The Connected Discourses of the Buddha

by Bhikkhu Bodhi

  In 46:54, the Buddha links the development of the enlightenment factors to the four divine abodes (brahmavih̄ra): boundless lovingkindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity. Although the text says that the bhikkhu develops the factors of enlightenment accompanied by lovingkindness (mett̄sahagatạ satisambojjhaṅgaṃ bhaveti), etc., the commentary explains that one actually uses the divine abodes to develop concentration, and then, based on this concentration, one develops the seven enlightenment factors in the mode of insight. In view of the fact that the divine abodes and enlightenment factors, taken in themselves, have different orientations, this explanation sounds reasonable. The text further states that accomplishment in this practice of combining the divine abodes and the enlightenment factors enables the meditator to exercise a fivefold mastery over perception, the ability to alter one’s perceptual framework by a simple act of will.

  Vaggas VII and VIII continue to connect the development of the seven enlightenment factors with other meditation subjects, detailing six benefits in each case. Possibly the seven benefits mentioned at 46:3 should also be inserted here. Among the meditation subjects, in vagga VII the first five are cemetery contemplations, then come the four divine abodes and mindfulness of breathing; in vagga VIII, we find ten kinds of perception pertaining both to serenity and insight.

  Finally, vaggas IX–XVIII elaborate the repetition series by way of the enlightenment factors, but this time they are reduced to little more than mnemonic verses. Two versions are recorded in full, though abridged in form: the “based upon seclusion” version and the “removal of lust” version. But the last sutta (46:184) adds the key phrases of the third and fourth versions (those with “having the Deathless as ground” and “slants towards Nibbāna” as their refrains). This inconspicuous addition implies that the whole series should be run through twice more, in these two versions, a task which the assiduous student would no doubt take up with relish.

  47. Satipaṭṭhānasaṃyutta

  The phrase cattāro satipaṭṭhānā is commonly translated “the four foundations of mindfulness,” a rendering which takes the compound to represent sati + paṭṭhāna and emphasizes the objective bases of the practice: the body, feelings, mind, and phenomena. It seems more likely, however, that satipaṭṭhāna should actually be resolved into sati + upaṭṭhāna, and thus translated “the establishment of mindfulness.” Such an interpretation, which puts the spotlight on the subjective qualities marshalled in the development of mindfulness, is implied by the adjective upaṭṭhitasati used to describe one who has set up mindfulness (see V, n. 122 for other reasons). Occasionally in the texts the objective bases of mindfulness are doubtlessly intended as the meaning of satipaṭṭhāna , as at 47:42, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

  Within the Satipaṭṭhānasaṃyutta we do not find a detailed explanation of the fourfold contemplation undertaken in this practice. For that we have to turn to the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta in either of its two versions, the longer one at DN No. 22 or the middle-length one at MN No. 10 (which differs only in lacking the detailed analysis of the Four Noble Truths). The sutta explains contemplation of the body (k̄ȳnupassan̄) in terms of fourteen exercises: mindfulness of breathing, attention to the postures, mindfulness and clear comprehension in all activities, investigation of the thirty-one parts of the body (as illustrative of foulness; see 51:20), analysis into the four elements, and nine cemetery contemplations. Contemplation of feeling (vedanānupassanā) is singlefold but considers feelings in terms of their affective quality—as either pleasant, painful, or neutral—with each being viewed again as either carnal or spiritual. Contemplation of mind (citt̄nupassan̄) is also singlefold but examines sixteen states of mind coloured by their concomitants (as in 51:11). Contemplation of phenomena (dhammānupassanā) is the most diversified exercise. The exact meaning of dhammā here has been subject to dispute. The word is often rendered “mind-objects” or “mental objects,” as if it denoted the sixth external sense base, but this seems too narrow and specific. More likely dhammā here signifies all phenomena, which for purposes of insight are grouped into fixed modes of classification determined by the Dhamma itself—the doctrine or teaching—and culminating in the realization of the ultimate Dhamma comprised within the Four Noble Truths. There are five such schemes: the five hindrances, the five aggregates, the six pairs of internal and external sense bases, the seven factors of enlightenment, and the Four Noble Truths.

  The importance of satipaṭṭhāna is emphasized in the Satipaṭṭhānasaṃyutta right from the start by describing it as the ekāyana magga for the overcoming of suffering and the realization of Nibbāna (47:1). Though the Pāli expression is often rendered “the sole way” or “the only way,” this translation has little support either from the suttas or the commentaries. The probable meaning, derived from its usage in a nondoctrinal context, is “the one-way path,” so called because it goes in one direction: towards the purification of beings, freedom from suffering, and the realization of Nibbāna. The Buddha is shown reflecting on the four satipaṭṭhānas as “the one-way path” soon after his enlightenment, and Brahmā Sahampati appears before him and sings its praises in verse (47:18, 43).

  The Buddha recommends the four satipaṭṭhānas to novices, trainees, and even arahants, each for a different purpose. Novices are to practise them to know body, feelings, mind, and phenomena as they really are, that is, to arouse the insight needed to reach the transcendental path. Trainees, who have attained the path, are to practise them to fully understand these things and thereby reach arahantship. Arahants practise them detached from body, feelings, mind, and phenomena (47:4). The four satipaṭṭhānas are the proper resort and domain of a bhikkhu. Those bhikkhus who stray from them into the “cords of sensual pleasure” become vulnerable to Māra; those who remain within them are inaccessible to the Evil One (47:6, 7).

  To emphasize further the importance of satipaṭṭhāna, three suttas connect the practice with the longevity of the Buddha’s dispensation (47:22, 23, 25). Towards the end of his life, when his health was failing, the Buddha instructed the bhikkhus to dwell “with yourselves as your own island, with yourselves as your own refuge.” The way this is to be done, he explained, is by developing the four establishments of mindfulness (47:9). He gave the Saṅgha the same advice after the deaths of Sāriputta and Mahāmoggallāna (47:13, 14), which must have been stirring reminders for all of the law of impermanence.

  The practice of satipaṭṭhāna centres upon the cultivation of sati, mindfulness, which may be understood as focused awareness applied to immediate experience in both its subjective and objective sectors. The heart of the practice is succinctly stated in the formula found in almost every sutta in this chapter. The formula shows that the exercise of sati has a reflexive character: one is to contemplate the body in the body, feelings in feelings, mind in mind, phenomena in phenomena. The reiteration signals that the contemplative act must isolate each domain of mindfulness from the others and attend to it as it is in itself. This means the given object has to be laid bare, stripped of the layers of mental proliferation which usually clutter our perception and prevent us from seeing the true characteristics of phenomena. The meditator must see the body in the act of breathing as simply a breathing body, not a person or self who is breathing; feelings as simply feelings, not as episodes in a long biography; states of mind as simply states of mind, not as scenes in a personal drama; phenomena as mere phenomena, not as personal achievements or liabilities.

  The full formula makes it clear that mindfulness does not work alone but in company. The term “ardent” (̄t̄pı) implies energy, “clearly comprehending” (sampaj̄no) implies incipient wisdom, and the occasional addition, “concentrated, with one-pointed mind (sam̄hit̄ ekaggacitt̄)” (47:4), points to the presence of concentration. Thus the practice of satipaṭṭhāna spreads over the last three factors of the Noble Eightfold Path. And since virtue and straightened view are sai
d to be its prerequisites (47:3, 15), the former comprising the three ethical path factors of right speech, right action, and right livelihood, and the latter synonymous with right view, this implies that the development of the entire Noble Eightfold Path can be encapsulated within the practice of satipaṭṭhāna. This much is suggested when the eightfold path is called “the way leading to the development of the establishments of mindfulness” (47:30).

  In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta each exercise in mindfulness is followed by two further extensions of the practice, expressed in two paragraphs attached to the basic instructions. These are also found in the Satipaṭṭhānasaṃyutta, though mentioned separately. Thus at 47:3 the Buddha instructs a bhikkhu to contemplate each base of mindfulness “internally” (i.e., within himself), and “externally” (i.e., in other people), and then both “internally and externally” (in himself and others in rapid succession). At 47:40 he explains “the development of the establishment of mindfulness” to mean contemplating each base as having the nature of origination, the nature of vanishing, and the nature of both origination and vanishing. These two extensions deepen and broaden the practice, spreading it outwards from a narrow fixation on one’s immediate experience towards a discernment of its wider expanse and intrinsic patterning.

  The practice of mindfulness is often coupled with another quality, clear comprehension (sampajañña), which is mentioned within the basic formula and also separately. At 47:2 clear comprehension is explained with reference to the bodily postures and routine activities of everyday life, at 47:35 with reference to the arising and passing away of feelings, thoughts, and perceptions. The commentaries explain clear comprehension to have a fourfold application: as full awareness of the purpose of one’s actions; as prudence in the choice of means; as engagement of the mind with the meditation subject; and as discernment of things in their true nature, free from delusion.

  It is interesting to note that the Satipaṭṭhānasaṃyutta pits the four establishments of mindfulness against the five hindrances; the hindrances are a “heap of the unwholesome,” the satipaṭṭhānas a “heap of the wholesome” (47:5). That the five hindrances should be counteracted by both the seven enlightenment factors and the four establishments of mindfulness is perfectly comprehensible when we realize that the first enlightenment factor is mindfulness itself, which is activated by the development of the four establishments of mindfulness. One summary of the practice adopted by all the Buddhas of the past, present, and future describes the path in three steps: the abandoning of the five hindrances, the settling of the mind in the four establishments of mindfulness, and the correct development of the seven enlightenment factors (47:12). The practice of satipaṭṭhāna is precisely the method for abandoning the hindrances, and it is within the womb of this practice, again, that the seven enlightenment factors are conceived and grow towards their immanent aim, true knowledge and liberation (vijj̄vimutti; see 46:6). Thus, while they claim only one place among the seven sets making up the aids to enlightenment, the four establishments of mindfulness can be seen as the trunk from which all the other sets branch out and bring forth their fruits.

  Lest engagement in mindfulness meditation be branded a narcissistic indulgence, the Buddha makes it clear that it is by protecting oneself through the development of mindfulness that one can most effectively protect others. Conversely, the practice of introspective meditation must be balanced by the cultivation of such social virtues as patience, harmlessness, lovingkindness, and sympathy (47:19). The Buddha also urges his disciples to share the benefits of their practice with others by establishing their relatives, friends, and colleagues in the fourfold development of mindfulness (47:48). The Master especially commends this practice to the sick, probably because mindfulness and clear comprehension directed to body, feelings, mind, and phenomena are the best aids in dealing with the bodily affliction, physical pain, and mental distress brought on by illness.

  At the end of the saṃyutta come the inevitable repetition series. Since the four establishments of mindfulness are accompanied by their own formula—“he dwells contemplating the body in the body,” etc.—there is only one version of each sutta, stated by way of this formula. These again, with the exception of the first and last suttas, are reduced to mnemonic verses.

  48. Indriyasaṃyutta

  Unlike the preceding saṃyuttas, the Indriyasaṃyutta is made up of heterogeneous material. It deals not only with the five spiritual faculties, a set included among the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, but also with a variety of other items united under the rubric indriya. Possibly the most ancient recension of this saṃyutta consisted solely of texts centred around the spiritual faculties, but since the word indriya has a wider compass, at some point the compilers of the canon may have felt obliged to include in this collection texts concerned with the other types of faculties. This hypothesis, though unverifiable, may account for the somewhat haphazard organization of this saṃyutta.

  By the early Abhidhamma period the Buddhist doctrinal specialists had drawn up a list of twenty-two faculties proposed as a compendium of phenomenological categories on a par with the five aggregates, twelve sense bases, and eighteen elements. As such, the faculties are collected and analysed in the Vibhaṅga of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka (chap. 5). Significantly, even though all the faculties were drawn from the suttas, the Indriyavibhaṅga has only an Abhidhamma analysis, not a Suttanta analysis, implying that the ancient compilers of the Vibhaṅga did not consider the complete assemblage of faculties to constitute a unified scheme within the framework of the Sutta Piṭaka.

  The twenty-two indriyas fall into five distinct groups as follows:five spiritual faculties

  six sense faculties

  five affective faculties

  three faculties related to final knowledge

  a triad made up of the femininity faculty, the masculinity

  faculty, and the life faculty.

  All these faculties, treated at least briefly in the Indriyasaṃyutta, are called indriyas in the sense that they exercise dominion in a particular sphere of activity or experience, just as Indra (after whom they are named) exercises dominion over the devas.

  The saṃyutta begins with two vaggas devoted to the five spiritual faculties, the faculties of faith (saddh̄), energy (viriya), mindfulness (sati), concentration (sam̄dhi), and wisdom (paññ̄). The opening suttas treat these faculties by way of templates we have met several times already: the gratification triad, the origin pentad, and the ascetics and brahmins templates. In the second ascetics and brahmins sutta we find the spiritual faculties assigned to the place occupied by suffering in the pattern of the Four Noble Truths. This move initially seems odd, at striking variance with the unqualified accolades accorded to the other sets among the aids to enlightenment. It becomes intelligible when we realize that the faculties are here being considered, not simply as factors conducive to enlightenment, but as members of a broader scheme of phenomenological categories parallel to the aggregates, sense bases, and elements.

  Four suttas in the first vagga draw a distinction between the stream-enterer and the arahant. The stream-enterer is defined as one who has understood the faculties by way of the given templates; the arahant, having acquired this knowledge, has developed it to the point where his mind has been freed from clinging (48:2–5; cp. 22:109–10). In 48:8–11 the Buddha explains the domains and practical implementation of the faculties, and then in 48:12–18 he shows how the relative strength of the faculties determines the gradation among the different classes of noble disciples (48:24, apparently out of place, also belongs to this set).

  In the third vagga we find mention made of the femininity triad (48:22) and the final knowledge triad (48:23), but without explanations. Formal definitions are found only in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka and the commentaries (see V, nn. 205, 206 for the references). In 48:26–30 the focus falls on the six sense faculties, almost identical with the six internal sense bases. These are treated merely by way of the te
mplate patterns, with nothing new of special interest.

  Vagga IV is devoted to the five affective faculties, finer divisions of the three feelings: the pleasure and joy faculties are respectively bodily and mental pleasant feeling; the pain and displeasure faculties are bodily and mental painful feeling; and the equanimity faculty is neutral feeling (48:36–38). The last sutta in this series deals with the stage at which the faculties completely cease; the text is difficult to interpret without the aid of the commentary (paraphrased in the notes).

  In vagga V we return to the spiritual faculties, this time to a phalanx of suttas that shed a brighter light on their place in the Buddhist path. These suttas show that the five faculties constitute a complete structure capable of leading all the way to the destruction of the taints (48:43, end). In 48:50, Sāriputta explains that the faculties unfold in a progressive series, faith leading to the arousal of energy, energy to mindfulness, mindfulness to concentration, and concentration to wisdom. Among the five faculties, wisdom is repeatedly given the highest valuation; it is called the chief among the states conducive to enlightenment and extolled with lovely similes (48:51, 54, 55, 68–70). Indeed, wisdom is said to be the faculty that stabilizes the other four faculties, making them faculties in the proper sense (48:45, 52).