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A Brief Look at the Satipatthana Sutta

Good evening everyone. I'm very grateful for the opportunity be be here talking with you all. Thanks to Norman for inviting me to speak and thanks to Laura for her hospitality, for her years of practise here in Mar de Jade and for all the support that she has given me to practise in Mexico. And on top of that, thanks to her for the translation. Because my Spanish is sometimes "interesting" I have given her a challenge in translating.

But it is my happy commitment to continue learning the language and to talk and share what I can of the dharma in Spanish here in Mexico. Thank you for your patience with me and thanks for your patience with Laura translating me.

I thought of talking about the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts, and how we might begin to develop ethical conduct in our lives. I think that the first step in practising with our conduct is to become aware of the ways we already behave ourselves in our daily lives. This means to try to be aware of what we are doing as we act.

I'd like to continue with this topic by talking about a sutra spoken by the historical Buddha. It is the Satipatthana Sutta, sometimes called the "Discourse on the Arousing of Mindfulness" or the "Sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness." The sutra contains many teachings and we could easily spend more than one retreat studying just a small part of it. But I don't want to wait until we can do that before sharing something of this sutra with you and so I will skip over much of the sutra in order to give you a glimpse of its contents. Here is how it begins:

Thus I have heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying in the Kuru country. Now there is a town of the Kurus called Kammasadhamma. There the Blessed One addressed the monks, "Monks."
"Lord," the monks replied.
The Blessed One said this: "This is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow & lamentation, for the disappearance of pain & distress, for the attainment of the right method, & for the realization of Unbinding — in other words, the four frames of reference.

Are you interested yet? The sutra continues:

Which four?
"There is the case where a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. He remains focused on feelings in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.... He remains focused on mind in & of itself... He remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.

So the four foundations are: The contemplation of the body, the contemplation of feelings, the contemplation of mind and the contemplation of mental objects. I will talk a little about what these terms mean in a Buddhist sense. In the Sutra, the contemplation of the body begins with the breath and several phrases from the guided meditation that we just did come directly from the sutra.

Other aspects of the contemplation of the body include directing this same concentrated awareness to other bodily aspects: the 4 postures of standing, walking, sitting or reclining. There is also the practise of the mindfulness of bodily actions such as being mindful of moving forward or backward; looking forward and looking around, being mindful of extending or bending the limbs of the body, etc.

In addition the Buddha explains meditations on the contents of the body, the elements that make up the body, the impermanence of the body, and the dissolution of the body after death. The section on the contemplation of the body is quite long, and perhaps the best known part of the sutra. The practise of the mindfulness of the breath can be the foundation for all of our mindfulness practises. When we begin to practise any type of meditation it can help to first return our awareness to the breath and then move forward from the breath as a starting point.

My dictionary says that a sensation is an impression felt through the senses. It could be an impression of touch, sound, smell, etc. But in Buddhism, a feeling is something more basic than this. Every feeling, or sensory impression has one of three possible qualities: pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. So the contemplation of feelings has to do with the raw sense of something pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. It isn't concerned with the sensory impression that may have provoked that feeling, and it isn't concerned with the thoughts or emotions that the mind adds on to the feeling. So this is a very subtle practise, to be mindful of the simple presence of feeling without our customary self-centred interpretations, explanations and emotional reactions to the feeling. We simply give our attention to the presence of a feeling, its arising, its duration and its falling. And just as with the mindfulness of the breath, when we notice ourselves being distracted, without scolding ourselves we simply return to the feeling. Or we might also use the distraction and be mindful of the presence of a feeling that is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral within the distraction itself. This is the contemplation of feelings in and of themselves. I have been trying to practise this contemplation this week and it has been very interesting.

This contemplation of feelings is not a way to make us indifferent to feelings. Perhaps it actually makes us more sensitive. We might learn to enjoy a pleasant feeling without adding desire and attachment to the experience. And we might take appropriate action when an unpleasant feeling arises if such action is required. But we can learn to do this without anger or resentment. And if the feeling is neutral, we might see it as neutral and accept its presence of the time that it lasts. We don't have to go looking for feelings that are more entertaining.

The third foundation is the contemplation of mind or consciousness, both of these terms have been used to translate the Pali word citta. In the sutra, the contemplation of the mind refers to being fully aware of mind states. Here is what the sutra says:

There is the case where a monk, when the mind has passion, discerns that the mind has passion. When the mind is without passion, he discerns that the mind is without passion. When the mind has aversion, he discerns that the mind has aversion. When the mind is without aversion, he discerns that the mind is without aversion...

It continues like this with delusion, a restricted mind, a scattered mind, a surpassed mind, an unsurpassed mind, a concentrated mind, etc. This meditation isn't about the details of the experience but rather the state of mind that exists while the experience is taking place.

All of us have at times allowed a state of mind to manage our experience. We connect experiences with our state of mind. When there is aversion, the whole world stinks. When there is desire, anything that is not the object of our desire is probably an obstacle to our desire. But when we talk about the contemplation of mind, we are talking about states of mind as environmental conditions. We're not talking about the object of our desire but rather the mind state of desire. We're not talking about a thought or an emotion but rather the mental environment where that thought or emotion might be found. With more experience in the contemplation of mind in and of itself we come to know the impermanence and fleetingness of these states. And we don't let them control us anymore.

To me these first three do not exist in isolation. Begin with the breath and then bring the breath to the feelings. Touch the feelings with the breath. Notice whether the state of mind is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Notice the feeling of the breath and how feelings influence the state of mind. Each of the foundations can be a tool to support the contemplation of each of the other foundations.

The fourth foundation is the contemplation of mental objects. We bring all of our tools to the mindfulness of mental phenomena. The sutra is very specific with the list of mental objects for contemplation. We give attention to the five hindrances as mental objects. The five hindrances are desire, aversion, dullness, agitation and problematic doubt. We contemplate the five aggregates of form, feelings, perceptions, formations and consciousness. We contemplate the 7 factors of enlightenment and the four noble truths.

And how is it that we can do these contemplations? With mindfulness of our breathing, of our feelings and of our states of mind. Through these contemplations we come to know how it feels when aversion arises. We are aware of these foundations when the mental factor of concentration is present. We notice what happens in our visual consciousness when the eye encounters a sight object, and what happens when the sight object is no longer present in the visual consciousness. We are aware of feelings in the breath and we are aware of the breath as we contemplate feelings.

Now, if anyone would develop these four frames of reference in this way for seven years, one of two fruits can be expected for him: either gnosis right here & now, or — if there be any remnant of clinging/sustenance — non-return.

The state of gnosis here and now and the state of non-return are emphasized in the teachings of the Pali Canon. Gnosis here and now refers to complete awakening. The state of non-return refers to a supreme understanding that comes just before complete awakening. According to the traditional Buddhist teachings, a person who realizes the state of non-return will not be reborn in this world but rather in a heavenly realm where they will experience full awakening. I confess that I don't take these states as a goal but rather as an image of an inconceivable reality that exists beyond such images. The sutra continues ...

Let alone seven years. ... Let alone half a month. "Now, if anyone would develop these four frames of reference in this way for one week, one of two fruits can be expected for him: either gnosis right here & now, or — if there be any remnant of clinging/sustenance — non-return.

For this reason it is said: 'Monks, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow & lamentation, for the disappearance of pain & distress, for the attainment of the right method, & for the realization of Unbinding — in other words, the four frames of reference.'

That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the monks delighted in the Blessed One's words.

Well here we are practising together, supporting each other and developing our contemplations of the four foundations. And we have the week that the Buddha suggested to us. Who knows what will happen? Thank you for listening.

The complete text of the Satipatthana Sutta translated into English can be found on the Access to Insight website.

© 2009, Burai Rick Spencer