The Impermanence of the Body

01 The first moment when a sentient being is conceived in the womb due to karma and afflictions, and grasps the father's essence and the mother's blood to give rise to a body, with the power of mind, is called "birth". From the second moment of conception, the body goes through delivery, infancy, childhood, youth, and old age until the last moment of this life. This is called "abiding". In the end, the bardo body emerges, and the mind separates from the body, which is called "death" or "cessation". Birth is caused by afflictions and karma. Abiding is the continuum of the body that hasn't stopped. Cessation is the end of the continuum, which ultimately ceases. 02 During the abiding stage, controlled by the mind and due to afflictions such as greed, hatred, ignorance, doubt, and arrogance, various emotions such as joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness arise, and the body also undergoes various changes. From a microscopic perspective, the body is composed of countless cells. The body's metabolism causes millions of cells to die and millions of new cells to be born every minute. From a macroscopic perspective, the body digests food, absorbs nutrients, and excretes waste, constantly metabolizing and maintaining itself. The body's various attributes, including its shape, skin color, temperature, function, weight, and volume, are also constantly changing. In short, the body of sentient beings is momentary and dependent arising. The appearance in each moment is completely different from the previous moment. However, due to ignorance, somehow we consider the body permanent. 03 The four factors that give rise to the mind: immediate condition, percept-object condition, dominant condition, and causal condition. Immediate condition refers to that the mind and mental factors arise one after another uninterruptedly. When the mind of the previous moment ceases, the mind of the next moment arises instantly, so the former one is the immediate condition of the latter one. Percept-object condition refers to the perceived object that causes the mind to generate an image of the object, such as a visible form and a sound that give rise to a visual object and an auditory object respectively. Dominant condition refers to the factors that can enhance the arising of the result. The five sense faculties are the dominant conditions for generating the five consciousnesses. Causal condition refers to the overall causes and conditions, including the above three conditions as well as those not covered by them. For example, a greed that gives rise to hatred, a virtuous mind in the desire realm that gives rise to a meditative mind in the form realm, a thought about this mountain that gives rise to a thought about that mountain, etc., are all covered by causal conditions. 04 Attached to the distorted perceptions of permanence, joy, self, and purity, ordinary beings generate various afflictions, create various karma, and experience various sufferings, which is the origin of samsara. Conversely, if we can cultivate enough wisdom to eliminate these distorted perceptions, we can attain nirvana, namely, transcend samsara.