Comments on: Four Foundations of Mindfulness http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/562 A Daily Dose of Buddhist Wisdom Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:20:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Brian Schell http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/562/comment-page-1#comment-801 Brian Schell Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:44:13 +0000 http://www.dailybuddhism.com/?p=562#comment-801 Well now, there ya go. I learned something new today! Well now, there ya go. I learned something new today!

]]> By: Alan http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/562/comment-page-1#comment-795 Alan Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:12:39 +0000 http://www.dailybuddhism.com/?p=562#comment-795 Actually, it isn't quite accurate to say that the Satipatthana-sutta is "a different sect‚Äôs viewpoint on the same basic idea" as the forty meditation subjects. Rather, the list of 40 subjects is basically a catalogue of the contents of that sutta, that was developed <i>within the same [Theravada] tradition.</i> The Satipatthana-sutta is part of the sutta-pitaka of the Pali canon, which contains the original teachings of the Buddha, transmitted orally for several hundred years prior to being written down. Somewhere around 400 AD Buddhaghosa, the great Ceylonese scholar who was as much as anyone responsible for codifying "orthodox" Theravada Buddhism, wrote the <i>Visuddhimagga</i> or "Way of Purification", a description of the path to enlightenment that included a complete account of the Buddhist meditation practices of the time. Basically, his list of 40 subjects came from the Satipatthana-sutta; his descriptions were supplemented with commentaries based on a tradition of several hundred years of practice with these techniques. Nyanaponika Thera's <i>The Heart of Buddhist Meditation</i> and Thich Nhat Hanh's <i>Transformation and Healing</i> are both book-length explications of the Satipatthana-sutta. Numerous others are available as well. Actually, it isn’t quite accurate to say that the Satipatthana-sutta is “a different sect‚Äôs viewpoint on the same basic idea” as the forty meditation subjects. Rather, the list of 40 subjects is basically a catalogue of the contents of that sutta, that was developed within the same [Theravada] tradition.

The Satipatthana-sutta is part of the sutta-pitaka of the Pali canon, which contains the original teachings of the Buddha, transmitted orally for several hundred years prior to being written down. Somewhere around 400 AD Buddhaghosa, the great Ceylonese scholar who was as much as anyone responsible for codifying “orthodox” Theravada Buddhism, wrote the Visuddhimagga or “Way of Purification”, a description of the path to enlightenment that included a complete account of the Buddhist meditation practices of the time. Basically, his list of 40 subjects came from the Satipatthana-sutta; his descriptions were supplemented with commentaries based on a tradition of several hundred years of practice with these techniques.

Nyanaponika Thera’s The Heart of Buddhist Meditation and Thich Nhat Hanh’s Transformation and Healing are both book-length explications of the Satipatthana-sutta. Numerous others are available as well.

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