Kāyaparīkṣābhāvanākrama/Full text
The Kāyaparīkṣābhāvanākrama ("The Gradual Stages of Meditative Contemplation of the Body") is a short meditation text by Kṛṣṇapāda (Tib. slob dpon nag po zhabs) presenting a systematic method for examining the body as a support for the realization of emptiness. Opening with a verse attributed to Nāgārjuna establishing the body as the root of conceptual elaboration and thus the primary object of investigation, the text proceeds through an exhaustive enumeration of the body's components—its constituents, bones, channels, orifices, and elements—before guiding the practitioner in progressively reducing the body to increasingly subtle particles through a sevenfold analysis, culminating in the examination of the infinitesimal particle through eight aspects corresponding to its freedom from characteristics, self, inherent existence, signs, and causal conditions. The text draws on a verse by Dignāga and cites the Sūtra on the Patience of Subduing through the Color of Space ('Phags pa yang dag par spyod pa'i tshul nam mkha'i mdog gis 'dul ba'i bzod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo). The analysis ultimately dissolves body, speech, and mind into the nature of space, after which the practitioner engages in benefiting beings with an illusory body. The text was translated into Tibetan by the Indian paṇḍita Kṛṣṇapāda himself together with the monk-translator Chökyi Sherab.
| Reference | Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita (slob dpon nag po zhabs). kāyaparīkṣābhāvanākrama [कायपरीक्षाभावनाक्रम]. lus yongs su dpyad pa'i bsgom pa'i rim pa [ལུས་ཡོངས་སུ་དཔྱད་པའི་བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ།]. [The Stages of Cultivation of a Thorough Analysis of the Body (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3262 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3262&typ=2. |
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| People | Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita, Gorub Lotsāwa Chokyi Sherab |
