This article explores to what degree mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can be considered to fulfill the cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness, satipaṭṭhāna/smṛtyupasthāna, in the way these are described in early Buddhist discourse. A comparative survey of the core elements of such practice, described in the Pāli Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta and its two Chinese Āgama parallels, shows that current employment of mindfulness in health care and education, in spite of some degree of affinity, does not really qualify as an implementation of the four establishments of mindfulness. Better precedents for MBIs could be found in early Buddhist instructions on mindful eating and on how to face physical pain with mindfulness.
This book brings together the most important suttas from the Pali Canon and extracts from the commentaries dealing with anapanasati—the meditative practice of mindfulness of breathing Anapanasati or “mindfulness of breathing” was the method of meditation that the Buddha himself used to attain enlightenment, and during his long teaching career he often stressed its importance to his disciples. In the living Buddhist tradition mindfulness of breathing is regarded as the “root” meditation subject, the basis for all other approaches to meditation as well as a self-sufficient system that covers the entire range of practice for gaining calm and insight.The present book is an anthology of all the important source material from the Pali Canon and Commentaries on this core system of meditation. The book includes the famous Anapanasati Sutta, the Discourse on Mindfulness of Breathing (Majjhima Nikaya Sutta 118); the commentary on this sutta (including a substantial passage from the Visuddhimagga); an analytical treatise from the canonical Patisambhidamagga; and a selection of suttas from the Pali Canon. All this material has been rendered into lucid English by Bhikkhu Nyanamoli, one of the foremost translators of Pali Buddhist texts in our age.
Any practitioner, after meditating for some time, inevitably wonders what meditation method the historical Buddha Shakyamuni himself used while beneath the Bodhi Tree. Many people understand that prior to his realization, Shakyamuni Buddha studied with many of the great yogis of his time, but most do not know what method he ultimately found leads most directly to nirvana. In Ajahn Buddhadasa Bhikkhu's book, Mindfulness With Breathing, the Thai meditation master provides practitioners with penetrating insights into theAnapanasati Sutta, the canonical text which many believe is the most direct transmission of Shakyamuni Buddha's breath meditation methods. Combined with a concise translation of the sutta itself, Mindfulness with Breathing is one of the best guides to Buddhist meditation practice available in the English language.
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