Class 10 Mindfulness Practice and Working With Memory
Class 10 Mindfulness Practice and Working With Memory
Mindfulness
Practice and
Working with
G.A. Somaratne
The University of Hong Kong
Memory
2024
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We will learn:
What is reflection? What is reflexion?
Why did the Buddha’s teaching promote the practice of right mindfulness?
• To think about a thing while the thing is present in one’s own experience.
• The Buddhist word for reflexion is sati-sampajañña (mindfulness and
awareness).
• (1) When it is the past that is being called to mind, then sati refers to
‘memory’ (of the past).
• (2) When it is the present that is being called to mind, then sati refers to
‘mindfulness’ (of the present).
Sampajañña •
•
in going forward and in going back, he is aware;
in looking straight on and in looking elsewhere, he is aware;
(awareness)? •
•
in bending and in stretching, he is aware;
in carrying his outer cloak, alms-bowl and robe, he is aware;
• in eating, drinking, chewing, and savoring, he is aware;
• in excreting and urinating he is aware;
• in walking, standing, sitting, sleeping, waking, speaking and being
silent, he is aware.
• Thus, he abides seeing the body in the body internally. Or his
mindfulness that ‘there is body’ is established in him to the extent
necessary for knowledge and mindfulness.” (DN 22).
Two Mental •
•
not-recollected (asamāhita)
scatter-brained (vibbhanta-citta)
(1) Regarding the body, one dwells watching being ardent, fully aware, possessed of mindfulness and overcoming
body, both desire for and discontent with the world.
(3) Regarding the mind, one dwells watching being ardent [...].
mind,
(4) Regarding dhammas (mental factors/states), being ardent, fully aware, possessed of mindfulness and overcoming
one dwells watching dhammas, both desire for and discontent with the world.” (DN II 290; MN I 55)
The body, feelings, mind and dhammas are four objects for establishing mindfulness.
Satipaṭṭhāna is
• the actual activity of observing or watching or contemplating the body, feelings, mind and dhammas.
• It is the activity of detached watching/ observation/ contemplation.
The four satipaṭṭhānas are four varieties of sustained watching (anupassanā):
• watching the body
• watching feelings
• watching mind
• watching dhammas
• < sati (mindfulness) + upaṭṭhāna (‘to stand near’, ‘placing near’, ‘to be present’, ‘to
manifest’, ‘to serve’, a particular way of ‘being present’, or ‘attending’)
the Four
Practices In the process of this watching, ‘mindfulness’
stands near, manifests, and is established.
Watching the body, feelings, mind or dhammas is what supports mindfulness, what
causes mindfulness ‘to stand near’.
But at the same time, the very nature of mindfulness is ‘to stand near’ or ‘to
support’.
Mindfulness is that which stands near, supports and guards the mind.
In Buddhist literature,
The Sanskrit word smṛti
sati (smṛti) is the bare
[from the root smṛ, ‘to
aspect of ‘remembering’
remember’ and ‘to have
or ‘having in mind’ that is
in mind’] can mean
focused:
Mindfulness (sati) is
• that are skillful and unskillful, with faults and faultless, inferior and refined, dark and pure, together with their
counterparts:
• these are the four approaches to setting up of mindfulness,
• these are the four right endeavors,
• these are the four bases of success,
• these are the five faculties,
• these are the five powers,
• these are the seven awakening-factors,
• this is the noble eightfold path,
• this is calm, this is insight, this is knowledge, this is freedom.
• resorts to dhammas that should be resorted to and does not resort to dhammas that should not be resorted to;
• embraces dhammas that should be embraced and does not embrace dhammas that should not be embraced.
• Just so, Your Majesty, does sati have the characteristic of calling to mind.”
Even so, Your Majesty, mindfulness when it arises, follows the courses of beneficial and unbeneficial dhammas:
these dhammas are beneficial, these unbeneficial; these dhammas are helpful, these unhelpful.
“Thus, one who practices meditation removes unbeneficial dhammas and takes hold of beneficial dhammas;
removes unhelpful dhammas and takes hold of helpful dhammas.
Just so, Your Majesty, does mindfulness have the characteristic of taking hold.”
any feeling he may experience exists in relation to a whole variety or world of feelings that may be
skillful or unskillful, with faults or faultless, relatively inferior or refined, dark or pure.
[The same is to be applied to the body, mind and dhammas.]
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As a result, we see things in
relation to things.
Hence, we remember things well.
27
Abandoning perversions
“One who dwells watching body with regard to body abandons the
perversion of seeing loveliness (subha) in the foul (asubha).
One who dwells watching feeling with regard to feelings abandons the
perversion of seeing pleasure (sukha) in suffering (dukkha).
One who dwells watching mind with regard to minds abandons the
perversion of seeing permanence (nicca) in the impermanent (anicca).
One who dwells watching dhamma with regard to dhammas abandons the
perversion of seeing self (atta) in what is not-self (anatta).” (Nett 83-4)
For one who abides contemplating a body in the body, the mind
enters concentration, the taints are abandoned (SN 47.8).
It ‘calls to mind’: it remembers things in relationship to things and thus tends to know their value
and widen the view.
It removes desire and brings in concentration.
It is closely related to wisdom. It naturally tends to seeing things as they truly are.
The practitioner watches them, being ardent (=energy; right effort), fully aware (=
wisdom; right view), and possessing mindfulness (=right mindfulness).
Right effort, right view, and right mindfulness belong to the Noble Eightfold Path.
The third, the “abandoning by cutting off” can be done by one who
develops the “supramundane path” (lokuttara-magga).
One destroys taints and fetters etc., by means of the knowledge of the
“noble path”.
• holding his body straight he causes mindfulness to stand near around the face.
• he dwells with a mind without aversion, compassionate and friendly towards all
creatures and beings;
• he purifies his mind from the stain of aversion and hatred.
Abandoning doubt
Abandoning these five hindrances that defile the mind and weaken wisdom,
one dwells watching the body in the body, ardent, fully aware, with mindfulness, having
overcome desire for and discontent with the world;
one dwells watching the feeling in the feeling, […];
one dwells watching the dhammas in the dhammas, ardent, fully aware, with mindfulness,
having overcome desire for and discontent with the world.
One withholds and has neither initial thought nor sustained thought.
• He knows: ‘I am without initial thought and sustained thought; mindful within, I am at ease.’ (SN V
155-6)
And how, Ananda, does a monk dwell with himself as lamp […]?
• In this connection a monk in regard to the body dwells watching body […];
• in regard to feelings […];
• in regard to the mind […];
• in regard to the dhammas [….]” (DN II 100; SN V 154).
It presents a
The satipaṭṭhāna practice comprehensive set of
contemplations that The mental qualities
constitutes an important
required for this practice
component in the path to progressively reveal ever
are:
Nibbāna. subtler aspects of
subjective experience.
(1) How to (2) One understands when one changes bodily postures such as walking,
standing, sitting and lying down.
practice
watching the
(3) One walks up and down, looks at and around, bends and stretches limbs,
handles robes and bowl, eats, drinks, chews and tastes, walks, stands, sits, lies
down, sleeps, wakes, speaks and remains silent with awareness.
body (14 (4) One reflects the body as it is full of different kinds of impurity (hair, nails,
Satipaṭṭhāna (5) One reflects on the body by way of the elements of earth, water, fire and
wind.
Sutta
(6)-(14) One compares one’s body to a corpse in nine different states of
putrefaction (decomposition), thinking, ‘This body too is of such a nature, it will
be such, it has not passed beyond this.’
watching
• the mind that is composed; that is scattered;
• the mind that has become great; that has not become
great;
the mind (1 • the mind that is surpassable; that is not surpassable;
• the mind that is concentrated; that is not concentrated;
(4) • One knows the arising and the disappearance of the five-
clinging-aggregates (matter, feeling, perception, mental
formations, and consciousness).
watching • One knows the workings of the six internal and external
sense spheres (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; sight,
dhammas
sound, smell, taste, touch and dhammas),
• One knows the presence or the absence of the seven factors
of awakening (mindfulness, dhamma-discrimination,
Mindfulness I shall breathe in watching cessation […]; I shall breathe out […];
of Breathing
in and out I shall breathe in watching letting-go […]; I shall breathe out […]’