Post # 49– Sathara Sathipattana- The Four Foundations of Mindfulness- An Analysis - Part 1

 You would need to read Post # 48 in this blog, before reading this Post. 

The following extracts from the work of the Dhamma Scholars who were quoted before, give a deep analysis of the Sathara Sathipattana Sutta, with focus on its intent and the spiritual gains that can be had from this Sutta practice. It is hoped that the reader will get a good understanding of what the sutta is meant to provide and thereby the right motivation to engage in the practice.

The Buddha has recommended the practice of Satipaììhãna to newcomers and beginners, and also included advanced practitioners and Arahants among the cultivators of satipaììhãna.  For the beginner embarking on satipaììhãna practice, the discourses stipulate a basis in ethical conduct and the presence of a “straight” view as necessary foundations.

The object of Vipassana practice based on Satipaììhãna, is to learn to pay attention. Vipassana is a form of mental training that will teach you to experience the world in an entirely new way. It is a process of self discovery, a participatory investigation in which you observe your own experiences while participating in them, and as they occur. It is attentive listening, total seeing and careful testing. We learn to smell acutely, to touch fully and really pay attention to what we feel. We learn to listen to our own thoughts without being caught up in them.  The practice must be approached with this attitude. The experience would be viewed with a focused and concentrated mind, disaggregating it to its components to see what they really are and thus understanding the true nature of the experience. 

Joseph Goldstein co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society USA- says that throughout this discourse, a particular formula follows each individual meditation practice. This satipaììhãna “refrain” completes each instruction by repeatedly emphasizing the important aspects of the practice.  According to this “refrain”, satipaììhãna contemplation covers internal and external phenomena, and is concerned with their arising and passing away. The “refrain” also points out that mindfulness should be established merely for the sake of developing bare knowledge and for achieving continuity of awareness. According to the same “refrain”, proper satipaììhãna contemplation takes place free from any dependence or clinging

A meditator on this practice, first gains the skills of being aware (sihiya), being mindful (sathiya) and being with clear comprehension ( sathi sammpajjanna) of the activities, feelings and thoughts that are unfolding in the present moment of the living experience.

Ven. Bhikku Bodhi in his talk on Sathipattana Sutta explains what Buddha has said. He says that Sihiya  is knowing what is taking place and making data available or accessible for clear comprehension. Sathi is remembering to be aware of the present or recollection of the present - a presence of mind with openness to what is happening in the present, to notice what is taking place. Sati Sampajana as full active knowing of what is taking place in the successive moments of experience, clear comprehension, deep discriminating understanding of what is taking place.

In the descriptions given by Ven Piyadassi in the book on the Seven Factors for Awakening, he refers to the discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness and quotes- “where there is the delightful and the pleasurable, there this craving arises and takes root. When forms, sounds, smells, tastes, bodily contacts and ideas are delightful and pleasurable; there this craving arises and takes root. Craving when obstructed by some cause is transformed to frustration and wrath. From craving arises grief, from craving arises fear. To one who is free from craving, there is no grief, no fear”.

He also says that real happiness or rapture comes not through grasping or clinging to things animate or in-animate, but by giving up- nekkhamma. It is the detached attitude toward the world that brings about true happiness. The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, speaks of pleasant worldly feeling (sāmisa sukha) and pleasant unworldly feeling (nirāmisa sukha). Nirāmisa sukha is far superior to sāmisa sukha.

For the true understanding of the living being using insight meditation, the first level of dis-aggregation for observation, is the present moment experience of materiality and mentality, by separating body and mind as aggregates.  The Sathara Sathi Pattana meditation enables us to develop this subtle but quality awareness of present moment experience. 

Ven. Dr. Analayo Thero observes that in the starting and concluding section of the discourse - Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta , there is a passage which states that satipaììhãna constitutes the direct path to Nibbãna. The next section of the discourse offers a short definition of the most essential aspects of this direct path. The “definition” also specifies the mental qualities that are instrumental for satipaììhãna. That is one should be diligent (ãtãpî), clearly knowing (sampajãna), mindful (satima), and free from desires and discontent for the world (vineyya abhijjhã domanassa). After this “definition”, the discourse describes the four satipaììhãnas of body, feelings, mind, and dhammas in detail. The range of the first satipaììhãna, contemplation of the body, proceeds from mindfulness of breathing, postures, and activities, via analyses of the body into its anatomical parts and elements, to contemplating a corpse in decay. The next two satipaììhãnas are concerned with contemplating feelings and mind. The fourth satipaììhãna lists five types of dhammas for contemplation: the mental hindrances, the aggregates, the sense-spheres, the awakening factors, and the four noble truths.

Then in an analysis of the Sutta he says that on closer inspection, the sequence of the contemplations listed in the Satipaììhãna Sutta reveals a progressive pattern. Contemplation of the body progresses from the rudimentary experience of bodily postures and activities to contemplating the body’s anatomy. The increased sensitivity developed in this way forms the basis for contemplation of feelings, a shift of awareness from the immediately accessible physical aspects of experience, to feelings as more refined and subtle objects of awareness.

Contemplation of feeling divides feelings not only according to their effective quality into pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral types, but also distinguishes these according to their origination from the respective sense faculties of eye, ear etc.. The latter part of contemplation of feelings thus introduces an ethical distinction of feelings, which serves as a stepping-stone for directing awareness to the ethical distinction between wholesome and unwholesome states of mind, mentioned at the start of the next satipaììhãna, contemplation of the mind.

 Contemplation of the mind proceeds from the presence or absence of four unwholesome states of mind (lust, anger, delusion, and distraction), to contemplating the presence or absence of four higher states of mind. The concern with higher states of mind in the latter part of the contemplation of the mind naturally lends itself to a detailed investigation of those factors which particularly obstruct deeper levels of concentration. These are the hindrances, the first object of contemplation of dhammas.

Contemplation of dhammas, after covering the hindrances to meditation practice, progresses to two analyses of subjective experience: the five aggregates and the six sense-spheres. These analyses are followed by the awakening factors. The culmination of satipaììhãna practice is reached with the contemplation of the four noble truths, full understanding of which coincides with realization.

Considered in this way, the sequence of the satipaììhãna contemplations leads progressively from grosser to more subtle levels. This linear progression is not without practical relevance, since the body contemplations recommend themselves as a foundational exercise for building up a basis of sati. The final contemplation of the four noble truths covers the experience of Nibbãna (the third noble truth concerning the cessation of dukkha) and thus corresponds to the culmination of any successful implementation of satipaììhãna.

Not only do the four satipaììhãnas support each other, but they could even be integrated within a single meditation practice. This is documented in the Ãnãpãnasati Sutta, which describes how mindfulness of breathing can be developed in such a way that it encompasses all four satipaììhãnas.  Thus any single meditation practice from the satipaììhãna scheme is capable of leading to deep insight, especially if developed according to the key instructions given in the “definition” and “refrain” of the discourse. Nevertheless, an attempt to cover all four satipaììhãnas in one’s practice does more justice to the distinct character of the various meditations described in the Sutta and thereby ensures speedy progress and a balanced and comprehensive development.

Please see Post # 50 next, for further elaborations on Sathara Sathipattana Analysis