The Four Satipatthanas (Part 2)

Mindfulness is extremely important, and you mustn’t be without it. You should devise different techniques to entice the citta to practice. Then your mindfulness will become continuous. For example, you can try a different mantra or a new method of practice. Then you’re really developing your satipaññā. I also practiced in this way. You have to apply satipaññā in your investigation of the body, your own body and other people’s bodies until you see clearly the body’s true nature. In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, or the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse, the Lord Buddha said that you should alternately investigate the internal and external body and then compare them. This is the way of developing the magga or the path and the correct way of investigation. It’s the same way with the investigation of the inner and the external vedanā or feelings. Actually, the external vedanā here isn’t about other people’s feelings but about the bodily or physical feelings, whilst the internal vedanā is about the mental feelings. I’ve gained this insight from my practice and I’m profoundly convinced of this, but I do not deny that the external vedanā can also refer to other people’s feelings.

But this is very far from the four satipaṭṭhāna that are within you. If the internal and external vedanās are not in the body and the citta, where else could they be? Then the four satipaṭṭhāna would not be complete. But truly, the four satipaṭṭhāna are complete in each individual, so you can see them vividly and clearly if you investigate them. Dukkha, samudaya, nirodha and magga are also in the body and citta. When you’re absolutely convinced that they’re in yourselves, it doesn’t hurt if you compare them with those of other people. You can investigate anyway you like, but your findings mustn’t contradict the truth or the Dhamma. The Lord Buddha taught you to be wise, not stupid. What’s essential here is for you to practice until the kilesas disappear from your hearts by the power of your satipaññā. This happened with my investigation of asubha or the loathsomeness of the body. When I got myself really involved with this investigation, I became so disillusioned with the body that I burst into tears. I said to myself: ‘So this is how to see the asubha of the body!’ When satipaññā probed into the body, it would slowly decompose and disappear like pointing a torch at it.

You should investigate until you see this asubha image clearly in your mind. Don’t imagine or speculate. When you’ve seen the truth of asubha, you’ll ditch the perception of beauty right away because you can see that it’s just paṭikkūla or filthy, and it’s made up of the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air. How then can you be deluded? You’ve now seen the truth of asubha, and realize that it was your imagination all along that obliterated the Lord Buddha’s Dhamma. You can now see how powerful and clever the kilesas really are in deceiving you to mistake loathsomeness for beauty. According to the Lord Buddha, the body is aniccaṁ or impermanent, constantly changing, and it’s just the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air. But the kilesas manage to convince you that it’s permanent, it’s a human being, an animal, you or I. According to the Lord Buddha, the body is aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā, but the kilesas wipe it all out by convincing you that it’s otherwise, just like the critics of the sāsana who wipe the sāsana out by labeling it harmful and addictive.

The Lord Buddha said that the body is aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, and anattā, but you see it otherwise. When you believe the kilesas you’ll wipe out the Dhamma teaching. Asubha can be seen very clearly, but you don’t see it. You see beauty in the body instead. But after you’ve seen the truth of the body, how can you go on contradicting it, and perpetually shoulder the burden of this contradiction? You’ll definitely let go of the perception of beauty after you’ve seen the truth of asubha and seen the harm of your attachment that results from your investigation based on the Dhamma teaching. When your perceptions don’t contradict the Dhamma teaching, you’ll see the truth. The heart will let go of this wrong perception and become empty, peaceful, and at ease. You’ll then investigate for more truths.

You must investigate the asubha of the body, as well as all the organs of the body, such as the muscles and sinews that hold the bones together, and the skin that wraps the entire body. This skin is like a shroud, a garment in which a corpse is wrapped. How can it be beautiful? You must investigate until you see the truth. Then you’ll let go of your misperception naturally. No matter how dark this perception may be, it’s just like the darkness of the night. After you’ve turned on the light, the darkness will disappear. It’s the same with satipaññā. Whatever object it investigates, that object will become illuminated. No other light in the world can be brighter than the light of paññā. The light of the sun can’t pass through opaque objects, but the light of paññā can penetrate through every object. One who has this light of paññā is called Lokavidū, the knower of the cosmos. All the truths that you’ve realized with paññā and are firmly established within your heart are similar in nature; they are all aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ and anattā.

You should choose the method of investigation that suits your temperament. If you enjoy investigating the asubha of the body, then you should concentrate on this investigation until you truly see the loathsome and filthy sides of the body. You’ll definitely see the truth and discard your delusion if you’re not lazy and don’t let the kilesas lull you to sleep. The reason why you’re still attached to this body is because you’re still deluded and think that the body is I and mine, that the body is an animal or a human being. You then become attached to the body and brush aside the Dhamma teaching. But after you’ve investigated with paññā and realized the truth of the body, then your delusion and attachment will disappear. You’ll leave the body alone. Then you’ll be anālayo or devoid of any sorrow because you’ve completely severed your attachment to the body. You’ll become blissful, light and at ease, and feel like a businessman who has made a lot of money and become very rich.

Next, you must investigate vedanā or feelings. The Lord Buddha said that they’re merely feelings that appear and disappear. They can be good, bad, or neither good nor bad feelings of either the body or the mind. How can there be a human being, an animal, you or I in them? After you’ve investigated them using paññā, you’ll see that they are merely mental objects or phenomena. As far as saññā or perception is concerned, it’s the most subtle of the five khandhas. It’ll quietly create mental images to fool you. On the other hand, saṅkhāra or the thought process will stir before it begins to think. You can distinctly feel this stirring. But with saññā there’s no stirring at all. It’ll create images to deceive you long before you realize it. The citta is continually deluded by these five khandhas. They deceive it with sammati or relative truths that are created by saññā and saṅkhāra. With the power of paññā, you’ll discover that you’ve been deluded all along. When you probe the citta with paññā, you’ll see the mental images appear and then disappear and you’ll realize that they are all created by the five khandhas and you have unknowingly become deluded by them. These images are not real. The citta is deceived by the five khandhas. It has taken whatever the five khandhas conjured up as the objects of its pleasure and sorrow for eons. Regarding viññāṇa or cognizance, it flicks on and off. It flicks on to acknowledge the sense data and ideas as they occur, and flicks off when they disappear, similar to a lightning flash, or the light of the firefly.

When you’ve developed satipaññā by continuously investigating the activities of the kilesas, you’ll become distrustful of the five khandhas and want to know their true nature. You’ll then earnestly investigate them and will eventually realize the truth. Then you’ll know that they are merely physical and mental phenomena. Actually, whether you realize this or not they still are what they are. But due to your delusion and desires, you mistake them to be something else. These desires are samudaya, the cause of dukkha, and originate from the citta. Now, as satipaññā advances with its probe, the scope of the investigation becomes narrower as satipaññā understands more and more, and eventually converges on the citta. Whatever now appears, you’ll know that it comes out of the citta, not from saññā or saṅkhāra because satipaññā is now capable of differentiating them. As soon as the citta produces them they will immediately disappear, just like the light of a firefly. Once satipaññā has caught up with the citta, it can’t go on creating them. When satipaññā is always watching, they can only appear and disappear.

Satipaññā will now put forth an all-out effort in waging the final battle. All that is left now is avijjā. Both avijjā and the citta have become one and the same thing as they are blended together. If you’re possessive of the citta, you’ll also be possessive of avijjā. If you cherish the citta, you’ll also cherish avijjā. If you’re attached to the citta, you’ll also be attached to avijjā. If you blindly believe the citta, you’ll also blindly believe avijjā. For both the citta and avijjā are together. Satipaññā will now keep on advancing with its probe because it’s the only thing it can do. Retreating is not possible. When the investigation has been consummated, paññā will then drop its atomic bomb on its target and completely demolish it. Then the seed of births and existences, avijjā, will be completely destroyed and you’ll see clearly that there is no more birth and death for you. The Lord Buddha said that this is the end of the holy life: vusitaṁ brahmacariyaṁ. As soon as the citta has been freed, the knowledge that freedom has been realized will appear simultaneously. This is where the bhikkhu’s endeavor comes to an end, not anywhere else, but right here.

After satipaññā has crushed avijjā, all of its enemies will also be destroyed. Satipaññā which has been investigating relentlessly, will now itself stop investigating because it has nothing more to do and no problem to solve. There aren’t any kilesas left to be eliminated. After the master of the vaṭṭa-cakka, the ceaseless cycle of birth and death, has been destroyed, then everything else comes to an end. The result obtained from your strenuous exertion will surpass everything else. Your misperceptions will all be removed. You’ll perceive the present clearly. Whether you live or die, you’ll have no more problems with the past, present, and future. It’s no problem how you may die. After you’ve attained to the level where there are no more problems, then everything else ceases to be a problem. So there is no problem for an arahant when he passes away. An arahant can pass away in any posture, either standing, sitting, walking, or lying down. He can pass away in any position of his choosing, just like Tan Ajahn Mun said in his biography. And what’s the reason for this? It’s because the dukkha-vedanā, which is sammati, can’t enter the citta to cause any more trouble. So why couldn’t an arahant pass away in any position that he sees fit, when he has already transcended sammati? Dukkha vedanā is sammati, and remains in the body. It can’t enter the citta of an arahant to cause any trouble. So there is no reason why an arahant, for his last act, can’t pass away in any position that he finds appropriate.

(Ajahn Maha Boowa “Forest Desanas”)