or unpleasant, these are all just judgement thoughts that the mind adds to our experiences. Impurities of the body are impermanent and so are the pure or pleasant aspects as well. Both are equally worth of our attention/awareness, yet neither should be treated as more important than the other.

That said, I do understand and appreciate the practice of contemplating the impure aspects of the body as a means of loosing our attachment to the body. But to be honest, I prefer to simply be aware of my own reactions to each element and whether I consider them to be pure or impure. This allows me to accept my body for what it is and care for it respectfully without unnecessary attachment. It is simply doing the job it was born to do. I don't need to flaunt it in any way, but nor should I develop strong aversions to this body either. The middle way feels best to me in this regard.

Gassho,
Seikan
stlah

[Tairin]

Thank you Shokai

I have been a physically active person for my entire adult life. I am not gifted athletically or necessarily super strong but I have worked hard to be in the best shape i can be. I am now nearing 60 and although I can claim to be in better shape than many of my peers, I am very aware of the natural personal decline as I age. Gains are hard, aches take longer to recover from etc. I realize this is natural part of life and although I mourn the loss I also accept that this is life. Doesn’t mean I give up my routines but it does mean accepting that I am not 20 or 30.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[dorgan]

Desire distorts perception into possession, just as craving transforms direct encounter into fantasy and projection. The impurity lies in our seeing; we distance ourselves from actual experience by overlaying an interpretive narrative. If I can recognize the moment when desire introduces its narrative overlay, when I am no longer meeting what's actually before me but instead relating to my own mental elaboration, I can counter the distorting effects of desire. Our bodies lose their actuality in our minds precisely through our fantasies about them; things become objects of craving when we stop encountering them as they are. The older I get and the longer I sit in zazen, the easier this is for me to set aside narrative overlays and just experience. This same awareness applies beyond sensual desire to any domain where I notice myself relating to my "idea" of something rather than the thing itself: work ambitions, intellectual attainments, spiritual states.

The "taint" is the conceptual residue that accumulates between my direct experience and my grasping after it. I am getting better and better at recognizing moments when distortion begins and realigning myself at once to what is. A work in progress, this gate makes me grateful for the opportunity it offers me to see and feel life as it is, not just what's in my head. I can feel all sorts of things, but I do not have to own them; I can notice them and let them go.

gassho, david
stlah

[Choujou]

Oh we are just nasty, filthy, disgusting creatures, seeping out all sorts of nastiness that I don’t even want to get into (seriously though, I work in the mattress industry and we sell protectors for mattresses for a reason!) If this is enough for someone to let go of excessive sensual desire, then good! That being said, we are are also lovely creatures, beautiful and wonderful and a myriad of ways… the heart sutra tells us that all things are neither pure, nor impure, neither waxing nor waning… it is the simple fact that all is Buddha, all is emptiness. When form becomes empty, the desires become empty as well… all is delusion. I think that sensuality has a time and place, but not to be dwelled upon constantly or excessively indulged in. As with all things in life, it’s all about balance…there is a middle way.

Gassho,
Choujou

sat/lah today

[Tensei]

In a society quite focussed on external appearances, it can be freeing to consider the impermanent, goopy nature of our physical forms. This meat mech is simply a conditioned body subject to aging and decay, just like everyone else's. It makes it easier to focus on things that matter - kindness, bravery, friendship, generosity, gratitude.

Gassho,
Tensei
satlah

[Chikyou]

The thought that first comes to mind here is “observing the mind” - recognizing the impure/unwholesome thoughts as they arise and thereby distancing ourselves from them (at least a little!).

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō