Week 3: Buddha's practice instructions -The way of mindfulness

Question 1

The Satipatthana Sutta

Answer 1

From the Pali canon, outlines some of the Buddha’s first instructions in establishing mindful awareness

Question 1

Four Foundations

Answer 1

1. Awareness of the Body
2. Awareness of feelings or sensations
3. Awareness of consciousness
4. Awareness of mental phenomena

Question 2

Awareness of the Body Foundation

Answer 2

Awareness of the body involves experiencing the body through its primary elements – earth, air, fire and water. These elements correspond to the sensations of hardness, softness, temperature, fluidity and movement. In what is sometimes called a “body scan”, the practitioner scans her body and locates such sensations. This is a descriptive exercise.

Question 3

Awareness of feelings or sensations Foundation

Answer 3

Awareness of feelings or sensations – here there is a recognition of the “feeling quality” or “feeling tone” of a sensation as either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Note there is no idea of entering into the feeling - just being aware of its qualities. It is important to differentiate a primary or bare feeling from any emotional elaboration.

Question 4

Awareness of consciousness Foundation

Answer 4

Awareness of consciousness and/or the state of mind is an exercise in recognising mind states such as elation, depression, agitation, calmness and so on. Here you notice their rising and their passing away. Recognising how mind states come and go is central to experientially understanding impermanence and interconnectedness.

Question 5

Awareness of mental phenomena

Answer 5

In cultivating awareness of mental phenomena – the practitioner passively registers the events of the mind without any commentary. All the thoughts, impressions, ideas and scenarios that come and go in the mind.

Question 6

Mindfulness (Sati/Smrti)

Answer 6

Linguistically seems to refer straightforwardly to “memory” or ‘remembrance”

Implies a strong sense of ‘clear awareness’ and ‘coming to know’ of the given object of contemplation.

Implies sustained concentration of the object of contemplation; mindfulness is part of that which enables that concentration to abide.

Entails understanding the two fundamental kinds of Buddhist meditation: insight and concentration (vipassana/vipashyana and samatha/shamatha).

Question 7

Mindfulness in Concentration and Insight Meditation

Answer 7

Shamatha/concentration is the meditation which develops sustained focus on a singular object

Insight meditation is the meditation which develops analytical understanding into the nature of the reality, the self, dukkha, the four noble truths etc

One needs to develop the former in order to make progress in the latter; the latter is what causes panna/prajna (wisdom) to arise.

Question 8

Mindfulness of the Body

Answer 8

Mindfulness of body implies gaining awareness of its utter impermanence and also, its repugnant features.

Mindfulness of body begins by generating awareness of breathing, then the postures and actions of the body, then the repulsiveness of the body then reflection on the material elements, then 9 cemetery contemplations

Question 9

Mindfulness of Feeling

Answer 9

Implies gaining awareness of pleasurable and painful feelings.

In particular, to note their fleeting nature.

Strongly connected with dukkha and impermanence and also: selflessness/ non-self

Question 10

Mindfulness of Consciousness

Answer 10

Implies gaining awareness of the all the different forms of consciousness (good or bad) that may arise.

Particularly connected to knowing wholesome and unwholesome states

This is one of the senses in which ethics and meditation are deeply connected; to act rightly implies knowing the qualities of different states of consciousness that arise in lieu of the action.

Question 11

Mindfulness of Mental Objects/Events

Answer 11

mindfulness of mental events you are more passively ‘watching’ different kinds of mental states arise and cease.

Question 12

The Six Sense Bases

Answer 12

Sight, touch, taste, smell, sound and ‘mind’ – the mind is considered the sixth.

Mindfulness of these implies treating the external world with precision and diligence, but more especially, not being attached to the objects of the senses

The senses are the doorways to desire/craving; so mindfulness of the sense bases is critical to closing that doorway