The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
The Satipatthana Sutra, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, is a seminal text in the Buddhist teachings. It gives instructions on what and how to pay attention to develop mindfulness and wisdom leading to liberating freedom. Rather than seeing the four foundations as separate entities, recently I have been enjoying how each foundation naturally flows into the next, resulting in an integrated whole.
The first foundation of mindfulness offers a way to drop from our conceptual mind into the vast space of the sense experience of the body. It is through this movement that we can begin to discover the deeper truths about life that free the heart and the mind. It is through this shift that we begin to abandon the fabricated stories of our mind, which are often based in delusion and ignorance, and dive into the alive experience of the present moment, which can teach us everything about truth and freedom. This section of the sutra contains more pages than any other section, with nine different strategies for connecting with the body, pointing to the fundamental importance of this connection in our spiritual path.
The second foundation, mindfulness of feeling tone, evolves from our connection with our sense experience. Being mindful of our senses (all six, including the mind), we notice that each moment has the flavor of pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. We explore our deeply habitual conditioning around this flavor of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feeling that leads us into stress and struggle. We also explore how mindfulness can help us break these conditioned patterns and allow us to choose peace and equanimity instead. We are researching for ourselves, through our own experience, why we suffer and how we can develop a peaceful heart/mind.
The third foundation of mindfulness explores the mind/heart colored by mental states and emotions, following naturally from our reactions and responses to feeling tone. The mind/heart has something to say about feeling tone in the form of mind states and emotions. Just as we want to intimately know the body, we also want to connect deeply with the mind/heart in these many manifestations. We meet the mind when it is disturbed and we meet the mind when it is clear. We meet the heart when it is angry, and we meet the heart when it is joyful. This clear and intimate connection leads to an ever deeper understanding about struggle and about peace.
The fourth foundation, typically called mindfulness of mind objects, has been described in a variety of ways and can include a list of various Buddhist teachings. I find the most useful way (supported by scholarly research) is to focus on two parts mentioned, the hindrances and the factors of awakening, which, being mind states, follow naturally from exploring the mind/heart flavored by mind states. I call this fourth foundation the foundation of wisdom as we go more deeply into cause and effect, exploring what supports the arising and flourishing of beautiful mind states of awakening, and what discourages the arising and continuation of unhelpful obstructive mind states. We're gaining greater knowledge of and facility working with the mind and the heart.
In the end, the four foundations of mindfulness directs our spiritual path, connecting us with the body and sense experience, exploring habitual conditioning and its effect on the mind/heart, increasing wholesome states of mind/heart, and decreasing unwholesome states of mind/heart. This process clears the mind and heart of the clutter of turbulence so that awareness can see ever more deeply into the truth of things, see in a way that liberates and frees. How beautiful!
