sure. We can still focus well on the body and deepen our inner
stillness throughout all of this gentle background activity.
In modern Vipassana practice under the influence of the
reformer monk Mahasi Sayadaw, naming is used for a slightly
different effect. Mahasi suggests “naming” (twice!) whatever
arises at random in the mind as a continuous practice. A med-
itator might thus name hundreds of different objects in a sin-
gle session.
This is not the nuanced “name, evaluate, and respond”
method of the Sutta. It is to “name and dismiss” virtually
everything equally, based on the presupposition that noth-
ing at all will be worth attending to. It aims for a far more
complete and uncompromising dismissal of cognitive activ-
ity and engagement with the world. It targets a universally
passive, nonreactive, mirrorlike state of mind that is much
closer to the Modern Mindfulness model than that of the
Sutta.
The Mahasi, Modern Mindfulness, and Zen models
usually posit a naive duality of mind and matter. In these
approaches, the idea is that if we disengage from matter (that
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is, thoughts and sensations), we can return to some original state of pure consciousness (or bare attention, or emptiness).
Our minds can then function like a mirror, seeing things
“just as they are,” uncontaminated by thought or feeling or
memory. I think that this is a scientifically dubious idea and
that when people practice this meditation they are actually
doing something else altogether.
Nonetheless, both the Mahasi approach and that of the
Sutta have the similar effect of slowing us down and dis-
couraging action. Over time, experienced satipatthana
meditators typically shift the bias of their response from
overreactivity toward undereactivity, from overarousal to
passivity. Through many hours of practice, they set a default
of responding no more than necessary to any sensation,
thought, emotion, or mood. This somewhat defensive but
liberating stance is the mental equivalent of their physical
immobility.
Within a meditation, this nonreactivity has an immedi-
ate payoff. It leads to a peaceful, detached disposition toward
whatever arises in consciousness, and the body and mind
can become exquisitely still. This body-mind stillness ( pas-
saddhi) is the basis for other ideal mind-states described in
the Sutta. It supports the bliss of piti, and the contentment and acceptance of sukha. It contributes to states of flow and
absorption ( samadhi).
This inner stillness finally consolidates as upekkha: equa-
nimity or serenity. This state of emotional detachment is ide-
alized in Buddhism, and that attitude can trickle over into
daily life. At its best, it manifests as a kind of calmness under
fire, a relaxed, stoic tolerance of inner and outer stressors.
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ARISING AND PASSING AWAY
An important refrain recurs throughout the Sutta: “He care-
fully observes how valences [sensations, or emotions, or states
of mind, or thoughts] arise and how they pass away, and what
causes them to do so. He observes this both in himself and
in others.” The Buddha believed that to calmly observe an
unhelpful thought or behavior would diminish its power on
the spot and help to eradicate it in the future. To amplify this
effect, he further asks that we notice not just the object but also
how it “arises and passes away.”
For example, we shouldn’t just notice “anger.” We should
also notice whether it is increasing or fading away, and store
that episode in memory. Over time, this will help us under-
stand the causal factors: what initiates anger and what helps
it fade. Similarly, we see what contributes to healthy states of
mind, and what helps sustain them.
Another aspect of the Sutta entails observing exactly
the same phenomena in others: “He observes this both
in himself and others.” In other words, the Buddha was a
people-watcher! We can learn about the birth and decay of
sensations, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors by observing
the process in others as well as ourselves. This is one reason
we read stories, go to movies, and gossip: it is educational as
well as fun.
A STAGE-BY-STAGE PATH
The Foundations of Mindfulness is based on two complemen-
tary skills. The first is a “procedural” skill, like riding a bicycle
or learning a sport. This is the ability to relax quickly and be
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calm under all circumstances. This is the subject of the “mindfulness of the body” section of the Sutta and chapters 1–8 of
this book.
The second skill is cognitive, namely “attention”—
the concept we examined so thoroughly in chapter 14.
Sati-sampajjana is the ability to consciously focus on and
evaluate any body sensation, action, emotion, state of mind, or
thought as it happens. The monk was encouraged to develop a
keen sense of what was good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, “skill-
ful” or “unskillful” in relation to all the objects of attention.
The four training foundations of the Sutta are like lev-
els of a pyramid. An ascetic lifestyle supports a calm body,
which supports a calm mind. This body-mind stillness sup-
ports the extinguishing of the emotions (equanimity), which
supports the positive mental factors necessary for absorption
states ( jhana). With these foundations in place, the monk can
aspire to deep, sustained thought and profound insight into
the nature of life itself. This is why people hope for break-
throughs on retreats when they can become virtual monks
for a while. As the first sentence of the Sutta says, the system-
atic cultivation of mindfulness throughout all four founda-
tions is the only way to achieve nirvana.
We can read the Sutta in five minutes, but that would miss
the point. It is a “how to do it” skill-training manual consist-
ing of thirteen sequential exercises. They are based on abil-
ities most adults already have. You and I can always notice
and describe any strong sensation, emotion, or thought that
captures our attention, but we rarely train that ability sys-
tematically. Consequently, we are unlikely to develop the
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broad-based, present-time, self-monitoring awareness that leads to a disciplined life and to the absorption states ( jhana)
that depend on this.
A monk of the Buddha’s day, however, would have prac-
ticed most of those thirteen exercises thousands of times
over months and years. He would have become expert in
noticing his thoughts, emotions, and impulses as they arose
on the spot, and thereby improving all his responses. We
can do much the same if we want to. It just takes practice,
but we shouldn’t fool ourselves that focusing on the breath
and watching thoughts dispassionately is all there is to know
about mindfulness as presented in the Sutta. Those thirteen
exercises are systematic and cumulative, and they need to be
practiced individually for real accomplishment.
WHAT IS THIS PATH OF TRAINING FOR?
The Sutta has two goals. The first goal is upekkha—equanimity or tranquility—which involves a high degree of emotional
and philosophic detachment from the world. Above all, it
implies the end of suffering now and in the future. Upekkha is
certainly attainable, and similar ideals are found throughout
Western philosophy and early Christianity. Achieving this is
the task of the first three foundations of mindfulness: mindful-
ness of body, emotion, and states of mind.
The second goal is nirvana, which is complete enlight-
enment. The monk can only achieve this through profound
insight into the Buddha’s theory of existence. This is the task
of the fourth foundation of the Sutta: mindfulness of thought.
The Buddha’s philosophy is encapsulated in two straight-
forward and logically sound formulae: the Four Noble Truths
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and the three characteristics of existence. The first of these is sufficient for equanimity. The second is the doorway into
enlightenment.
The Four Noble Truths are as follows: (1) Life is suffering.
(2) The cause of suffering is desire. (3) Desire can be extin-
guished. (4) The Eightfold Path of training extinguishes
desire and leads to the end of suffering. The word “desire” in
the context of the Four Noble Truths is also variously trans-
lated as delusion, craving, clinging, lust, attachment, or pas-
sion, all of which are canonically acceptable. This formula is
often stripped down to “Nothing is worth clinging to.”
The three characteristics of existence are much tougher
nuts to crack. They are counterintuitive and pretty grim. The
Buddha said we are deluded in thinking that we have indi-
vidual personalities and that life is basically good, stable, and
enjoyable. “That is not true,” he said, “and it is no wonder that
you suffer as a result of your delusions.”
The three characteristics of existence are (1) imperma-
nence ( anicca), (2) suffering ( dukkha), and (3) no-soul ( anatta).
The Buddha’s argument about the nature of existence goes
like this: All things are impermanent. Attachment to what is
impermanent is the cause of all suffering. Above all, we suf-
fer because of our attachment to our sense of self, which is
also impermanent. The only solution is to renounce the world
and our sense of self utterly. By doing so we can weed out the
seeds of our actions—our evil karma—that would otherwise
ripen as suffering in this and future lives.
It is hard for a modern practitioner to regard the three
characteristics as a coherent argument. Above all, this phi-
losophy requires a belief in karma and reincarnation to make
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any practical sense. If this is our only lifetime, there are far less draconian ways to avoid suffering. In modern Buddhism,
the three characteristics operate more as a source of mysti-
cal ideas, philosophic speculation, and mind games than as a
useful guide to behavior.
Although the Buddha’s techniques are marvelous, it is
obvious that his goals are not ours. He was an ascetic who
despised all worldly pursuits. Doing nothing, resisting temp-
tation, and watching without reacting might make us more
peaceful, but they are hardly a recipe for an attractive life.
Nor is nirvana, which entails extinguishing all affective
responses to the world, a marketable prospect nowadays.
We are bound to use sati and moment-to-moment
self-awareness for many purposes that the Buddha
himself would despise. Our goals may include stress relief,
better health and relationships, sensual enjoyment, clarity
of thought, wealth, technical skills, better judgment and
decision-making, social virtues such as empathy and love,
the acquisition of knowledge or mastery, or the appreciation
of beauty and the arts.
This means that our most highly cultivated mindful states
may not feel or look particularly Buddhist. Quite the opposite
in fact: they won’t necessarily exhibit serenity, detachment,
and stillness. Excellence in any field can only be achieved
with strong, self-monitoring attentional skills. Athletes,
judges, and connoisseurs all require well-trained, discrim-
inating awareness to succeed in their endeavors. Of course
they also make mistakes, but who doesn’t? However, we can’t
say they’re not mindful just because they don’t meditate or
profess sympathy for Buddhism.
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The Buddha’s techniques can teach us how to drive
the vehicle of mindfulness, but we don’t have to adopt his
goals. We can go to destinations that are more important to
us. Nearly everyone who practices mindfulness does this,
whether they admit to it or not.
Chapters 1–8 described the first foundation of the Sutta,
mindfulness of the body. In subsequent chapters I will
describe the graduate levels of the Sutta: mindfulness of emo-
tions, of states of mind, and of thought. When we look at the
core of the Sutta, the Buddha’s instructions are so lucid, it is
easy to see where our uses branch out from his. For example,
his systematic instructions for dissolving destructive emo-
tions are quite superb, but he says almost nothing about the
active cultivation of good emotions.
Nonetheless, we can easily use his techniques to amplify
and refine emotion rather than extinguish it. His instructions
are perfectly clear. Although he would be disgusted with our
goals, we can easily use mindfulness to enhance and refine
the pleasure we take, for example, in family life, music, or nat-
ural beauty. In the following chapters, I explain what he says
about emotions, states of mind, and thought, and how we can
tailor his techniques to our divergent purposes.
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P a r t T h re e
Other Foundations: Mindfulness of Emotion,
Mindfulness of States of Mind,
Mindfulness of Thought
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Emotion at the Atomic Level
How does a monk observe the valences of
phenomena? When he experiences a pleasant feeling,
he knows: “This is pleasant .” When he experiences an
unpleasant feeling, he knows: “This is unpleasant .”
He also recognizes those valences that are neither
pleasant nor unpleasant . Likewise, he is aware of
the positive, negative, and neutral valences that
accompany thoughts .
—Satipatthana Sutta
The field of emotion, or “affect,” is notoriously difficult to
analyze or classify. Cognitive scientists and psychologists
have just as much trouble as a layperson does. The Buddha
tackled this issue with great skill, and, in one case at least, his
ancient terminology is actually superior to ours. The Buddha
used the term vedana to talk about identifying emotions
at the atomic level of our spontaneous likes and dislikes.
This term has no equivalent in vernacular English, but
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psychologists, borrowing from the jargon of chemistry, refer to the phenomenon as “valence.”
The Buddha recognized that nearly every perception that
we notice, be it of a thought, sensation, emotion, or action,
comes with an emotional charge that is either positive or neg-
ative. We either like or dislike the object to some degree, how-
ever small. We find it “pleasant” or “unpleasant.” We have a
subtle preference for or against it.
This for-or-against sensation is the vedana, or “valence,” of
an object. Psychologists also call this the “emotional charge”
or “feeling tone” or “affective tone,” but these terms lack the
almost mathematical precision of “valence.” A valence can be
positive or negative, strong or weak. It can even be rated on a
numerical 1-to-10 scale of positives and negatives. For exam-
ple, a thought about “work” could be +3. A thought about “boy-
friend” could be +6. A thought about “money” could be –2.
Valences are mostly subliminal. We rarely notice them
against the prominence of the object, but they are usually
not difficult to identify in any particular case. The effect of
a valence may be tiny, but it is always there, subtly influenc-
ing our response to the object. The Buddha said that some
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