The first of the five carita-viśodhana ālambana — meditation objects matched to specific temperaments — corresponding to the rāga-carita (lust-temperament) practitioner. The Śrāvakabhūmi enumerates six modes of the unattractive: pratyaśubhatā (the inherent mode), duḥkhāśubhatā (the suffering mode), avarāśubhatā (the inferior mode), āpekṣikī aśubhatā (the relative mode), kleśāśubhatā (the defilement mode), and prabhaṅgurāśubhatā (the perishability mode). The chapter then focuses especially on the inherent mode, split into inward impurity and outward cemetery repulsiveness, as the primary object for purifying lust.
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Sanskrit
English
ṣaḍvidhā aśubhā |
The unattractive has six modes.
Asanga's sixfold taxonomy is unique to the Yogācāra and represents a substantial expansion of the four-great-elements/cemetery treatment found in VSM Ch 6 and the Vimuttimagga. The six are not six different objects — they are six different ways of seeing any given object as unattractive.
pratyaśubhatā adhyātmaṁ copādāya, bahirdhā copādāya veditavyā |
The inherent mode has two aspects: taken inwardly, and taken outwardly.
tadyathā keśā, romāṇi, nakhā, dantā, rajo, malaṁ, tvaṅmāṁsamasthi, snāyuḥ, sirā, vṛkkaṁ, hṛdayaṁ, plīhakaṁ, klomaṁ, antrāṇyantraguṇāḥ, āmāśayaḥ, pakvāśayaḥ, mūtraṁ, purīṣam, aśru, svedaḥ, kheṭā, śiṅghāṇakaṁ, vasā, lasīkā, majjā, medaḥ, pittaṁ, śleṣmā, pūyaḥ, śoṇitam, astakaṁ, mastakaluṅgaṁ, prasrāvaḥ |
hair of the head, body hair, nails, teeth, dust, dirt, skin, flesh, bone, sinew, vein, kidneys, heart, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, stomach contents, bowel contents, urine, feces, tears, sweat, saliva, mucus, fat, lymph, marrow, grease, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, [Damaged/Conjectural: brain], cranial fluid, urine.
Standard 32-parts contemplation, found at MN 10, DN 22, the Khuddakapāṭha, and VSM Ch 8 §44. Asanga's list matches the Pali list almost exactly. The same list appears in the aśubhā, dhātu-prabheda, and ānāpānasmṛti sections — one observation, three different practices, depending on framing. The local root has astakaṁ where the parallel lists in sbh2.5 and sbh3.2 support mastakaṁ ('brain/head matter'); the English marks the repair.
tadyathā vinīlakaṁ vā, vipūyakaṁ vā, vibhadrātmakaṁ vā, vyādhmātakaṁ vā, vikhāditakaṁ vā |
The discolored, the festering, the bursting, the swollen, the gnawed;
The canonical aśubha-nimitta sequence (also at MN 10 / DN 22): vinīlaka (discolored), vipūyaka (festering), vibhadrātmaka (bursting/bloated), vyādhmātaka (swollen), vikhāditaka (gnawed). The vibhadrātmaka form is unusual; the cognate vibhadraka may be a variant of vipadumaka ('worm-eaten') or could represent textual corruption.
uccārakṛtaṁ vā, prasrāvakṛtaṁ vā, kheṭākṛtaṁ vā, śiṅghāṇakakṛtaṁ vā, rudhiramrakṣitaṁ vā, pūyamrakṣitaṁ vā, gūthakaṭhillaṁ vā, syandanikā vā |
Or: things made of excrement, urine, saliva, or mucus; things smeared with blood or pus; dung-heaps, gutters.
ityevaṁbhāgīyā bahirdhopādāya pratyaśubhatā veditavyā |
And anything else of this kind — this is outward inherent repulsiveness.
yā cādhyātmamupādāya yā ca bahirdhopādāyāśubhatā |
Inward impurity and outward repulsiveness together —
yad duḥkhavedanīyaṁ sparśaṁ pratītyotpadyate |
What arises in dependence on a contact to be felt as painful —
A surprising move: unattractiveness here is not about bodies or corpses but about painful feeling itself. The unsatisfactoriness of duḥkha-vedanā is treated as a kind of unattractiveness. The framing targets the lust-for-pleasure by exposing that the apparatus generating pleasure is the same apparatus generating pain.
kāyikacaitasikamasātaṁ vedayitaṁ vedanāgatamiyamucyate duḥkhāśubhatā |
bodily and mental, the disagreeable felt experience. This is called the suffering mode.
yat sarvanihīnaṁ vastu, sarvanihīno dhātustadyathā kāmadhātuḥ, yasmāt punarhīnataraścāvarataraśca, pratikruṣṭataraścāsau dhāturnāsti |
Whatever is the most inferior substance, the most inferior realm — namely, the desire-realm. There is no realm more inferior, lower, or more rejected than this.
tadyathā tadekatyaṁ vastu śubhamapi sadanyacchubhataramapekṣyāśubhataḥ khyāti |
A certain object, although in itself fair, is reckoned unattractive in relation to something fairer.
Relative unattractiveness — recognizing that 'fair' is always relative. Even a blissful jhāna, even the highest formless attainment, even the very peak of existence (bhavāgra — the highest of the formless attainments) is unattractive relative to nirvāṇa. The contemplation for practitioners attached to meditation states.
tadyathā ārūpyānapekṣya rūpadhāturaśubhataḥ khyāti |
For example: in relation to the formless realm, the form-realm is reckoned unattractive.
satkāyanirodhanirvāṇamapekṣya yāvad bhavāgramaśubhaśca bhava iti saṅkhyāṁ gacchati |
And: in relation to nirvāṇa, the cessation of satkāya, existence up to the peak of existence is reckoned unattractive existence.
traidhātukāvacarāṇi sarvāṇi saṁyojanabandhanānyanuśayopakleśā aśubhatetyucyate |
All the fetters, bondages, latent tendencies, and secondary defilements operating in the three realms — this is called the defilement mode.
yā pañcānāmupādānaskandhānāmanityatā, adhruvānāśvāsikatā, vipariṇāmadharmatā |
The impermanence, unsteadiness, unreliability, and nature of change of the five aggregates of clinging.
Prabhaṅgura — 'perishable, breaking-up.' The five aggregates of clinging are anitya (impermanent), adhruva (unsteady), anāśvāsika (unreliable / not-conducive-to-confidence), and have vipariṇāma-dharmatā (the nature of change). This is aniccānupassanā (contemplation of impermanence) framed as unattractiveness.
itīyamaśubhatā rāgacaritasya viśuddhaye |
This is the form of the unattractive used for purifying the lustful-temperament practitioner;
adhyātmaṁ kāmeṣu kāmacchandaḥ kāmarāgaḥ, bahirdhā kāmeṣu maithunacchandaḥ maithunarāgaḥ |
inwardly toward sense-pleasures, sense-desire and sense-lust; outwardly toward sense-pleasures, sexual desire and sexual lust;
Kāma-cchanda / kāma-rāga paired throughout: chanda is desire (motivational attraction), rāga is lust (fully-developed attachment). The Sanskrit pairs them systematically.
rūpacchando rūparāgaḥ satkāyacchandaḥ satkāyarāgaśceti |
form-desire and form-lust; satkāya-desire and satkāya-lust;
The taxonomy is hierarchical: gross to subtle. Kāma-rāga (sense-pleasures of the desire-realm) → rūpa-rāga (form-realm meditation-state lust) → satkāya-rāga (attachment to existence itself). The first three are the desire-realm; rūpa-rāga is form-realm-bound; satkāya-rāga operates across all realms.
tasya pañcavidhasya rāgasya prahāṇāya, prativinodanāya, asamudācārāya |
For the abandoning, dispelling, and non-occurrence of this fivefold lust,
ṣaḍvidhā aśubhatā ālambanaṁ |
the six modes of the unattractive are the [appropriate] object.
pratyaśubhatālambanena adhyātmaṁ kāmeṣu kāmacchandāt kāmarāgāccittaṁ viśodhayati |
by the inward inherent-impurity object, he purifies the mind from sense-desire and sense-lust toward inward sense-pleasures.
bahirdhopādāya pratyaśubhatālambanena bahirdhā taiḥ rāgāccaturvidhād rāgapratisaṁyuktādvarṇarāgasaṁsthānarāgasparśarāgopacārarāgapratisaṁyuktāccittaṁ viśodhayati |
By the outward inherent-repulsiveness object, he purifies the mind from the four kinds of lust outwardly conjoined — color-lust, shape-lust, contact-lust, and approach-lust.
tatra yadā vinīlakaṁ vā, vipūyakaṁ vā, vibhadrātmakaṁ vā, vyādhmātakaṁ vā manasi karoti |
When he attends to the discolored, the festering, the bursting, or the swollen,
The therapeutic mapping of cemetery aspects to specific lusts: varṇa-rāga (color-lust) is dispelled by the discolored/festering/bursting/swollen contemplations. The body's color spoils.
yadā punarvilohitakaṁ vā manasi karoti |
When he attends to the bloody-skeletal,
Saṁsthāna-rāga is shape-lust, not rūpa-rāga (form-realm/form-lust). It is dispelled by the bloody-skeletal contemplation: the body's shape reduces.
yadā punarasthi vā śaṅkalikāṁ vā manasi karoti |
When he attends to the bone or the skeleton,
Sparśa-rāga (contact-lust, lust for the feel) is dispelled by the bone or skeleton contemplation. The body's tactile reality reduces.
yadā vikṣiptakaṁ manasi karoti tadā upacārarāgāccittaṁ viśodhayati |
When he attends to the dispersed, he purifies the mind from approach-lust.
Upacāra-rāga (approach-lust, lust for the body as a single near object) is dispelled by the dispersed contemplation. The body's unity dissolves.
ata eva bhagavatā bahirdhopādāya pratyaśubhatā sā catasṛṣu śivapathikāsu vyavasthāpitā |
Therefore: the outward inherent-repulsiveness was established by the Blessed One in the four charnel-ground reflections.
Asanga's cemetery aspects are read as expansions of the Buddha's four śiva-pathikā (charnel-ground) sections from the canonical kāyagatā-sati discourses (MN 10, DN 22). The practitioner is not doing something different from the Buddha's instruction — a more articulated version of the same.
ekāham mṛtā vā, saptāham mṛtā vā, kākaiḥ kuralair khādyamānā, gṛddhraiḥ, śvabhiḥ, śṛgālaiḥ |
one day dead, or seven days dead, being eaten by crows, vultures, dogs, jackals —
tatra tatra evameva ca kāyamupasaṁharati |
there, there, he draws the body-comparison to himself:
ayamapi me kāya evaṁ bhāvī, evaṁ bhūta, evaṁ dharmatāmanatīta iti |
"This body of mine is also of such a nature, of such a coming-to-be, has not gone beyond such a dharmatā."
anena tāvad vinīlakamupādāya yāvad vikhāditakamākhyātam |
By this much, the cemetery progression from the discolored to the gnawed has been named.
apagatatvaṅmāṁsaśoṇitaṁ vā sūpanibaddhetyanena vilohitakamākhyātam |
skin, flesh, and blood gone, well-bound" — by this, the bloody-skeletal has been named.
The quoted phrase reads apagata-tvaṅ-māṁsa-śoṇitaṁ ... sūpanibaddha — skin, flesh, and blood gone, well-bound. The fuller explanatory parallel at sbh3.2:10.10 makes explicit that the bones are held together by sinews.
yānyeva śivapathikāsthānāni pṛṣṭhīvaṁśo, hanunakraṁ, dantamālā, śiraḥkapālaṁ tathā bhinnapratibhinnāni ekavārṣikāṇi dvivārṣikāṇi |
"Those very charnel-ground sites — the spine, the jawbone, the row of teeth, the skull — broken and rebroken, of one year, two years,
kapotavarṇāni pāṁsuvarṇavyatimiśrāṇi dṛṣṭāni bhavantītyanena vikṣiptakamākhyātam |
dove-colored, mixed with dust-color, are seen" — by this, the dispersed has been named.
evaṁ pratyaśubhatālambanena bahirdhā pratisaṁyuktena maitreṇa rāgāccittaṁ viśodhayati |
Thus, by the outward-conjoined inherent-repulsiveness object as an allied [antidote], he purifies the mind from lust.
The root has adjectival maitreṇa, not instrumental maitryā. This is not saying that lovingkindness is combined with the corpse contemplation; rather, the outward inherent-repulsiveness object functions as an allied or friendly antidote to lust.
tatra duḥkhatāśubhatālambanenāvarāśubhatālambanena ca |
By the suffering-mode object and the inferior-mode object,
viṣayapratisaṁyuktāt kāmarāgāccittaṁ viśodhayati |
he purifies the mind from sense-object-conjoined sense-lust.
tatrāpekṣāśubhatālambanena rūparāgāccittaṁ viśodhayati |
By the relative-mode object, he purifies the mind from form-lust.
tatra kleśāśubhatālambanena prabhaṅgurāśubhatālambanena ca kāmabhavāgramupādāya sarvasmāt kāyarāgāccittaṁ viśodhayati |
By the defilement-mode object and the perishability-mode object — covering the desire-realm up to the peak of existence — he purifies the mind from all body-lust.
idaṁ tāvad rāgacaritasya caritaviśodhanena sālambanaṁ saṁbhavaṁ pratyetadūcyate |
This much is said regarding the object-basis for conduct-purification in the lust-conduct practitioner.
sarvaṁ sarvākāramaśubhatālambanaṁ saṅgṛhītaṁ bhavatyasmiṁstvarthe pratyaśubhataivābhipretā |
The whole sixfold object-domain of the unattractive is included here; what is properly intended in this context is the inherent mode.
Asanga clarifies the scope: although the whole sixfold taxonomy is given here, only inherent unattractiveness (pratyaśubhatā) is properly the rāga-carita practitioner's primary practice. The other five unattractivenesses are also applicable to other temperaments — duḥkhāśubhatā for the duḥkha-anupassanā practitioner, prabhaṅgurāśubhatā for impermanence-work, etc.
tadanyā tvaśubhatā tadanyasyāpi caritasya viśuddhaye ālambanaṁ |
The other five modes are objects also useful for the purification of other temperaments.