Post # 50– Sathara Sathipattana- The Four Foundations of Mindfulness- An Analysis - Part 2

This is the continuation of the analysis of the Sutta given by the learned scholars that were outlined in Post # 49. You need to read Post # 48 and Post # 49 before reading this.

Ven. Pitigal Gunerathana Thero introduces three aspects of the Sutta to be noted as; Sathi Pattana (the nature of the subject); Sathipattana Bahawana (the meditation) and the Sathi Pattana Bahawana Gamini Prathipadawa (the way to practice the meditation). He says that – “these aspects of Sathipattana respectively are about the nature of the mind, its vacillations and its nature where it is always in search of stimuli either of the past or future. The past is dead and future has not yet come. Re-living the past he says is based on an ‘avidaya karaka’ mind- a mind that creates imaginations. These imaginations of the mind create unwholesome traits. Future has not arisen and one cannot experience what is yet to come. Thus contemplation of the future is imaginary and not reliable. These traits hide the true nature of the present. Sathipattana mindfulness and Sathi Sammpajjanya prevents the mind travelling to the past or future and makes it stay in the present moment to be aware of the present moment activities. That is, the mind is aware of the body’s actions of the present.  That is the realization that the body is controlled by the mind. Once this is understood Buddha has said that –     " a  Bhikku (Monk) may engage in the sathipattana meditation according to the method of contemplation on the  four foundations I have explained"-. This meditation restricts the mind travelling to the past (an act of ignorance) and travel to the future, and engage in the present moment actions with clear comprehension.  This is a mind that can see the true nature of the present. This is vippassanawa.  This present moment experience of impermanence is vippassanawa. This is still not liberation. This gives the right view. The path that has to be followed for liberation is the Noble Eightfold Path”.

In the English translation of the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, by Bhikkhu Bhodhi, the descriptions on Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta,  begins as:

“Thus have I heard? On one occasion the Blessed One was living in the Kuru country where there was a town of the Kurus named Kammāsadhamma. There he addressed the Bhikkhus thus: “Bhikkhus.”—“Venerable sir,” they replied. The Blessed One said this: “Bhikkhus, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realization of Nibbāna—namely, the four foundations of mindfulness.
What are the four? Here, Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating feelings as feelings, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating mind as mind, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world”.

Bhikkhu Bhodhi then describes Sathipattana by saying- "the experience in the present moment is a compounded form of materiality and mentality". In his talks he goes on to say that- "the present moment experience of materiality and mentality is associated with present moment experience of the body and mind.

Separating body and mind as aggregates is the first level of disaggregation in vippassana for the true understanding of the living being. The Sathara Sathi Pattana Bhawana, enables us to develop this subtle but quality awareness of present moment experience. That is by having mindfulness of body, feelings, states of mind and dhammas (mind objects/phenomena)".

Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw the meditation teacher/monk from Myanmar in his book on ‘Fundamentals of Vippassana Meditation’ says- On the question on how we develop insight- the answer is by meditating on the five aggregates of grasping. The mental and material qualities inside beings are aggregates of grasping. They may be grasped with delight by craving or grasped wrongly by wrong views. You have to meditate on them to see them as they really are; otherwise you grasp them with craving and wrong views. Once you see them as they really are, you no longer grasp them. This is the way to develop insight”.

Ven. Ajahn Chah the Thai monk of the ‘forest monk’ tradition in his talk on Meditation says – “Listening to the Dhamma in peace means to listen with a one-pointed mind, paying attention to what you hear and then letting go etc. While listening to the Dhamma we are encouraged to firmly establish both body and mind in Samadhi. Why you are gathered here to practice meditation is because your hearts and minds do not understand what should be understood. When we know our own mind, when there is Sati to look closely at the mind, there is wisdom”.

S N Goenka (Jee) the Vipssana teacher from India, in his book on, The Art of Living, says – “All of us seek peace and harmony, because this is what we lack in our lives. We all want to be happy; we regard it as our right. Yet happiness is a goal we strive towards more often than attain it. At times we all experience dissatisfaction in life- agitation, irritation, disharmony, and suffering. Even if at this moment we are free from such dissatisfactions, we can all remember a time when they afflicted us and can foresee a time when they may recur.

Our personal dissatisfactions do not remain limited to ourselves; instead, we keep sharing our suffering with others. In this way individual tensions combine to create the tensions of society. This is the basic problem of life; its unsatisfactory nature. Things happen that we do not want; that we want do not happen. And we are ignorant of how and why this process works, just as we are each ignorant of our own beginning and end.  

We do not realize how harmful this ignorance is, how much we remain the slaves of forces within ourselves of which we are unaware.  Therefore the Buddha showed a path of introspection, of self observation. The path is also a path of purification. Because the problem originates in the mind, we must confront it at the mental level. We must undertake the practice of Bhavana – literally mental development or in common language Meditation”.

I hope these analytical observations by the learned scholars have given you a good insight into this important teaching, to motivate you to try out the practice.

Please see the next posts from # 51 for an explanation on how this practice can be done. May you have the necessary inspiration?