Dear Gabriel,
@ SCMatt Thank you for your inspiring question. There are few points that I would like to raise. Please bare with me as we journey back in time, tracing arguably the earliest EBTs…
POINT 1: Bodily mindfulness is the practice of sense restraint
SN 35.247 which explains kāyagatāsati basically as the practice of sense restraint.
@Gabriel I could not agree more with your viewpoint. Another example would be SN47.20. Kāyagatāya satiyā means to guard the senses. Analayo called this “embodied mindfulness”.
We may also confirm this view in Udana 3.5:
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“With mindfulness of the body established,
restrained in the six fields of contact,
a mendicant always immersed in samādhi
would know quenching in themselves.”
The Mahasamghika Vinaya also supports this view:
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若比丘依止城邑聚落住，時到著衣持鉢入城乞食，攝身口意善住身念，心不馳亂常行正受，攝持諸根入城乞食。
A Bikkhu living near a town, at the right time, dressed in his robe, carries a bowl and enters the town to beg for food. He guards his body, speech, and mind, dwelling in bodily mindfulness (or mindfulness directed to the body). His mind is not restless, but always collected. Thus he guards his sense faculties while begging for food in town.
What do you think?
POINT 2: The ORIGINAL satipatthana sutta may surprise you…
Now, to make things more interesting…
An early version of Satipatthana Sutta was restored by Bhante Sujato in A History of Mindfulness upon extensive comparative studies. On the other hand, I followed Master Yin Shun’s theory on the navanga-sasana (九分教) to reach a rather different conclusion…
To me, both MN119 and MN10 were compiled later. In them, different practices were grouped into the four categories of mindfulness (body, feelings, mind, dhamma), adding new meanings to them. I felt somewhat strange while reading such composite sutras.
My version of the ORIGINAL Satipatthana Sutta is:
So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Kurus, near the Kuru town named Kammāsadamma. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, “Mendicants!”
“Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:
“Mendicants, the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the path to convergence. They are in order to purify sentient beings, to get past sorrow and crying, to make an end of pain and sadness, to discover the system, and to realize extinguishment.
What four? It’s when a mendicant meditates by observing an aspect of the body—keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world. They meditate observing an aspect of feelings—keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world. They meditate observing an aspect of the mind—keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world. They meditate observing an aspect of principles—keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world.
Only the first section in MN10, which is equivalent to many sutras in Satipaṭṭhāna saṁyutta SN47.
Yes, they remain plain and uneloborated.
But how is this possible? You might ask.
Well, let me explain…
POINT 3: The establishments of mindfulness have been taught elsewhere
Because satipatthana was only a framework summarizing what has already been taught in detail.
Really? Where were they taught?
Click to expand
Answer: “Linked Discourses on the Six Sense Fields".
Take a look at SN 35.94, for example. This showed how mindfulness of the body, feelings, and mind were practiced:
“Mendicants, it’s just the six fields of contact
that lead the unrestrained to suffering.
Those who understand how to restrain them
live with faith as partner, uncorrupted.When you’ve seen pleasant sights
and unpleasant ones, too,
get rid of all manner of desire for the pleasant,
without hating what you don’t like.When you’ve heard sounds both liked and disliked,
don’t fall under the thrall of sounds you like,
get rid of hate for the unliked,
and don’t hurt your mind
by thinking of what you don’t like.When you’ve smelled a pleasant, fragrant scent,
and one that’s foul and unpleasant,
get rid of repulsion for the unpleasant,
while not yielding to desire for the pleasant.When you’ve enjoyed a sweet, delicious taste,
and sometimes those that are bitter,
don’t be attached to enjoying sweet tastes,
and don’t despise the bitter.Don’t be intoxicated by a pleasant touch,
and don’t tremble at a painful touch.
Look with equanimity at the duality
of pleasant and painful contacts,
without favoring or opposing anything.People generally let their perceptions proliferate;
perceiving and proliferating, they are attracted.
When you’ve expelled all thoughts of the lay life,
wander intent on renunciation.When the mind is well developed like this
regarding the six,
it doesn’t waver at contacts at all.
Mendicants, those who have mastered greed and hate
go beyond birth and death.”
SN 35.95, SN 36.3 and SN 36.6 went on further to explain mindfulness as
- guarding the senses (kaya)
- so that when pleasant, neutral or unpleasant feelings (vedana) are born
- the mind (citta) does not give rise to craving, aversion, or ignorance
Of course, I must add that breathing and situation awareness (sampajanna 正知) could also help practicing sense restraint. So MN10 was not wrong. But reading the above discourses, I found the four establishments of mindfulness made much more sense to me!
What do you think about my views so far? Please reply me in the comments.
POINT 4: Finally… Dhammanupassana.
We’ve arrived at the forth establishment of mindfulness – dhamma.
This stricky word often lead us to different eloborations. Mainstream scholars regard it as the five hindrances and seven factors of awakening. For this reason, dhamma was translated as “principle”. Some, however, gave a different translation, such as “phenomena”.
So, if those mentioned in MN10 were really later compilation, what did the Buddha originally mean by contemplating dhamma in the dhamma?
Again, according to Master Yin Shun, the Samyukta Agama 雜阿含 contains the earliest teachings among all Agamas. Samyutta Nikaya is obviously its parallel. So this is the direction we may want to look at…
Let me know what you’ve found. Then I’ll tell you mine 