The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta

The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta is one of the best-known meditation teachings in the Pali Canon. It is the tenth discourse of the Majjhima Nikāya, the “middle-length” collection, so it is often cited as MN 10. A longer version appears in the Dīgha Nikāya as DN 22. The title is usually translated as “the discourse on the foundations” or “establishings” of mindfulness.

The direct path

The discourse opens with the Buddha describing the four foundations of mindfulness as a direct path. It leads to the purification of beings, the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, the ending of pain and sadness, and the realisation of nirvana. The practitioner is described as ardent, clearly knowing and mindful, having put aside desire and aversion for the world.

The four foundations

The teaching is organised in four parts.

• Body. Mindfulness of breathing, of the postures, of everyday activities, of the parts of the body, of the elements and of the body's impermanence, including reflection on a corpse.
• Feelings. Noticing whether each experience is pleasant, painful or neither, and whether it is worldly or not. The Pali word vedanā means this basic tone of experience rather than emotion.
• Mind. Knowing the state of the mind as it is: with or without greed, hatred or delusion, contracted or scattered, settled or unsettled.
• Phenomena. Observing dhammas, the patterns the teaching points to, such as the five hindrances, the five aggregates, the six senses, the seven factors of awakening and the Four Noble Truths.

A repeated refrain

After each exercise comes the same refrain. The meditator observes inside and outside, notices things arising and passing away, and keeps mindfulness just for knowing, without clinging to anything in the world. This refrain links calm attention to insight into impermanence.

How it is used today

Many modern mindfulness and insight (vipassanā) approaches draw on this discourse, particularly in the Burmese and Thai traditions. Teachers differ on how literally to take each section and on how it relates to deep concentration. Reading it alongside the Ānāpānasati Sutta, on mindfulness of breathing, gives a fuller picture.

You can begin with the first section: sit, know that you are breathing in and breathing out, and gently return when the mind wanders.