Mahaparinirvana about the body

Like the four vipers [the four great elements of earth, air, fire
and water], this carnal body is ever pecked at and supped by innumerable vermin. It smells ill
and is defiled. Greed binds. This body is hateful, like the carcass of a dog. This body is impure,
from which nine holes leak out defilements. It is like a castle, the blood, flesh, spine, bone and
skin forming the outer walls and the hands and legs serving as bastions, the eyes as gunholes,
and the head as donjon. The mind-king [citta-raja] is seated within. Such a carnal castle is what
the All-Buddha-World-Honoured One abandons and what common mortals and the ignorant
always love and cling to. Such rakshasas [flesh-eating demons] as greed, anger and ignorance sit
within. This body is as frail as reed, eranda [foul-smelling "recinus communis" plant], foam, and
plantain. This body is non-eternal and does not stay stable even for a second. It is like lightning,
madding water, and a mirage. Or it is like drawing a picture on water, which no sooner done than
disappears. This body breaks just as easily as a big tree hanging over a river precipice. It does
not last long. It is pecked at and devoured by foxes, wolves, owls, eagles, crows, magpies and
hungry dogs. Who with a good mind finds joy in such a carnal self? One might sooner fill a
cow's footprint with water than fully explain the non-eternal, the non-pure, the ill-smell and
defilement of this body; or one could sooner split the great earth and crush it into the size of a
pickpurse [weed] seed or even the size of a dust-mote, but never could one fully explain the
wrongs and ills of this body. This being so, one ought to discard it like tears or spittle. Because
of this, all upasikas train their mind in such dharmas as the Void, formlessness and
desirelessness.