What do you think is up with Theragatha 5:1

Discussion
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I, a monk, went to a charnel ground and saw a woman’s body abandoned there, discarded in a cemetery, full of worms that devoured.

Some men were disgusted, seeing her dead and rotten; but sexual desire arose in me, I was as if blind to her oozing body.

Quicker than the cooking of rice I left that place! Mindful and aware, I retired to a discreet place.

Then the realization came upon me—the danger became clear, and I was firmly disillusioned.

Then my mind was freed—see the excellence of the teaching! I’ve attained the three knowledges and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions.

I’m not sure what I’m asking here, maybe just - what are your thoughts?

This monk sees the rotting, worm-devoured, oozing dead body of a woman.. sexual desire arises in him (??!!), he retires to a discrete place and then

the danger became clear,

Is this the danger of lust for sensual pleasures, that was provoked by a rotting oozing corpse?

I’m not being sarcastic, I’m sincerely asking for an interpretation of this sutta. Thanks,

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I mean, if I ever got aroused by the sight of a rotting corpse, I too would think “What the fudge is wrong with me?!” and swear off everything until I got rid of everything related to lust, too. :slight_smile:

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He’s not necessarily aroused by the corpse itself. He might have, for example, have seen a naked breast, and that reminded him of other breasts he had seen, and activities connected with breasts. Or the dead woman might have been pretty, with some hint of that remaining, and he started fantasizing about what it would have been like to meet her when she was alive. So the corpse might have just been a trigger for the arising of sexual thoughts, rather than an object of sexual desire.

“The danger” is presumably the danger of affection and sensuality that the Buddha talks about in, for example, The Rhino Horn. I wouldn’t think it would be specifically desire for dead women.

Those with close relationships have affection,
following which this pain arises.
Seeing this danger born of affection,
live alone like a horned rhino.

Sensual pleasures are diverse, sweet, delightful,
appearing in disguise they disturb the mind.
Seeing danger in sensual stimulations,
live alone like a horned rhino.

This is a calamity, a boil, a disaster,
an illness, a dart, and a danger for me.
Seeing this peril in sensuality,
live alone like a horned rhino.

Rājadatta seems to have followed that advice closely.

“This is a snare. Here there’s hardly any happiness,
little gratification, and it’s full of drawbacks.
It’s a hook.” Knowing this, a thoughtful person would
live alone like a horned rhino.

Having burst apart the fetters,
like a fish that tears the net and swims free,
or a fire not returning to ground it has burned,
live alone like a horned rhino.

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