SOMETHING YOU WILL find ubiquitous, if you wander around the land, is beauty parlours. Other than a barbershop in the town or the country, never have we seen such outfits in the past. Beauty salons that beautify form―rūpa. How the radio stations or TV channels host a plethora of programmes prescribing beauty regimens to beautify your corporeal form, to make it radiant! How the starkly handsome revered-women and men conducting these, imbued with vanity, endeavour to defeat the likes of birth, decay, sickness and death inherent in this form, with curd, yoghurt, cucumber, carrot, egg white, or myriad creams, gels and dyes.[i] To beautify the whole gamut of 32-fold bodily impurities, to prevent wrinkles, to leave the body lustrous, to make existing body hair vanish, to conjure non-existent body hair into being, to make white hair raven black, to make black hair a riot of colour… Lo, an operation of miraculous proportions is what this is!

Having beautified the form with this operation, having burnished it, embellished it with styles and fashions, fancy necklaces, bangles and rings, when this body is made complete in all respects, how lovely it looks! Such lovely revered-ladies and gents, of all ages, are legion at present. Bearing this ‘reconditioned’ body of theirs, though these folks abide with great pride, do you know what fear they live in? Afraid, lest they lose the condition of the body, the shape, the complexion they artificially concocted. How much they toil and labour, how much they suffer, to stop this from happening.

Isn’t it this exertion that manifests itself as the exponential growth, which soars by the day, in beauty salons, beautification TV shows, fashion trends, clothing emporiums, and fancy accessories? The reason for this boom is but [attachment to] form and the apprehension in folks that its shape, colour, lustre, sinuous grace and litheness would be lost, would diminish. Irrespective of age, people have fallen victim to it. What they seek is a non-existent thing. A thing that turns impermanent. So, what they will have is only suffering. Beauty parlours, beautification shows, the curd, the cucumber, the carrot, the egg white are emblems and tokens of this suffering, this ignorance.

 If one be seeking their aid, he or she is but a poor old soul. It’s as if, to rid oneself of suffering, going in search of the evil Māra himself who is implicated in the suffering; or, to ward off the suffering of birth, decay, sickness and death, going in quest of the very suffering of birth, decay, sickness and death. The voices of ignorance that speak only of the enjoyment (assāda) in form are thus corralling you into further suffering; from suffering to deeper suffering. Not towards extinguishment of suffering. Nor towards solace. If you want extinguishment or solace in this very life, then you must turn a deaf ear to this voice of ignorance; you must not become a slave to it nor fall victim to it.

You will have met countless revered-women and men who practise the path of Dhamma. These are folks who haven’t beautified the body unnaturally, nor made a travesty of the natural state. Clad in white, well-restrained, very pleasantly and serenely they live in society. Upon seeing them, one can’t help but muse that the devas and deva-maidens in celestial worlds must be just like them, for they are pleasant and charming to that extent. Their beauty regime is simply the meditation on the qualities of a buddha, the meditation of loving-kindness, and the practice of giving alms and abiding by moral precepts.

Form means a death, a disease, a birth. To decorate such a thing with styles, shapes and patterns, is to decorate a death, a disease, a birth with styles, shapes and patterns. Look how unskilful we are. To be sure, though, this isn’t anything to be surprised by. When the grandmother of the household, having lived for 80 years, passes away, we wreathe her coffin lying in the living room with festoons of colourful lights. Grandma’s greyed and discoloured hair, wizened limbs, distended face, shows magnificently in the light cast. “Dead as she may be,” the ménage would remark, “how very pretty Grandma’s face looks! Why, there’s a glimmer of a smile on her visage.” See how we delight in birth, decay, sickness and death.

To dab colour on greying hair, or to receive beauty treatments for the wrinkling skin, eyebrow or nail, is to tend a death, a disease. Ponder upon this: Suppose a revered-bride, about to tie the knot, has to step onto the wedding dais at 10 in the morning. The beautician would start beautifying her―that is to say, would begin to mask, camouflage and cover up her birth, decay, sickness and death―from the wee hours of 3 or 4 in the morning. Not only that, it was from about a month prior that the bride would start following instructions for letting her body cool down and look pleasant and radiant. What’s all this effort? The effort to conceal birth, decay, sickness and death. But here the bride is also taught how to cultivate loving-kindness, in an attempt to keep the mind relaxed. Look how the evil Māra―who, while licking his lips, regurgitates the enjoyment in form interspersed among its adverse consequences―here teaches of loving-kindness as well.

Besieged by the guests at the wedding reception, as midday draws nearer, when the make-up deliquesces due to exhaustion, enervation, lack of rest, tears and sweat, the bride’s concealed birth, decay, sickness and death starts to show again. After lunch, once again the beautician conceals the bride’s birth, decay, sickness and death with creams and make-up. But eventually when the bride arrives at her husband’s abode all her concealed birth, decay, sickness and death shows through. And yet does the groom or bride lament upon seeing these? Not quite. The birth, decay, sickness and death they took home, they’d think it simply a pleasure. Thinking that “she is mine” and “I am hers,” they vow to live as one, come what may. That is to say, “Let’s regard this suffering a pleasure. May you take the birth, decay, sickness and death that is mine. Let me take the birth, decay, sickness and death that is yours.”  As if the existing suffering wasn’t enough, one goes to embrace the sufferings of another. What has happened on the pretext of marriage is coming into possession of copious suffering in return for a single pleasure. That means, in actual fact what was brought home was not a bride [or groom] but a suffering, a phenomenon that belongs to suffering.

To what cause does this profusion of suffering owe its existence? To making form ‘mine.’ What is form? Whether you are a venerable monk or a revered lay man or woman, take your body for instance. What is it that sustains this body? Nothing but food, water, medicine. What is it that this body is made up of? Of the solidness, liquidness, heat, and motion of the four elements earth, water, fire and wind. It is four elements of such nature that make up this body. Nowhere in the body can these elements be found singly. They cannot be discerned separately as ‘this is earth element,’ ‘this is water element,’ ‘heat element is this; and ‘this, the wind element.’

Let me give you an example. If you were to take a piece of flesh from your body, in that piece of flesh, all four of the elements earth, water, fire and air would be present. Its solidness would be earth element. Its blood would be water element. Its warmness would be heat element. There would be pressure so that blood should flow. That would be air element. That means in the piece of flesh all of the four elements are present. But in common parlance, a piece of flesh is generally considered to be earth element. Even so, now you would know that in a piece of flesh not only the earth element but the other three elements, too, commingled with each other, were present.

Take a cup of urine, for instance. In everyday language, we would say urine is water element. But in urine, there is a subtle dust-like matter. That would be earth element. There is a certain warmness. That would be heat element. There is liquidness, which would be water element. An effervescence of sorts that bubbles up is present. That would be air element. What this means is urine consists of all four elements.

Any form, whether internal or external, is of exactly the same nature as above, albeit here we are talking of internal form―your body. Now it is clear to you: Body is a form; Form is made up of the elements earth, water, fire and air. This fourfold element is something that always keeps changing. What we see as the impermanence of form is this changing nature. This changing nature is what we see as birth, decay, sickness and death. World’s fastest-ever process is the velocity at which form becomes impermanent. Cutting edge though the advent of new technology is in the world, to even think of seeing the speed at which form becomes impermanent, much less capture it in a photograph, would be a fool’s errand. Because the world’s fastest-ever phenomenon is the velocity of form becoming impermanent.[ii] There’s no seeing it with this flesh eye. Only with the eye of wisdom can it be seen. If one sees this velocity with wisdom, they will see their body, too, as a form that rapidly becomes impermanent. With penetrative insight, they will become disenchanted; will escape form.

A bhikkhu who has insightfully realized the impermanence of form can see with his wisdom’s eye a huge boulder rock as a mere air element that drifts along with the wind, by instantaneously making it so tenuous using the [perception of] impermanence. By thus seeing a hulking monolith as a mere smoke that wafts through the wind, what he so realized insightfully was the sheer velocity at which form rapidly becomes impermanent. It is a foregone conclusion that the one who sees this velocity of impermanence will, having escaped the desire for form, attain freedom.

As the fourfold element is becoming impermanent in the manner above, in between the four elements that are inextricably interwoven with each other arises a subtle space element. Only with wisdom can this space element be seen. The flesh eye is unable to see it. Although normally what we [Buddhists] refer to as space element is vacant spaces such as the nasal orifice, the earhole or the hollow in the navel, this is but a rudimentary understanding. The real arising-passing space element comes into being in the form of the hollow created when the synchronous fourfold element arises and passes at extreme rapidity. It is a space that must some day be seen with the eye of wisdom alone.

Let me show you a simplistic example. Suppose you go before a table, hold your palm horizontally about a foot above the tabletop, and bend one finger pointing down vertically towards the surface. Now make that finger rapidly move down and up, letting it touch the table surface repeatedly. Do this extremely fast and it will appear to you that your finger is constantly maintaining contact with the table surface. But in fact, when the finger moves back up, it is not touching the tabletop. Yet due to the rapidity [of motion] you can’t see it. The space element is not unlike this. The space that comes into being due to the extremely rapid arising and passing of the four elements isn’t perceptible to the flesh eye.

Now you are clear about the four elements earth, water, fire and air as well as the space element that comes into being due to their ever-so-fast changing. So then, whom does your body you thusly beautify and glamorize belong to? To you? Not quite! Its real owner is nature. How do we say this body belongs to nature? Because this body, too, is a nested part inseparable from nature; Nature is also made up of the same four elements earth, water, fire and air that this body is made up of. That means the sun, the moon, stars, clouds, the earth, trees and vines, the deva, the brahma, the denison of niraya… all this is made up of the fourfold element.

The fact that nature is made up of the four elements you understand now. The real owner of nature is ‘impermanence.’ Now prove it to yourself thus that your body belongs to nature.

 Look at it this way: Suppose this monk passed away. What would the devotees do? They would cremate the monk’s body. Would set fire to it. When the monk’s corpse was afire, you wouldn’t call those flames ‘the monk.’ You would call it the ‘heat element.’ As the monk’s body was blazing fiercely, this blaze would be fuelled by the bodily fat. Being aflame, as the subcutaneous fat oozed to the surface, you wouldn’t call that oleaginous matter ‘the monk.’ You’d call it the ‘liquidness element.’ With the monk’s corpse burned, smoke would billow into the sky. You wouldn’t call that smoke ‘the monk.’ You’d say it is ‘air element.’ Having been incinerated, the monk’s body would be reduced to ashes and bone fragments. You wouldn’t call those ashes and bones ‘the monk.’ You’d say it is ‘earth element.’ Then see, whom did the body the monk bore belong to? Into what did that body eventually integrate? Into nothing but nature. Into the elemental states of earth, water, fire and air. Then what we see as the monk, the blaze, the grease, the smoke, the bones, the ash, is nothing but the impermanence, the kaleidoscopic diversity in the four elements. Try and relate this to your life and gain insightful understanding.

We are but hapless creatures who embrace suffering by making ‘mine,’ making ‘ours,’ taking as husband, wife, mother or father the very thing that belongs to nature, to impermanence, to fire, smoke, oil and ash. This isn’t the worst part though. Having made it ‘mine,’ what a great deal of unwholesome karma we accumulate because of this body! To give dignity to this body, to achieve pre-eminence, to look conspicuous, to give pleasures and creature comforts, how myriad an unwholesome action we have committed through mind, word and deed, plummeting into the fourfold hell as a result! We so plummeted simply as a consequence of making ‘mine’ a thing that just doesn’t belong to oneself but belongs to nature, to impermanence, isn’t it?

Those revered-bride, groom, folks going in search of beautification, or taking refuge in yoghurt, egg white, curd, cucumber and carrot so as to fight off birth, decay, sickness and death, all of whom were mentioned at the beginning of this tale, would do well to try and think that what they thus decorate and give comforts to is simply a body that doesn’t belong to themselves but belongs to fire, smoke, oil and ash. So, be skilful never to commit unwholesome karma on account of preserving or nourishing this body of yours. Why should you end up in fourfold hell due to making ‘mine’ a thing that belongs to fire, oil, smoke and ash? Try to contemplate the above nature ever so often and gain insightful understanding.

Now you know it is a thing that belongs to fire, smoke, oil and ash you are thus nourishing, washing the face of, bathing, cleaning, giving medicine to, or bestowing such titles as the chief, minister, chairman, secretary, venerable chief prelate or deputy chief prelate upon. If so, what you saw both as your eye, ear, nose, tongue, hair, nails, teeth, skin and flesh and as the fire, smoke, oil and ash, is nothing but the impermanence, the changing, of elements that are diverse.

This process of impermanence doesn’t just stop there. Just as the four elements that used to take the form of nails, teeth, skin and flesh turned impermanent and morphed into flames, smoke, oil and ash, so do the flames, smoke, oil and ash. They, too, would turn impermanent, for even they are subject to birth, decay, sickness and death, since they, too, are a form―rūpa―made up of the fourfold element.

Just like your body turned into fire, smoke, oil and ash, fire won’t stay as fire; smoke won’t stay as smoke; oil won’t remain as oil; ash won’t remain as ash. Due to the impermanence of form, they also change. They would transform into water vapour, wind, clouds, rain, dew, dust, water, trees, foliage, as well as fish and animals whose existence is sustained by, and nourishment is drawn from, those things. In that case, isn’t it our very own body that changed into the above states? Isn’t it the same body you beautified, treated with yogurt, egg white and cucumber, smeared cream on, and slapped make-up on? Imagine you came upon a fetid garbage heap as you were walking along the street. What was it that you would call the garbage heap? Nothing but a body that either a human or another animal bore as ‘mine’ at some point in the past. Nothing but the changing of those very elements. At the time, that person would have given beauty treatments to that body; would have adorned it with gold and silver.

Think of the great ocean. Every drop of water in the ocean is tears that flowed from the eyes of beings; is the blood and sweat of beings. It is rain that fell from the clouds, which had gathered from water vapour, which in turn had come from the evaporation that had risen when the corpse was ablaze. Every smidgen of water in the ocean is but an antecedent human body. What we see as that brackish seawater is the variety in the four elements; is the impermanence of form. If the world’s most beautiful actor or actress were to die while in the prime of their beauty, if their corpse were cremated, that body, too, would commingle with that very rain, water, soil, and air, as well as vegetation and animals whose sustenance they provide. Then, isn’t it from the same changing nature of this body that the rain, the sunlight, the water, the air… in short, ‘nature’ is made up of?

Just as they are known to you as mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandmother and grandfather owing to your blood relationship with them, so too are rain, earth, water, trees and leaves. They are also your blood relations, for they, too, are made from your body, blood, flesh, fire, smoke and ashes of old. Look then, the human body―that is, the elemental states known as eye, ear, nose, body―changed and morphed into clouds, water, soil, ocean, trees, foliage, garbage. Changing iteratively, those states continue on as an inexorable cycle whose beginning or end cannot be seen. Then, just as rain, clouds, fire or the earth don’t belong to you, does your mother, father, sibling, relative or child belong to you? All this is just diversity of the four elements. It is but impermanence that is the cause of this diversity. So then, this body belongs to the four elements. The four elements belong to nature. Nature belongs to impermanence. Why should you make yours a thing that is impermanent?

Cultivate the aforesaid nature with penetrative insight. Behold it. Then, with insightful understanding, you will become disenchanted. Having been disenchanted with this form (rūpa), your clasp on it will slip away; you will have let go of form. In ‘letting go’ what you will find is emancipation―the world’s utmost noble freedom. 

[i] Here, “birth, decay, sickness and death” could more aptly be rendered as “formation, decay, disease and disintegration.” But since such rendering may sound clumsy, especially when repeated, the former has been adopted.

[ii] Technically, probably the only thing faster than the speed at which ‘form’ becomes impermanent is the speed at which ‘mind’ becomes impermanent.