The Body as Wound

Posted on September 13, 2003 in Myths & Mysticism

Early Buddhists likened the body to a wound. It oozed from nine orifices (twelve in women) and gave pain. The Greek King Menander wondered why anyone would bother to keep living in such a thing. Nãgasena told him that the proper way to treat a wound was to clean it, apply antiseptic, and bandage it. In other words, the object was to get the wound to heal.

The Buddha himself spent a few years in the forest gouging at the wound that was himself before he realized that this starving and chastening of his person was doing him no good. He began to eat, walk about, enjoy the world in moderation. It was important to treat his body like a wound so that it could heal properly from the sorrow of the world and leave the soul fit for the work it had to do.