"Live contemplating the body through mindfulness. Live contemplating feelings. In this way you will be aware of and control wrong desires"
About this Quote
The phrase "wrong desires" can sound moralistic to modern ears, but in its original context it is less about sin than bondage. Early Buddhist teaching is built around the claim that suffering is sustained by attachment, aversion, and delusion. Mindfulness is not presented as relaxation. It is surveillance. To contemplate the body and feelings is to catch experience at the point where it hardens into grasping: I want this, I hate that, I need more.
What gives the line its enduring force is its refusal to flatter human impulse. It assumes that the self is unreliable, that desire often arrives disguised as freedom, authenticity, even pleasure. That is why the instruction is so unsentimental. You do not argue with craving at the level of ideology; you study its mechanics. As a piece of leadership language, it is remarkably disciplined. Buddha offers no grand promise of transformation, only a practice of clear seeing. The authority of the teaching comes from that restraint: liberation begins not with belief, but with trained attention.
Quote Details
| Topic | Meditation |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Buddha. (2026, March 10). Live contemplating the body through mindfulness. Live contemplating feelings. In this way you will be aware of and control wrong desires. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/live-contemplating-the-body-through-mindfulness-185929/
Chicago Style
Buddha. "Live contemplating the body through mindfulness. Live contemplating feelings. In this way you will be aware of and control wrong desires." FixQuotes. March 10, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/live-contemplating-the-body-through-mindfulness-185929/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Live contemplating the body through mindfulness. Live contemplating feelings. In this way you will be aware of and control wrong desires." FixQuotes, 10 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/live-contemplating-the-body-through-mindfulness-185929/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2026.










