What is the Satipatthana Sutta?

What is the Satipatthana Sutta? Taken from the early Pali canon it seems, at first, a straightforward teaching of the Buddha, but as I read articles and listened to online talks it opened out into something with an endless depth and opportunity for a lifetime of study. A nuanced, ever growing exploration of the human condition showcasing the Buddha’s skilful teaching. I have become mildly obsessed with this sutta, and I know I will continue to return to it. 

The Sati (Mindful) Patthana (Presence) sutta, begins with a very strong declaration by the Buddha in his first sentence: “Bhikkus, this is the only way for the destruction of suffering”.¹ Other translations state it is “The Direct path”² or “The One Path”.³ This dramatic start also highlights the variation in translation from Pali to English. 

After declaring “This is the only way…for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation”, Buddha goes on to guide us through the four foundations of mindfulness. He describes how a follower should observe the Body (kaya), Feelings/Sensations (vedana), Mind (citta) and Mental Objects//Phenomena (dhamma). Each of the four is then broken down further. 

Body 

If we want to understand the nature of form, we have to examine the form we are in.⁴ 

The starting place is the breath, the most overlooked but most constant movement our body performs. Our breathing is so ever-present that we tend not to notice it. When meditating, it is an excellent starting point to focus a busy mind and enable concentration. It is always there and can be relied upon to gently pull you back to the present moment when in the midst of emotions. This is the starting point of the rabbit hole this sutta takes us into: the first step, and for many the easiest step, into mindfulness. 

Then the sutta follows with instruction to know our posture, followed by full attention which relates to all movements and activities of the body, then to reflection on the impurity of all of the components of the body, from hair to urine, then to reflection on the material elements of the body: earth, water, fire and wind. The sixth and final observation of the body are the nine ‘cemetery objects’, where followers are asked to recall the various stages of decay of a corpse that is thrown into a cemetery, from swollen, blue and festering to dust. We are asked to apply this perception to our own body. The cemetery passage contains detailed descriptions of decomposition, trying to drive it home and make people really consider the ending of their physical form. The body we hold in such regard may one day be eaten by dogs or crows. Buddha isn't just saying that one day we will die, a thought we all have from time to time, but try to push aside and ignore and deal with later. He is really emphasising the point, repeatedly and graphically that we are skin and bones, and we will die and our body will decompose and become dust. He is pointing to impermanence. 

The first foundation introduces the concept of emptiness. Form is not the solid entity we think it is. This is identified by looking at the thing we are most familiar with and have most time to study, our own form. Buddha in no uncertain terms points out the impermanence of our own form and therefore the idea of no-self and the inherent emptiness of our own and all other forms. His commentary on the repulsiveness of the body and description of decomposition of corpses also point to suffering. To face and deal with suffering, we first need to accept its presence. 

Feelings/Sensations 

Responding to feelings with mindfulness instead of craving and clinging stops feelings from instigating afflictions….Investigating its nature, we see it isn't one solid entity. It's a flowing process, a series of moments of pain or pleasure.⁵ 

In the second foundation, Buddha explains how to observe feelings by being aware of whether we are experiencing pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feeling. As with the observations of the body he talks of seeing origination factors and dissolution factors of feelings, building on the first foundation and again pointing out impermanence and emptiness. 

Feelings or sensations are the bridge between the body and mind where physical gut reactions lead to perception. The second foundation reveals the starting point for the mistaken view of the solidity of things. Feelings start the process of desire/aversion/indifference (pleasant/unpleasant/neutral) on objects that we take to be real. 

Mind 

The Buddha is essentially saying in this passage, “Arrest the argument, just leave the mind alone, and let it unify itself without your intrusion”⁶ 

This wonderful teaching now delves further down the rabbit hole. The third foundation is where the feelings of the second foundation are built upon with our history and conditioning, to create mind states.

Buddha teaches that a follower observes the mind, knowing a mind with lust as being with lust, a mind with hate as being with hate. Each mind state is observed, simply seen. There is no judging or correcting or removing, but simply observing, seeing patterns. The sutta does not comment on hate or lust; there is no recommendation to remove or improve, as this adds further thought and further layers onto the papier maché self. If hate is there, you know that in your mind hate is there. Buddha is not hiding away from these states or saying they need to be removed or are unholy; he is saying that if in your mind there is hate, then you observe it is there. Face it. See it. Don't ignore it or pretend it isn't there or add guilt onto it or try to remove it. Just see it. Add nothing to it and do not try to remove it. See it originate and see it dissolve. 

Seeing patterns over time relinquishes their hold as the impermanence and lack of substance to feelings and mind states are seen. They come and go and don't need to be latched onto and emphasised. They arise and they pass, so observing this process allows the observer to realise they don't need to be controlled by them. Lust arises and passes. Hatred arises and passes. See it come and go. It does not need to be acted out. This awareness allows choice or allows the observer to realise they have a choice and are not at the mercy of feelings or mind states. 

Over time this also allows the observer to see that their mind states are created from their self which is conditioned over time. Reactions are created from beliefs based on previous experience. The self is slowly built over time from “if I do this, then that happens, and I want that.” The sense of self is created in the discovery that current circumstances are not how I wish them to be. The sense of self is created in the pleasure derived from the current circumstances that you enjoy. I do not like that. I derive pleasure from this. 

Seeing this process opens the lid on the box of tricks of personality and exposes it as groundless. Empty. Something created from nothing which is not a concrete, permanent, unchanging entity. In the Third Foundation, Buddha leads us to see the states of mind and their flow: their origination and dissolution. How they come and go over time, their impermanent nature. This follows seeing the flow of feelings in the Second Foundation and the flow of form in the First Foundation and reinforces the emptiness of things. Emptiness of mind states, feelings and form. Ultimately, the emptiness of self. 

Mind states and accompanying thoughts can create separation from the sense of self. I am not a good Buddhist when I'm angry. Judgement of self is part of judgement of others, which creates separation between self and other and pours petrol on the flames of self. We have a sense of self which we wish to portray in public which may sometimes conflict with mind states and thoughts. In this foundation we are being pointed towards seeing these conflicts and beginning the process of dismantling the self. This is not an active dismantling, a chosen, forced attempt, but an unintended process which is a result of seeing. Buddha is saying when the mind is angry see that the mind is angry. No judgements. Accept yourself in all your perfection. 

‘I’ comes from the difference between how things are and how we wish them to be. To remove this ‘I’ we need to see what it is we want/reject and what conditioning has led us to that point. We need to see without judgements which would heap further conditioning onto our state. To see without judgements we need to see outside of our sense of self, with awareness. We cannot use the self to be free of the self. 

Mental Objects/Phenomena 

The sequence of the five sets is itself a map…Overcoming (the five hindrances) is an essential first step, enabling us to explore the field of our experience using the framework of the five aggregates and six sources. As insight develops, the seven awakening factors become prominent, and as they mature, penetrative understanding of the four truths arises.⁷

Finally we arrive at the Fourth foundation which builds upon the first three and takes us deeper into the awareness of self. The first three foundations have pointed to impermanence, emptiness and suffering, the three marks of existence. (The word suffering is another example of the difficulties of translation. For me, dukkha is more like a sense of unease with the knowledge that there is no lasting satisfaction). The impermanence, emptiness and suffering of our form, feelings and mind states has been gradually revealed simply by seeing. Observing. A beautifully simple instruction. In the Fourth Foundation, the Buddha asks us to observe his teachings. He asks us to observe the following thoughts as objects within the mind, pointing towards the fact they are created states within our own mind and not external influences that govern how we feel. This indicates we potentially have control of these states. The mental objects are: 

• Five Hindrances – sense-desire, anger, torpor and languor, restlessness and worry, doubt
• Five Aggregates of clinging – form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness
• Six Sense Bases – eye/visual forms, ear/sounds, nose/smells, tongue/flavours, mind/mental objects
• Seven Factors of Enlightenment – mindfulness, investigation of mental objects, energy, joy, relaxation (of body and mind), concentration, equanimity
• Four Noble Truths – dukkha, origin of dukkha, cessation of dukkha, path leading to the cessation of dukkha 

At the end of each Foundation, the Buddha states that the follower observes arising and decaying factors of form, feelings, mind and mental objects. Or “mindfulness is established to the extent necessary just for knowledge and awareness that mind exists and he lives unattached and clings to naught in the world”.⁸ Here we are shown that once arising and decaying factors are seen often enough, the mind can calm to awareness where our own stories are not added to what is present. 

The Satipatthana Sutta is a set of instructions, a lesson in how to remove suffering but also a rabbit hole into one's being, delving further and further inward to the heart of the issue of suffering. A process to follow with sequential, increasingly nuanced steps for the novice to be guided through awareness of body, feelings, mind states and finally the concepts that point towards the release of suffering. A beautiful teaching with skilful means. With the instruction to observe, we start at the easiest point, the body and its constant movement with the breath. We can sense the body, then move inward to feelings, then mind in a flow of cumulative observations. The sutta is training you to see. Eihei Dogen, the 13th Century Zen Master said: 

To study the Buddha way is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

This is where the Satipatthana Sutta points.

Notes

1. Walpola Sri Rahula What the Buddha Taught (London: Oneworld Publications 2017) p109
2. https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.than.html
3. John J Holder Early Buddhist Discourses (Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing Co, 2006) p43
4. Rodney Smith Touching The Infinite: A New Perspective on the Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Boulder: Shambhala Publications Inc, 2017) p54
5. The Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron Buddhism. One teacher, Many Traditions (Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 2014) P121
6. Rodney Smith Touching The Infinite: A New Perspective on the Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Boulder: Shambhala Publications Inc, 2017) p178
7. The Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron Buddhism. One teacher, Many Traditions (Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 2014) p126
8. John J Holder Early Buddhist Discourses (Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing Co, 2006) p114