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Let’s follow this latter route.
The instructions go like this. First establish sustained
point focus on the breath (as in the first three days of a ten-day
retreat). Then become absorbed in the body schema by scan-
ning in minute detail (as in the last seven days of a retreat).
Sooner or later a sense of subtle bliss ( piti) will start to occur.
The term piti covers a vast range of dynamic body sensa-
tions ranging from mild pleasure to ecstasy, not all of which
are pleasant. Piti typically has a radiant, bubbling, alive
quality within the body. Its emotional quality is described
in terms such as delight, joy, exhilaration, rapture. The word
“bliss,” which implies both its physical and emotional quali-
ties, is probably the best one-word definition of piti, but the
range of piti is so wide that we need to hold its definitions
lightly. We can, however, say three things about it.
First, it is a very positive state that arises from transfor-
mations within a tranquil body. Piti can be thought of as
the very best of the sensations that accompany relaxation.
Second, it is hard to continue meditating or see any point in
doing so without experiencing at least some degree of piti.
Why would you meditate if it didn’t feel good to do so? Third,
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piti can be so subtle that we may not even notice it when it is present. Many people get dull and sleepy when they meditate, so they can miss it. Piti can be life changing, but it is usually profound and pervasive, rather than flashy or exciting.
When people feel that meditation can heal the body, this
fine internal effervescence is the source of their intuition. The
term piti roughly corresponds to the yogic term prana, and the Chinese ch’i, and the Greek psyche. These all refer to a sort of “life force” that manifests as a real-time, ever-changing
play of sensations rather than a concept.
Over time an even richer state than piti will emerge. This
is sukha, which translates from the Pali most inadequately
as “contentment” or “happiness.” Sukha involves an uncriti-
cal acceptance of the moment: “Whatever happens is okay.”
Sukha implies a complete absence of mental disturbance or
conflict, even in the most extreme situations. It roughly cor-
relates to the sense of mystic union with the world found in
other traditions.
Mindfulness of the Body presents a string of vivid meta-
phors that describe what good body scanning feels like. For
instance, it says, the monk “makes the rapture ( piti) and plea-
sure ( sukha) born of seclusion drench, steep, fill and pervade
his body so that there is no part of his whole body”3 that is
unpervaded by it. Body scanning intuitively aims for this
kind of total body harmony.
Here is another metaphor from the text above. The monk’s
body is said to become like a lake with no inflow. The waters
well up from an internal spring so that every part of the lake
is pervaded with cool water. In the Pali Canon, coolness sym-
bolizes freedom from the passions, which presumably are
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“hot.” And here is another metaphor: The monk’s body is said to be like a lotus that grows entirely beneath the surface of
the lake, so that cool water will “drench, steep, fill and per-
vade” the whole lotus from tip to roots.
Among serious meditators, this sense of upwelling or
enveloping bliss is quite common. It typically occurs, as
the text says, “in seclusion,” with “no inflow” from the outer
world. This explains why doing retreats and being cut off
from the world for a time is so valuable. It has the paradox-
ical effect of being both dynamic ( piti) and deeply soothing
( sukha). (Many other practices, from Kundalini yoga to the
elaborate visualizations of Tibetan Buddhism, try to evoke
the same thing.)
Although piti (“the pleasure born of seclusion”) is most
likely to become obvious on a retreat, the first signs of bliss
are very ordinary. They occur whenever we relax. We shift
from the tight, holding on, blocked, slightly painful, awk-
ward sensations of tension toward a softer, flowing, gentler
way of being in our bodies. When people say that they med-
itate to “relieve stress,” they are intuitively seeking this shift
toward pleasure and ease. This shift is why we unaccountably
feel so much better when we meditate.
In the Sutta the Buddha asks us to notice not only the
presence of positive states such as piti and sukha, but also what precedes them and what causes them to arise. The most
primary and necessary cause of piti is enhanced body aware-
ness. Absorption states rarely last very long, but even regular
ordinary meditations will cultivate a rich and detailed men-
tal map of the body over time.
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THE MENTAL BENEFITS OF BODY MINDFULNESS
I’ve described the physical reward of good embodiment, but
there are powerful cognitive benefits as well. The Buddha
describes mindfulness of the body as being like a fortress
against the world. If your mind completely pervades your
body, it is like a door made of heartwood. It repels temptations
as if they were balls of string thrown at it. This suggests that a
good meditator can escape the tyranny of thought by retreat-
ing to the sanctuary of his body. Nor does he require constant
interaction with the outer world to feel good. He really can sit
quietly in his room and be blissful.
The Buddha then described good embodiment as the basis
for directed attention. He said that the mind grounded in the
body is like oil within a jar. When you tip the jar, the oil will
flow out smoothly in that one direction only. This means that
good embodiment allows you to focus effortlessly on what-
ever you choose without your attention splattering.
In a similar metaphor, he says that mindfulness of the
body is like having a team of thoroughbred horses harnessed
to a chariot at the crossroads, ready to go anywhere. A man
with a well-trained mind can go out on any road as far as
he wishes and return at will. In other words, a mindful per-
son can investigate any thought safely because he remains
grounded in his body. He is too strong to be ambushed or
tempted by mental detours. He can also disengage from any
train of thought and return to body-mind stillness (the cross-
roads) whenever he wants.
The Buddha also said that mindfulness of the body is the
essential base for all intuitive knowledge. Because the body
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mirrors the mind, good body awareness is thus the founda-
tion for understanding our emotions, our states of mind, and
thoughts. (He then goes on to list another twenty metaphors
and benefits that come from enhanced embodiment, many of
them magical!)
We can now understand why the “breath as anchor” argu-
ment is so inadequate. If our attention sits too lightly on the
breath it will soon flit off to something more interesting. The
breath is almost too simple to focus on. The body as a whole
is more engaging. Trying to focus on the breath to avoid
thought can be far too cerebral and unrewarding a reason to
stay there.
For many meditators, the breath is most valuable as a
proxy entrance into the body schema. A good breath med-
itator will simultaneously feel his whole body and the state
of the life force within it. This positive somatic feedback will
strengthen focus, and the benefits just mentioned can start
to appear.
Whether we focus on the breath or scan the body, the
primal underlying object of meditation is always the body
schema: our unified, real-time, proprioceptive-visceral men-
tal map of the body. Research using brain scans tells us that
regular practice strengthens this mental map and bulks up its
neural correlates in the brain. That part of a violinist’s brain
that maps his fingers becomes larger and more richly con-
nected over time. Similarly, a good meditator will develop a
strong, integrated image of his entire body.
Over the years this familiarity with the body schema
builds into a disposition in which we maintain body aware-
ness whether we happen to be meditating or not. This
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explains how sitting down and apparently doing nothing
can be so valuable. It ultimately gives us a rich, flexible, and
enhanced mental map of who we are in the moment. It makes
us “present.”
We now have many good reasons for focusing so much
on the body: Rapid relaxation. Dissolving stress and anxiety.
Body-mind stillness ( passaddhi). Physical bliss ( piti). Deep contentment ( sukha). Immunity from temptation and distraction. Strong sustained focus ( samadhi). A sense of embodi-
ment ( kayagatasati). The capacity to follow any thought or
action as far as we want and then return to baseline. Emo-
tional awareness and the ability to make good judgments. I
could go on, but I think that’s enough.
Don’t be surprised if all of this seems unfamiliar to you. It
is hardly ever mentioned in the modern literature. Psycholo-
gists and popular writers invariably privilege mind over body.
They tend to present mindfulness as being purely cognitive:
an ideal state of nonjudgmental acceptance or “the observer
mind.” This parallels the way that Tibetan Buddhism and Zen
tend to seek out an underlying or transcendental purity of
mind while devaluing its contents.
Many of the early writers on psychological mindfulness
were even hostile to the idea that physical effects such as
relaxation could be at all beneficial. They saw relaxation as
an epiphenomenal side effect of little importance. This is pre-
sumably because, as specialists in the field of mental disor-
ders, they preferred to emphasize the mind as the causative
agent in therapeutic change. You’d be hard-pressed, however,
to find an experienced meditator who would subscribe to the
claim that all satisfaction happens in the mind.
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Good meditators tend to be equally critical of the trivializing, quick-fix, “change your mind and be happy” approach
of the self-help literature. A novice really can meditate from
scratch and get good results within minutes, but cultivating
strong body awareness is analogous to sports training: It takes
months of steady, self-monitoring practice. We don’t become
more embodied by flicking a mental switch or by thinking to
ourselves “just be present.”
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8
To Sit or Not to Sit
Furthermore, when walking, a monk thinks:
“I am walking .” When standing, he thinks: “I am
standing .” Likewise he knows when he is sitting
or lying down . He calms his breathing and his
body in each of these postures .
He is equally mindful when coming and going;
when looking forward or around him; when bending
and stretching; when wearing his robes and carrying
his bowl; when eating, drinking, chewing, and
tasting; when defecating and urinating; when
walking, standing, sitting, and lying down;
when falling asleep and waking up; when
talking and remaining silent .
—Satipatthana Sutta
For most popular writers, psychologists, and meditators,
“mindfulness” describes a formal meditation practice
and nothing else. The sit-down, eyes-closed Standard Med-
itation Practice described in chapter 1 is assumed to have
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trickle-down effects in ordinary life, but these spin-offs are rarely regarded as part of the mindfulness practice itself.
Most people assume that meditation always involves sitting
down. It always involves having the eyes closed. This is not
what the Buddha taught, but it seems to have become the uni-
versal paradigm in the West.
Likewise, the psychological definition of mindfulness as
“a state of nonjudgmental acceptance” relies on sitting still.
We couldn’t maintain this passive, nonreactive, “open” state
once we start to move. Even the most routine action requires
a stream of subtle judgments and decisions. We couldn’t cross
the road safely or even do the dishes adequately in a state of
nonjudgmental acceptance. So what are we to make of the
Buddha’s instructions in the Sutta? They seem completely
counterintuitive.
The Buddha regarded “the systematic four-stage training
of attention” as a continuous practice, independent of any
formal posture. Learning to maintain good body awareness
throughout the day is just the first of the four foundations of
mindfulness. Mindfulness of the body is the essential support
what follows: the real-time perception and evaluation of emo-
tions, states of mind, and thoughts as they come and go in all
circumstances. In other words, satipatthana—the art of con-
tinual self-observation—is purposeful. The Sutta addresses
monks who were striving for enlightenment. We strive in
some way for a more satisfying life. We can only achieve this
through the skillful, discriminatory use of our attention.
The Buddha insisted that the monk should train himself
to meditate equally well in four formal postures: sitting, walk-
<
br /> ing, standing, and lying down. Likewise, a modern meditator
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is perfectly capable of attaining body-mind stillness ( passaddhi), bliss ( piti), and deep contentment ( sukha) while walking or standing. Feeling inwardly still while physically moving is
not an oxymoron. Athletes call this “dynamic balance,” and
it is a defining characteristic of flow states.
Once the monk had perfected body-mind stillness in each
of those four standard postures, he was then instructed to
expand that quality into every activity. The Buddha gave a
few examples: getting dressed, eating, bathing, urinating,
and defecating. We don’t usually think of urinating as an
activity suitable for meditation, but the Buddha really did
mean it. The development of inner balance, bodily comfort,
mental stillness, and self-observation should not be confined
to the ghetto of a formal exercise.
A monk of the Buddha’s time may well have trained him-
self to do formal walking meditations, as people often do
nowadays on ten-day retreats. However, the fourth-century
commentator Buddhaghosa correctly spelled out the Bud-
dha’s intentions. He said that formal practice was good and
usually necessary at first, but informal practice was superior.
A monk might practice formally by walking twenty paces
back and forth in front of his hut, as they still occasionally
do nowadays. A skilled monk, however, could maintain his
detachment and cultivate his purity of mind while “walking
across a plowed field” or through a busy town. This would
mean the monk who “graduated” from novice to expert was
no longer reliant on any posture or situation. His practice
could in fact be invisible to others. People wouldn’t know
whether he was meditating or not. He could be mindful any-
where and at any time. Sitting meditators, on the other hand,
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remain stuck at the first stage. Their meditation is separate from the rest of their life.
We can guess from the Sutta how the systematic develop-
ment of the postures would have happened. The monk would
first meditate sitting with eyes closed under a tree; then doing