American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi explains: The Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutra)
is generally regarded as the canonical Buddhist text with the fullest
instructions on the system of meditation unique to the Buddha's dispensation. The practice of satipatthana meditation centers on the
methodical cultivation of one simple mental faculty readily available to
all of us at any moment -- the faculty of mindfulness.
What is mindfulness? It is the
capacity for attending to the content of our experience as it becomes
manifest in the immediate present. What the Buddha shows in this sutra is
the tremendous, but generally hidden, power inherent in this simple
mental function. Mindfulness is a power that can unfold all of the mind's potentials
culminating in final liberation from suffering.
To exercise this power, however, mindfulness must be cultivated systematically, and this sutra shows exactly how this is done. The key
to the practice is to combine energy, mindfulness, and clear
comprehension in attending to the phenomena of mind-and-body summed up
in the "four arousings of mindfulness":
- body
- feelings,
- consciousness,
and
- mental objects.
Most contemporary meditation teachers explain satipatthana meditation as a means for generating insight (vipassana). While this is certainly a valid claim, we should also recognize that satipatthana meditation also generates concentration (samadhi [generally defined as right concentration, i.e., the first four jhanas or meditative absorptions).
Unlike the forms of meditation that cultivate concentration and
insight sequentially, satipatthana brings both these faculties into
being together.
This happens naturally, in the actual process of development. Concentration will have to gain a certain degree of stability before
insight can exercise its penetrating function.
In satipatthana, the act
of attending to each occasion of experience as it occurs in the moment
fixes the mind firmly on the object. The continuous attention to
the object, even when the object itself is constantly changing,
stabilizes the mind in concentration, while the observation of the
object in terms of its qualities and characteristics brings into being
the insight-knowledges.
To practice satipatthana successfully a student will generally
require a sound theoretical knowledge of the practice along with actual
training, preferably under the guidance of a qualified teacher. The best
source of theoretical knowledge, indeed the indispensable source, is the
Satipatthana Sutra itself.
However, although the sutra is clear and
comprehensible enough as it stands, the instructions it offers are
extremely concise, often squeezing into a few simple guidelines
directions that might need several pages to explain in a way adequate
for successful practice.
For this reason, from an early period, the
ancient masters of Buddhist meditation began to supply more detailed
instructions based on their own practical experience. These instructions
eventually evolved into a lengthy commentary on the Satipatthana Sutra,
which was then incorporated into the complete commentaries on the two
collections in which the sutra appears, namely, the long and middle-length discourses (Digha Nikaya and Majjhima Nikaya).
The two commentaries that have come down to us today,
based on the older Sinhalese language commentaries, are called the Sumangala-vilasini (on the Digha Nikaya) and the Papañca-sudani
(on the Majjhima Nikaya). These commentaries are ascribed to Buddhaghosa, an Indian elder scholar-monk who worked in Sri Lanka in the 5th century
A.C., but are securely based on the old commentaries which record the
explanations devised by the ancient masters of the Dharma.
The
commentary has in turn been further elucidated by a sub-commentary (tika), by Acariya Dhammapala, who worked in South India, near Kancipura, perhaps a century or two after the time of Buddhaghosa.
This book, The Way of Mindfulness, contains all of the authorized
instructions on satipatthana meditation passed down in the Theravada Buddhist
tradition: the Satipatthana Sutra stemming from the Buddha himself (in
the more concise version of the Middle-Length Discourse Collection, which omits the
detailed analysis of the Four Noble Truths found in the Long Discourse Collection's
Maha-satipatthana Sutra or "Greater Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse"), the commentary by Buddhaghosa, and selections
from the sub-commentary by Dhammapala.
While the volume of material found
here will certainly exceed the amount a beginner needs to start the
practice, the book proves itself useful at successive stages and
will eventually become a trusted friend and advisor in all its manifold
details.
Thus the reader should not be intimidated by the detail and the
sometimes formidable technical terminology, but should continue
reading, selecting whatever material is found useful and leaving until
later whatever presently seems difficult to grasp.
The book was originally compiled in the late 1930s by Ven. Soma Thera
(1898-1960), a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, and has been maintained in print
since the early 1940s.
The
Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy, Sri Lanka, has
published the work since 1967 in several editions. This latest version
contains several minor changes in terminology authorized by the present
writer [Bhikkhu Bodhi].
Christine Chan and her friends in the Buddhist Communities in
Malaysia, as well as Rev. Suddhinand Janthagul from Thailand, who helped
in the proofreading of the Pali texts, deserve our congratulations and
appreciation for their hard work in transcribing the book and for
making it available for free distribution.
I am sure this book will
prove an invaluable road map for anyone who has entered the steep and
rugged road of satipatthana meditation, leading to final liberation
from all suffering.
- Bhikkhu Bodhi
SUTRA: The Discourse on the Arousing of Mindfulness
The Origin of the Discourse on the Only Way
Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One [the Buddha] was living [among] the Kurus, at Kammasadamma, a market-town of the Kuru people.
Then he addressed the monastics: "This is the
only way, O meditators, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming
of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief,
for reaching the right path, for the attainment of nirvana, namely, the
Four Arousings of Mindfulness."
THE FOUR AROUSINGS OF MINDFULNESS
"What are the four?
"Here, meditators, a meditator lives contemplating the body in the body,
ardent, clearly comprehending (it) and mindful (of it), having overcome covetousness and grief with regard to the world.
"One lives contemplating feelings in feelings, ardent, clearly comprehending (them) and
mindful (of them), having overcome covetousness and
grief with regard to the world.
"One lives contemplating consciousness in consciousness, ardent,
clearly comprehending (it) and mindful (of it), having overcome covetousness and grief with regard to the world.
"One lives contemplating mental objects in
mental objects, ardent, clearly comprehending (them) and mindful (of
them), having overcome covetousness and grief with regard to the world."
1. The Contemplation of the Body
MINDFULNESS OF BREATHING
"And how, O meditators, does a meditator live contemplating the body in the body?
"Here, O meditators, a meditator, having gone to the forest, to the foot of a
tree, or to an empty place, sits down, bends legs crosswise on
the lap, keeps body erect, and arouses mindfulness with regard to the object of
meditation, namely, the breath which is in front.
"Mindful, one breathes in, and mindful, one breathes out. One, thinking,
'I breathe in long' understands when breathing in long. Or
thinking, 'I breathe out long' understands when breathing out
long. Or thinking, 'I breathe in short' understands breathing in short. Or thinking, 'I breathe out short' understands
when breathing out short.
"'Experiencing the whole body, I shall breathe in,' thinking thus, one
trains oneself. 'Experiencing the whole body, I shall breathe out,'
thinking thus, one trains oneself. 'Calming the activity of the body, I
shall breathe in,' thinking thus, one trains oneself. 'Calming the
activity of the body, I shall breathe out,' thinking thus, one trains oneself.
"Just as a clever [wood] turner or a turner's apprentice, turning long,
understands, 'I turn long' or, turning short, understands, 'I turn
short,' just so, indeed, O meditators, a meditator, when one breathes in
long, understands, 'I breathe in long' or, when one breathes out long,
understands, 'I breathe out long,' or, when one breathes in short, one
understands, 'I breathe in short,' or when one breathes out short, one
understands, 'I breathe out short.'
"One trains oneself with the thought,
'Experiencing the whole body, I shall breathe in.' One trains oneself
with the thought, 'Experiencing the whole body, I shall breathe out.' One
trains oneself with the thought, 'Calming the activity of the body, I
shall breathe in.' One trains oneself with the thought, 'Calming the
activity of the body, I shall breathe out.'
"Thus one lives contemplating the body in the body internally, or one
lives contemplating the body in the body externally, or one lives
contemplating the body in the body internally and externally. One lives
contemplating origination-things in the body, or one lives contemplating
dissolution-things in the body, or one lives contemplating
origination-and-dissolution-things in the body. Or indeed one's
mindfulness is established with the thought, 'The body exists' to the
extent necessary just for [insight] knowledge and remembrance, and one lives
independent and clings to nothing in the world.
"Thus, also, O meditators, a
meditator lives contemplating the body in the body."
THE MODES OF DEPORTMENT
"And further, O meditators, when one is going, a meditator understands, 'I
am going.' When one is standing, one understands, 'I am standing.' When one is sitting, one understands, 'I am sitting.' When one is lying down, one
understands, 'I am lying down.' Or just as one's body is disposed, so one
understands it.
More
As a meditator, use the strategy of listening to the Dharma all the time, even when living alone. In other words, contemplate the Dharma day and night.
