SATIPATTHANA
THE FOURFOLD FOCUS OF MINDFULNESS
Ajahn Brahmavamso
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NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMASAMBUDDHASSA
More has been said about the practice of Satipatthana than about any
other meditation practice by Buddhist teachers of today... except by
this monk! So in this Dhamma article I will keep up with the trend by
presenting some practical observations on this most misunderstood of
Lord Buddha's Teachings.
Those of you who have been "sitting around" Buddhist Centres for a while
have probably heard some teachers claim that the fourfold "Focus of
Mindfulness" (my translation of "Satipatthana") [1] is the "one and only
way" to the goal of full Enlightenment! Although this is an impressive
sales pitch for the teaching, it is neither a true translation of the
original text nor consistent with what the Lord Buddha said elsewhere.
The very phrase ("Ekayana Magga") which is mistranslated as "one and
only way" occurs again in the l2th Sutta (discourse) of the Majjhima
collection where it unmistakably means a "path with only one possible
destination". Many different paths can share a common destination. In
fact, the "one and only path" is the Lord Buddha's description, not of
Satipatthana, but of the Noble Eightfold Path:
"Of all Ways, the Noble Eightfold Path is the best.
This is the only way, there is none other for the purity of insight"
Dhammapada verses 273 and 274 (abridged)
Thus, the "only way" to Enlightenment, as all Buddhists should know
anyway, is the Noble Eightfold Path. The fourfold Focus of Mindfulness
constitutes only a part of this Path, the 7th factor. Jhanas are the 8th
factor and there is also Right View, Right Intention, Right Effort and
the three factors of Right Virtue. Each of these eight factors are
necessary to achieve the goal of full Enlightenment. lf any were
redundant, then the Lord Buddha would have taught a 7-fold path, or a
6-fold path etc. So, in your practice of Buddhism, please keep in mind
that all eight factors of the noble Eightfold Path should be cultivated
as the "one and only way".
Now the fourfold Focus of Mindfulness method as taught by the Lord
Buddha, is a very advanced practice. So advanced that the Lord Buddha
said that if anyone should develop them in the way He described for only
seven days, then they would achieve full Enlightenment or the state of
non-returner. Many meditators reading this may have gone on such a
retreat for nine days or even more and not yet fulfilled this most lofty
of the Lord Buddha's promises. Why not? Because, I suggest, you were not
following the Lord Buddha's instructions.
If you want to practise the fourfold Focus of Mindfulness in the way
that the Lord Buddha said leads so rapidly to Enlightenment, then
certain things are required before you begin. The essential preparations
are in short, full cultivation of the other seven factors of the Noble
Eightfold Path. Or, as the Lord Budda said in the Anguttara collection
('Nines', Suttas 63 and 64), one should maintain the five Precepts (the
longer the better), abandon the five Hindrances [2] and then practise
Satipatthana.
These vital prerequisites are actually stated by the Lord Buddha in His
two discourses on the fourfold Focus of Mindfulness, as "Vineyya Loke
Abhijjha-Domanassam" (please forgive me quoting Pali. It is the only way
I can make this important point). This phrase is usually translated as
"having put away covetousness and grief for the world", or something
similar. Such translations mean so little to meditators that they ignore
this instruction altogether, and thereby miss the bus! In the time of
the Lord Buddha, the monks, nuns and lay disciples would have understood
the phrase to mean "after having abandoned the five Hindrances"! The
authoritative commentaries to the two Satipatthana Suttas taught by the
Lord Buddha both clearly state that "Abhijjha-Domanassam" (sorry for the
Pali again!) refer precisely to the five Hindrances. Elsewhere in the
recorded Teachings of the Lord Buddha, "Abhijjha" is a synonym for the
first Hindrance, "Domanassam" is a synonym for the second Hindrance, and
together they stand, in Pali idiom, as an abbreviation for all five.
This then means that the five Hindrances must be abandoned first before
beginning any of the Focus of Mindfulness practices. It is, in my
not-so-humble opinion, precisely because meditators attempt to practise
the Satipatthana method with some of the Hindrances still remaining that
they achieve no great or lasting result.
It is the function of Jhana practice, the ultimate factor of the Noble
Eightfold Path, to abandon all of the five Hindrances long enough to
gain BIG Insight. For example, in the 68th Sutta of the Majjhima
collection ("Nalakapanna"), the Lord Buddha stated that for the
meditator who does not attain to Jhana, the five Hindrances together
with discontent and weariness invade the mind and remain. Only when one
does attain to Jhana do the five Hindrances together with discontent and
weariness not invade one's mind and remain the way the Lord Buddha said
it is.
Any meditator who has experienced the powerful Jhanas would know through
that experience, and what happens after, what a mind without any
Hindrances is truly like. The meditator who hasn't known Jhanas does not
realise the many subtle forms Hindrances can take. They may think that
the hindrances are abandoned but, the truth is, they just don't see them
and so do not get great results in their meditation. This is why Samatha
practice which cultivates Jhana is part of the Satipatthana teaching and
why it is misinformation to call Satipatthana "pure Vipassana". Even my
teacher, Ajahn Chah, said over and over again that Samatha and Vipassana,
"calm and insight", go together and are inseparable as the two faces of
a coin.
Having patiently completed the necessary preparations, the meditator
sustains their mindfulness on one of the four focuses: their own body,
the pleasure and pain associated with each sense, the mind consciousness
and, fourthly, the objects of mind. When the Hindrances are gone and one
can sustain one's powerful and penetrating attention on these four
objects, only then is it possible to realise that deep in our psyche,
far deeper than the veil of intelligent thinking, we have been assuming
a Self. We have been assuming that this body is "me" or "mine", that
pleasure or pain has something to do with me, that the mind which looks
on is our Soul or something close, and that the objects of mind such as
thought or volition (the 'chooser') is a Self, me, or mine. In short,
the purpose of the fourfold Focus of Mindfulness is to instruct one what
to do when one has emerged from a Jhana, to uncover the deeply disguised
delusion of a Soul and then see what the Lord Buddha saw, the Truth of
Anatta.
This is not an easy thing to do, but it can be done, and it can take
only seven days. That is if one follows the Lord Buddha's instructions,
follows them and takes no short cuts.
Ajahn Brahm
(From: Newsletter, July-October 1997,
Buddhist Society of Western Australia, Perth, Australia)
Notes (by Binh Anson):
[1] Other translation: Four Foundations of Mindfulness
[2] Five hindrances: sensual desire, ill-will, restlessness, sloth and
torpor, doubt
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