Four headings contemplation-Satipathana

[Tashi Thinlas]

Amitabha budhha

Part I - Lesson 5
Four headings contemplation
A- Introduction
After enlightenment, Blessed One used the means to lead sentient beings to the path of enlightenment according to their respective levels. The four headings of contemplation are one of the first practices taught by the Buddha.

The teachings of the Buddha preached immensely from human life to the universe, but focused on the human issue. Taking people as a contemplative object to see the universal universe, the four disciplines of contemplation help us to recognize the truth of ourselves, others and society. That is the great meaning that Buddha aims when he wants to enlighten sentient beings.

B- Content
I- Definition
The Buddhist doctrine affirms that: In order to thoroughly grasp a phenomenon, it is necessary to use the method of contemplation. Without contemplation, it is not possible to assess true and objective things. Consistency is the use of wisdom to think, illuminate and analyze objects, to comprehend the nature of things. Mindfulness is understood simply as remembering the object to perform a process of observation and thinking. In the early stage, mindfulness is the premise for the shop. If there is no mindfulness, the karma cannot happen. Mindfulness also means that memory retains the object after contemplation. If the object gives us a positive result, the benefit for the practice leading to enlightenment, then we use mindfulness to remember and practice. In the teachings of the Four Noble Truths, the four contemplative headings are declared by the Blessed One in the Noble Truth. First of all, this is a balanced cultivation practice method of thread and stick. Include:
1. Contemplation about the body
2. Contemplation about feeling
3. Contemplating on the mind
4. Contemplation about the dharma.
Tracking of the presence of body, sensations, consciousness and dhammas, this is called meditation. Going deep into the nature of arising and passing away to see their nature, this is called meditation.
II- Content Four items contemplation
1. Contemplating on the body:
Contemplating on the body means practicing meditation on the body. Practice this concept of mindfulness to be aware of the peace and serenity in the present life, to practice the majestic lifestyle and to see the downside of this body.
a / contemplating the body through the breath
This is the form of instant book (counting the breath). However, contemplating the body through the breath not only counts the breath, but also has to keep track of how the breath is and how it is breathed in and out. In other words, at that moment we are conscious and aware of ourselves. The breath of human life is paramount. People can fast, drink for a long time, but life will end if short of breath in a few minutes. In the Four Deces, the Buddha asked the Monks: How long can a person's life live? The first answered in a few days. The second taste answers during a meal. Buddha said they did not understand the director. The third answered life within the breath. Buddha praised him as a religious person. We breathe all day and night, but rarely do we catch our breath. We are too busy with the dress to forget the magic of the breath. We do not care about breathing for our lungs and heart. When anxiety, anger makes the heart beat faster, the lungs hardly absorb air, it is at this time catching the breath is very important, helping us regain the calm state of the mind and the body. When the breath and the body are harmonized, the calm state of the body will arise.
In fact, breathing in and out deeply is not important. The most important thing is that we are conscious while breathing. Buddha taught that when we breathe in and out, we have to be aware of that breath. The long, short breath is known to be long and short, so lucid and sober. Today in modern civilized life, humans act like shuttles in a loom. People can practice mindfulness of breathing to bring health and productivity. At a higher level, it helps perfect and develop mental power.

b / Contemplating the body through the operating gestures
This is the form of contemplating the body through walking, standing, sitting, lying, and other activities of the body, in order to control its activities through mindfulness. It means using right understanding to maintain and promote right speech, right action and right livelihood.
In fact, the meaning of contemplation is to focus the mind to arouse consciousness. The Buddha recommended that Buddhists be aware of every small thing. Just as we are aware of our breath, when we walk we know we are walking, when we stand, we know we are standing ... Knowing so to feel the action is complete in the present moment. To live in such a way is to live in mindfulness, to live in awareness and in peace. Conscious of our steps to see that we are walking in the middle of a cloudy sky, with grass, trees, flowers, birds, and birds ... Each of our steps is in harmony with the scenery, space and time, with the universe. immense universe, and the vast universe is present in every step of his. Conscious that the words we are saying have greed or anger. Because the words that we speak contain our thoughts and thoughts. In life, sometimes we do not have enough courage to sense and test ourselves. In the end we are only conscious of superficiality, and life is lost in the present moment.

Often in life, we are dominated by the past and the future. Therefore, we do not enjoy the present happiness. Look at a person sitting in a lecture hall listening to the dharma, but his mind is thinking about the money he has not yet regained and is trying to get it back in the near future. Try to ask the person whether you feel the full source of the Dharma or is cultivating a melancholy anxiety? Therefore, the true meaning of awakening to bodily activity is to live with the present action. When we are conscious, aware of an action, there are two possibilities: or we are immersed in action, living with action without thinking other than mindfulness, awakening, not seeing ourselves in action. then that would be a good result already. Or we are self-aware of the "I" in action, that is, the egoistic mind attached to the action. Thus, the awareness of the body's actions to be diligent in the mind is the true meaning of mindfulness. And when our consciousness is acting in conjunction with the "I", it is the first step back to self-control in the flow of self.

Thus, contemplating the body through actions to help us control our body's activities by mindfulness, to practice the majesty of righteousness, bring us back to the present; separate from the life seeking happiness by imagination, by praying and by remembrance.

c / Contemplating the impure body through constituent parts
Normally we rarely pay attention to our body in detail. We only care about needs such as eating, sleeping ... how to be healthy, and have a beautiful body. I am proud and cherish my body, because under the eyes of everyone we have a beautiful body, beauty ... I cherish, nourish and protect it to the utmost. On the contrary, we are really miserable and ashamed when we have a certain disability in our body such as a cross-eyed eye, a flat nose ... we feel miserable when facing people.
But whether beautiful or ugly, this body is still impure, a condition of birth, impermanence, and non-self. In the traditional view of Buddhism, the human body is made up of the four elements: earth, water, wind, fire, or four precepts: the boundary is solid (bone, flesh), water is liquid (blood, pus ...), fire is heat (temperature), gender is dynamic (breath).

In the Satipa xứ xứhāna Sutta, the Buddha taught the method of observing the four elements: from the soles of the feet to the top of the hair covered with skin and filled with impure differences. Not only that, this body impure even while still in the womb, absorbing blood and life. The impure and hypocrisy of this body was manifested even more clearly when we visualized a body thrown in a cemetery. The first step is that the corpse is swollen, rotting. In the second step, the corpse was eaten by birds and insects. In the third step, the corpse was left with only the skeletons sticking together thanks to the ribbed fibers. The fourth step is that the corpse is left with only discrete white bones, over time disintegrating into white powder. While contemplating like that, Buddhists know well that: "This body is so nature, so nature is so, not beyond that nature". That is the true affirmation of the Blessed One. This body is governed by birth, old age, sickness and death. As time goes by, life decreases as well. A body that we love today only remains ashes of cool ash. Bad - beautiful, rich - poor, luxurious - cowardly ... all like that.

However, contemplating the body as impure and impermanent does not mean that we are pessimistic about it, abandoning or destroying it. The Buddha did not allow Buddhists to be pessimistic about anything in life. If we see the negative side of the body and are pessimistic, we destroy ourselves. It is against the lofty ideals of the Blessed One.

Because the purpose of impure body contemplation is to bring people out of the obstacles and sufferings of attachments in this body. Consistent such as to treat sexual desire.

In summary, the body shop can be understood on two sides: the gross and the gross. The rough part is the body's external activities such as walking, standing, sitting, lying, etc. The sacrificial part is this body shop formed by the four elements, which are structured together through impure things.
2. Contemplation about feeling:
What is a /?
Feeling is short for feeling. When accepting something, or accepting something, it is called feeling. Tho includes body and mind. These two sides interact with each other. It is possible that the body has the feeling without feeling, or the body and the mind experience it. From this idea, we have the content of feeling including three states: pleasant feeling is a happy, excited psychological excitement before the object. Suffering is a mental state of suffering, boredom ... Any misery is a neutral mind, not biased towards the optimistic as well as towards suffering. We can understand that: feeling unpleasant and unpleasant feeling is subjective psychology, any misery, unpleasant feeling is objective psychology.
Feeling is an indispensable basis in forming the human mind. Therefore, the contemplation of feeling is to examine human psychology.

b / Content of mindfulness on feeling
In order for sensation to be present, it is indispensable for us to meet three factors: internal, external and physical. Jing Samyutta III, the Buddha clearly taught: «Longevity due to longevity, longevity due to atrium. Because contact arises, life arises, because contact arises, therefore cessation arises. The six senses are the emotional impressions that are closely related to all the senses of the six senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind when confronted with the corresponding six mundane scenes: color, sound, incense , taste, contact, France. What is the basis of miserable, happy, neutral feelings? The Buddha taught: «Monks, due to predestined contact with peanuts, touch the feeling of initiation. Due to predestined contact with suffering, suffering arises. Due to predestined contact with suffering any misery, any misery, feeling kicked at the start of life «(according to the Central Sutta III, No. 140). And how to identify life? That must be the presence of consciousness. When the senses and sensual conditions arise, if there is no consciousness of them, there will be no feeling of pleasure, dukkha, or any unpleasantness. When we look at a flower, there are two possibilities: either a bad appreciation, or no appreciation. If the awareness of a beautiful flower, with a fragrance ... then a sense of pleasure will arise. If the flower has allergies to us, then we feel uncomfortable, then the feeling of suffering arises. And when we see the flower we still feel the beauty, the fragrance or the unpleasant allergies, but we don't care about it, neither enjoy it nor get bored. It is a mental state without suffering, not being happy. The Buddha asserted: «When awake is clean, pure, he knows some things thanks to that consciousness. The knowledge he was lost, be miserable, be unhappy any misery «(ibid.).


What do we take and why do we say suffering is suffering? All three states of pleasure, suffering, any suffering, and suffering can be materialistic and may not belong to material things; belongs to the longevity or to the longevity. I receive this body is mine, is me. In order for this body to exist and be beautiful, we receive food and clothing, necessities for life; and there is always a tendency to want more life to prove the "self" with life. The more life we ​​feel, the happier we are, but actually suffering is always with happiness. People are always afraid that this body will die prematurely, not enjoying the material wealth it has created. At the same time, they were always afraid of their possessions being stolen and it was really painful when that happened. When misfortune becomes empty-handed, the more people suffer, life for them is now an abyss. That is the suffering of physical pleasures. Feelings of money, fame, position, compliments, criticism, greed, hatred, love of people ... are non-material sensations. When the six faculties of six senses arise, they feel, The sensation of states of meditation is called inner feeling. In general, whether physical or non-material sensation is due to the mind being bound in the five senses: talent, materiality, mentality, reality and lobe (desires for money - wealth, beauty, fame - location) taste, eat well, sleep well). However, the feeling that leads to suffering or bliss greatly depends on our level of enlightenment. For Buddhists who practice, have insight wisdom, they can always master their minds before sensations. Knowing that feeling is impermanent and will easily be bound by that feeling, Buddhists do not receive that feeling by desire. Living in pleasure but without consequences, living in dukkha but without extreme suffering because there is observation and willow of their nature.

3. Mindfulness on the mind:
a / What is mind?
When talking about the mind is to discuss a complicated problem because it is difficult to define how the mind. We cannot say that the mind is ... as if referring to a specific thing. Therefore, talking about people refers to the activities of body and mind. The activity of the body is rough, the activity of the mind belongs to the sacrifice. However, we still capture and identify it. We often hear about the mind through the concepts: good heart, evil mind, selfish mind, greed, hatred mind ... All are manifestations of the mind in life. In the same time no two co-existent thoughts can exist. Active mind is absent, evil mind is absent, mind is active absent mind alms (benevolence) ...
b / Contents of mindfulness contemplation
Contemplation means that we are using the mind to contemplate, in the mind itself, without having to contemplate anything other than the mind. That is, we are conscious of our mind to see its presence and activity. As mentioned, the five aggregates are divided into two parts: body and mind. The body belongs to rupa, and the mind is sensation, perception, action and consciousness. Body and mind have a close relationship with each other. The body is the basis of the mind's work and the mind lends itself to manifestation. The mind is invisible but it has the characteristics of body. It can be touched (sympathetic), it also feels painful and peaceful. Therefore, people always exist an incurable depression: mental illness. Body disease is caused by five discord (lack of food, lack of medicine, lack of medicine ...). There are many causes for mental illness, but the main cause is due to greed, hatred and delusion: the germs that cause disease. Greed for material wealth, status, emotions ... Greed is not anger, sorrow that gives birth to illness. And the sick body can lead to mental illness and vice versa. Sometimes the body is sick but the mind is not sick, and sometimes the mind leads to the body.
Our mind is not fixed in one place, but it often changes from one state to another, depending on the objective or subjective conditions of the subject and the object. In Buddhism, the mind is often likened to a gibbon climbing a tree, passing from branch to branch all day long. Such recitation as before has been different, being and falling away continuously like a waterfall. I love people with all my heart today, and I hate them tomorrow. The mind is caused by predestination. Therefore, the mind is not an independent existence. On that basis, the mind has no self of it. The mind of birth is due to materiality, feeling, thought, action, and consciousness. The factors themselves are also conditioned, impermanent, and non-self. So the mind is also impermanent - not-self. The Buddha taught: «Monks, attachment to the mind is often longer, still wrong and worse than the physical attachment is permanent. Because the human body can exist for a few dozen years to a hundred years, and the mind of human being changes and falls in every moment II). It is dangerous to accept that the mind is permanent and immutable. If accepted as such, this life is indeed an unequal society and forever turbulent, corrupt. Because human heart can not be changed. The role of education and morality will not be valid. The greedman is still greedy, the pitcher goes on being angry. There is no process of practice leading to enlightenment and liberation. We know that kamma is created by the mind, and that attachment is usually how to convert karma. So, the samsara is still incarnated, unable to unleash the wisdom to go to enlightenment.

4. Contemplation on the dharma:
a / What is Dharma?
The word "dhamma" has no meaning limited to specific things belonging to the non-perceptual material world. According to Buddhist teachings, calligraphy is understood with a broad meaning, covering the universe and human life, matter and spirit, psychology and physics. Dharma is divided into two groups: rupa and dharma. The rupa has an obstructive nature and has no perception; such as a table, a tree, a glass of water ... The dharma is a dharma that has no form, cannot see, but has perception. Here, people meet the two. That is the five aggregates: materiality, feeling, thought, action and consciousness. The rupa is the rupa of the five aggregates (physical body). The center of mind is feeling, thought, action and consciousness; is the internal consciousness world whose effect is to think, to think ... to express the sad and happy psychological states ... For example, the fluctuation of mind when the activities of the five hindrances and the year of Zen 1), or the activity of the Seven Awakening (2).
b / The content of contemplation about dharma
People are objects to practice contemplation. Because it matches the rupas and the mind. Buddhists contemplate the five aggregates to be aware of the connection between themselves and the universe of the right. Without the universe, this five aggregates cannot be. From this essence we become more and more aware of the meaning of non-self.
In the Buddhist texts of development, egolessness includes the method of non-self and non-self, or the method of non-self and the method of non-self. Here the rupa is indicated only for the body and the dharmas of the external world. The rupa and the dharmakaya are both dependent on karmic conditions, which makes them vain. The Shurangama Sutra teaches: «The predestined harmony of vanity, existence, the predestined relationship to dispersal, the vanity of vanity». When looking at a glass of lemonade, it does not have its ego. Because it is not an independent entity, but it is only present in the interdependent interdependence: which is water, which is sugar, is lemon ... So is our mind, it depends on the interior of the external. , contact, feeling, perception, action, and consciousness. When the perceiving subject and the perceiving object are dependent on selflessness, there is still another self to exist in that attachment.

It should be added that the body and mind only exist for a certain period of time and then follow the law of birth - to - destruction - to disappear. The body cannot exist outside the mind, the mind cannot exist outside the body. Just as rupa cannot exist in addition to feeling, perception, action, and consciousness. Therefore, Buddhism does not accept an everlasting soul after destruction. The reason for having an idea of ​​a everlasting soul and considering it a self is due to affirming the self-existence of people in an infinite time. The idea of ​​a soul, falling like that - according to Buddhism is false and empty. It is only a delusion of a false mind that cannot be present in reality.

III- Consistent meaning and practical benefits when practicing the Four Contemplative Items
When choosing the four contemplative headings to practice, is the practice itself. Because liberating samsara for human beings is the main goal that Buddha aims at this life. Understand yourself, understand others and all. Seeing the causes and conditions arising and falling away, impermanence, egolessness in humans, other things are like that.
Impermanence in people is the strongest impression that awakens us. An animal or a dead tree is not strong enough for us to be awakened by ourselves. In the process of contemplating these headings, we see that they share a common physical characteristic - that is the causal condition of birth, death, impermanence and non-self. It is also characteristic common to all compounded phenomena (3). In fact, speaking of impure body, contemplating impermanence is just a way of saying to bring out the most obvious characteristics of their expression. For example, the impure body is very easy to identify. The impure body is impure itself. And the impure mind is more subtle.
Therefore, the concept of contemplation is firstly bringing the body and mind back to life with the present moment. Dispel forgetfulness and dispersion to maintain mindfulness and sustain life. The four contemplative headings are practical teachings drawn from close experiences in life. That is the essence of Buddhist teachings: not separate from life, but closely related to life. When contemplating the body is contemplating physically, that is, seeing the synthesis of specific physical elements that make up the human body and seeing the impure of the body while alive as well as when dying to treat libido. Mindfulness of feeling and consciousness is contemplating on the psychological aspect, ie seeing the arising and impermanence of the mind, in order to understand the mind and make the mind pure. Contemplating on the dharma to see that selflessness is far from attachment. Bat Nha Tam teaches: "When the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara contemplates the five aggregates and discovers the emptiness of self, he overcomes all suffering and suffering." When the ups and downs and impermanence of all things do not dominate the inner spiritual life, we can overcome suffering like the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.
The Buddha affirmed the benefits of practicing these four foundations of mindfulness: «This is the only way leading to the purification of sentient beings, beyond sorrow, the eradication of suffering, the attainment of right understanding, and the attainment of Nibbāna. «(Mindfulness of origin, CentralI).
C. Conclusion
For real life, if the four headings of contemplation are practiced, people will somewhat overcome the obstacles related to body and mind. The worldly air that makes it difficult for people to overcome mental and psychological illnesses is considered as an underlying instinct. People always tend to live in lust, craving. When instinct is not educated, suffering is still piling up. The educational direction of the four contemplative headings takes mind and mind as a basis. Although being educated through the four contemplative headings, seeing clearly the nature of people and things is like that, seeing the harms of being immersed in the past, and seeing the benefits of departing, we usually don't have enough to control and limit yourself to the power of desire. It is because we only understand the problem but not really practice. It should be noted that, the Buddhist learners are different from Buddhist practitioners. Studying the Buddha just to enrich the knowledge of Buddhism, to satisfy the need to learn, is someone who has just stood in the alley but hasn't entered the house yet. The person who learns Buddha again and cultivates is the one who truly lives and practices according to the Dharma. It is these people who have long-term happiness, virtuous attainment and the ability to realize.