for.JPG (19093 bytes)

im20.JPG (13851 bytes)Our most ordinary, mundane activity, one that is going on constantly in our daily lives, is the cognition of sense-impressions through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. Sense-consciousness is always accompanied by a feeling-either of pleasure and ease, of pain and discomfort, or else of indifference. In the presence of feeling, a reaction takes place in the mind; if pleasure and ease are evoked by an object, there is liking and attachment. If pain and discomfort are evoked, there will be dislike aversion. When there is liking of something, there arises the desire to experience more of it, to repeat the enjoyment, to obtain or possess. When there is dislike of something, there arises the desire to escape from it, to rid oneself of it or destroy it. This process is continuing all the time, both on subtle levels which tend to remain unobserved, and, on occasion, with an intensity which is plainly recognizable and which inflicts clearly discernible and lasting effects on the mind. Whenever the process displays this intensity, or is so strikingly evident, it will usually induce long and involved mental proliferations, and, if the matter finds no resolution in the heart, it will then intrude into the whole range of one’s speech and actions. Thus people’s lives, their roles in the world and the ways in which they relate to each other all issue principally from this incessant flow of mental phenomena which is present in every moment of our existence.

im04.JPG (3824 bytes)Heedlessly abandoning the mind to the conditioned process described above, i.e. liking and attaching to feelings of sensual pleasure and comfort, or disliking and resisting feelings of sensual pain and discomfort, will serve to thwart and impede the development of wisdom. One will be prevented from seeing things as they are and accurately perceiving the true nature of their existence.

Thus the following impediments to wisdom may be seen:

The mind falls into the power of liking and disliking and is held fast by it. The mind’s vision is obscured by that like or dislike and inclines away from an accurate perception of the actual nature of phenomena.

The mind falls into the past or the future. Having cognized an object and aroused liking or disliking towards it, the mind will stick to or oppose the particular part, point, or aspect of that object which calls forth that like or dislike. It will take up an image of that aspect as if implying the whole, feed it and proliferate on it until the overall truth of the matter is almost completely obscured. This dwelling on one particular aspect of a phenomenon due to like or dislike, then grasping onto the concept or mental image of it appearing in one’s mind, is a slip into the past. The ensuing mental proliferations regarding that image are a drift into the future. One’s knowledge and understanding of an object thus in fact becomes based on the image of that partial aspect of it which attracts one’s like or dislike, or else on a more developed image fashioned from the original one by the imagination. Thus there is no perception of the object as it actually exists in its entirety in the present moment.

The mind fall into the power of mental conditioning, which interprets the meaning of what is sensed or experienced in the light of one’s personal history or accumulated habits, e.g. by the values, attitudes and opinions which one clings to and upholds. The mind is thus said to fall into a conditioned state, unable to look with equanimity at the bare experience itself.

The mind integrates the conditioned image of experience into subsequent proliferations, thus quickening the accretion of habitual patterns of reaction.

im22.JPG (8603 bytes)The characteristics of mind mentioned above do not pertain only to the coarse and shallow matters of one’s daily life and general affairs. The emphasis in the teachings is on their manifestation at the subtle and profound level of the mental continuum. It is through their presence that ordinary, unenlightened beings are led to see things as stable and substantially real, to perceive inherent beauty or ugliness in them, to attach to conventional truths and to be unable to see phenomena in their true light, as temporal expressions of a casual flux. People accumulate habits and conditioned tendencies to misperceive existence almost from the day they are born, and go twenty or thirty years, forty or fifty years, even longer than that, without ever training themselves to break the circuit of wrong thinking. Consequently, effecting a remedy is not easy. At the very moment that one becomes conscious of an object, before one has had time to steady oneself to check the process, the mind has already switched into an habitual response. Thus the remedy in this case is not simply a matter of breaking a circuit and abrogating the conditioned process, but also necessitates a curbing of the habitual tendency and disposition of the mind to flow strongly along fixed channels. It is sati which is vital here, both initially as a sort of ground-breaker and subsequently as the element around which the other factors gather. The objectives of satipattha.gif (845 bytes)na practice are, therefore, through maintenance of sati in the present moment and always seeing things in their bare actuality, the breaking of the circuit of deluded thought, the destruction of the unwholesome causal process, and the gradual alleviation of the old conditioning, with the simultaneous creation of new dispositions in the mind.

The mind which has sati helping to maintain it in the present moment will posses charactreristics which are the complete antitheses of those shown by the mind caught in the flow of unwholesome dhammas.

im02.JPG (4874 bytes)Liking and aversion will have no opportunity to arise in it, because their presence is dependent on the mind seizing on a particular point or aspect of a matter and, through lingering on it, slipping back into the past. Liking and aversion exist only in association with a falling away from the present moment. A consequence of bare mindfulness of the presently existing state is the prevention of a dropping into the past or a floating off into the future. In the presence of sati there is also no exacerbation or strengthening of previously accumulated wrong habits.

When one is unceasingly mindful of every phenomenon arising in the present moment, one is bound to perceive certain character traits in oneself which are unpleasant or which one would ordinarily consider unacceptable. With sati, one can acknowledge and face up to these qualities as they are, without seeking to avoid them and without  any self-deception. One is thus able to cleanse them from the mind and to solve the problems which lie within oneself.

The mind with constant sati is one which possesses the qualities of purity, radiance, spaciousness, joy and freedom. It is an unconstricted and untarnished mind.

All things are established and exist according to natural laws. Figuratively speaking, the truth is revealing itself at all times, but we shut ourselves off from it; or, if we don’t, we either perceive only a distorted image of it or we deceive ourselves as to its nature altogether. The cause of that concealment, distortion and deception is immersion in theim06.JPG (4606 bytes) conditioned stream of unwholesome dhammas detailed above. Once that false step has been taken, then the old, false conditioning is even more inclined to drag one into error, thus leaving virtually no hope at all of seeing the truth. In that humanity has been steadily accumulating these habits for an immeasurably long time, the practice to remedy them and to create new dispositions in the mind is also likely to require a long time.

Whenever sati keeps up with the change in things and works constantly, without interruptions and in an assured fashion; when one doesn’t put up a barrier to the truth, or distort the images one perceives; when one is free from the power of conditioning and habit; then one is prepared to see things in their actuality and to understand the truth.

On reaching this stage, if the other faculties (particularly the wisdom-faculty) are mature and well-primed, they will join forces with sati, or else rely on it to facilitate their full functioning and so bring about nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes)nadassana, the authentic vision of phenomena which is the goal of vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes). However, to bring the faculties to the maturity demanded for such work, one has to rely on a progressive training which must include, at first, study and investigation of the teachings. Study and logical thought are then of definite assistance in the birth of the clear vision of truth.

im21.JPG (16173 bytes)Sati is not itself vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes); vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes) is wisdom (pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes)) or the use of wisdom. However, wisdom derives its opportunity to work with maximum facility from dependence on sati’s direction and support. Thus the training in sati is of major importance to vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes). One trains in sati in order to be able to fully utilize the wisdom-faculty. To train in sati is to simultaneously train in wisdom.

When speaking of sati on the practical rather than academic level, one includes in its meaning that of the wisdom with which it is conjoined, and the strength and continuity attained by sati is derived from the cooperation of the two. The pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) which works together with sati in general tasks tends to bear the characteristic called sampajannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)a or clear comprehension. On this level, pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) still appears mainly as a contributory factor in practice, cooperating and liasing with sati. In speech and conversation, for example, one tends to rely principally on sati. However, when it comes to more subtle levels of investigation, prominence shifts to pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes), and sati is relegated to a role rather like that of a servant. The pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) which function on this level is, for example, the dhamma-vicaya of the Seven Limbs of Enlightenment. But whether it is sampajannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)a or dhammavicaya, or pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) by any of its other designations, if it works to produce a clear knowledge and understanding of things in direct accordance with the true nature of their existence so as to liberate the mind then it is all vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes).

Sati performs an important task in both samatha and vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes) and a comparison between the differing roles it plays in each may help to further clarify the matters dealt with above. In samatha, sati fastens the mind onto its object, or holds the object in the mind, simply in order to enable the mind to concentrate unswervingly on the object and to grasp it firmly, to be motionlessly tranquil and free of distraction and agitation. When the mind is thus firmly and unswervingly centered on that object to the extent that it becomes uninterruptedly one with it, that state is called samabb.gif (839 bytes)ddhi and signals the achievement of samatha.

In vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes), sati focused on the object and fastens it to the mind, or maintains the mind on the object in a similar way. However, in this case, the aim is to use the mind as a place to lay the object down for examination and contemplation by the wisdom-faculty. One takes hold of the object in order to let pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) investigate and analyse it, using the firm and stable mind as one’s laboratory. The practice of samatha is like tying a wild young bull to a post with a rope. All it can do is circle around the post to which it is bound until, eventually, when its wildness has abated, it lies down meekly at the foot of the post, Here, the mind may be compared to the wild young bull, the meditation object to the post and sati to the rope. The practice of Vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes) may be compared to fixing a specimen onto a surface in order to allow a subsequent examination to proceed smoothly and with precision. Here, the means used to pin down the specimen may be compared to sati, the specimen to the meditation object, the surface to the stabilized mind and the examination to pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes).

The preceding remarks have covered the significant differences between samatha and vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes), but a few minor observations remain to be made. One such observation is that, in samatha, one’s aim is to pacify the mind; thus when sati is employed to focus on an object, it will firmly fasten onto it with the sole aim of producing a firm and unswerving concentration on that object, preventing even the slightest separation, until eventually the mind dwells contempletely and unwaveringly on the 'sing' or mental image of the meditation object. Thus samatha involves fixing on an object which is merely a perception created in the mind by the meditator.

In vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes), on the other hand, the aim is towards knowledge and understanding of the way things are. Consequently, sati foucses only on truly existent phenomena, in order for pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) to fully and clearly comprehend the nature of their existence. It attends to the way things are, right from the moment of their nascence through their gradual decline to their final disintegration. It demands an awareness of every kind of sense-impression which impinges on consciousness so that pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) can comprehend each one in its actuality, thus the object in focus is not a fixed one, and to ensure an accurate and authentic comprehension, sati must be mindful of the changing nature at every moment, to prevent the mind from lingering on any one object or aspect of an object.

Another minor point of difference to be observed is that, in samatha, sati focuses on an object that is either fixed or else moves repetitiously within fixed boundaries. In
vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes), sati can focus on an object that is moving or changing in any way. In samatha,  one selects a certain defined object as a skilful means to facilitate the pacification and stabilization of the mind. In vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes), one may focus on any object without restrictions; whatever appears in the mind and lends itself to contemplation, whatever permits the vision of truth, is valid. In fact, all may be subsumed under the headings of body, feelings, mind and dhammas or else nabb.gif (839 bytes)ma-rubb.gif (842 bytes)pa (mind and body).

Another important element of the general principles of practice, and examination of which helps to further clarify those special characteristics which distinguish vipassannabb.gif (839 bytes) from samatha, is yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra (skilful reflection). yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra is a mental factor that assists in the birth of wisdom, and is consequently of great importance in vipassana.gif (845 bytes). In the practice of samatha, although it may be a useful support on many occasions, it is of lesser significance and, on some occasions, may be redundant, ordinary consideration being sufficient. To expand on this point, in the development of samatha, if all goes smoothly and results are duly experience, there is no need to make use of yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra, However, on those occasions when the mind refuses its attention to the object, resists all restraints and insists on agitation, or else in those meditation themes, e.g. mettabb.gif (839 bytes), which require a certain measure of reflective thought, one may need a skilful means to guide the mind. In such a case, one requires the assistance of yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra, intelligent use of the thought-process, to lead the mind on the correct path towards its goal. An example would be knowing how to reflect so as to arrest anger and cause its replacement by mettabb.gif (839 bytes).

On the samatha side of practice, the yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra which may be required is solely of the kind that induces wholesome dhammas; there is no need to call upon the kind that activates the clear seeing of the true nature of things. In vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes), yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra is a singularly important step on the path to wisdom and is thus an essential principle of Dhamma. Yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra directly precedes wisdom; it is that which paves the way for wisdom, or opens up a space in which wisdom can mature.  Its characteristics and workings are so similar to those of pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes)  that, when speaking of them, there often tends to be a looseness in expression, referring by name to only one and in fact meaning both, thus causing students difficulties in distinguishing between them.

Yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra acts as a link between sati and pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes). It is that which guides the stream of thought in such a way that wisdom is able to get down to work and achieve results. To put it another way, it is that which provides wisdom with its method; it is the skilful means employed in the efficacious use of wisdom. Students of Dhamma tend to become confused because, in general parlance, the term ‘yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra’ is used to refer both to the proposal of the means or method of thought (which is its true meaning), and also to the subsequent employment of pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) in line with that method. Thus, as it is commonly used, the term implies both reflection and wisdom, in other words, ‘wise reflection’.

This ambiguity may also occur when speaking of the practical expressions of pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes). For instance, when using the term ‘dhammavicaya’ (the discrimination of dhammas), on is usually left to work out for oneself that dhammanicaya denotes the employment of the wisdom-faculty to discriminate between dhammas using one of the methods provided by yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra.

To demonstrate the process involved as a sequence of events, one could say that when sati brings an object to mind and lays it down in full view of the mind, yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra, as it were, picks it up and manipulates it in such a way that pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) may scrutinize it and then deal with it effectively. Yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra fixes on the aspects amenable to the workings of pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) and determines the course that it should take. Pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes) proceeds accordingly, and if yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra has done the ground-work well, its efforts will bear fruit. Sati is present at every stage of this process for, whenever yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra is functioning, sati is always present. It is supported by, and in turn, supports, yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra in vipassanabb.gif (839 bytes).

A comparison may be made to someone in a rowing boat out on a choppy river, picking flowers or water greens. Firstly, that person ties up the boat or anchors it in such a way that it will remain stationary at the spot where the plants grow. Then with one hand he grasps hold of the stems, gathers them together and exposes them as conveniently as possible for harvesting. With the other hand, using the tool he has prepared for the job, he cuts them off. Sati may be compared to the anchor which stabilized the boat, enabling the man to remain within reach of the plants. The boat, held stationary at a given spot, may be compared to the mind. The hand which grasps the plant stems and holds them in a convenient way is like yoniso-manasikabb.gif (839 bytes)ra. The other hand, using a sharp tool to cut off the stems, is like pannnbb.gif (847 bytes)nnnbb.gif (847 bytes)abb.gif (839 bytes).

A through knowledge of sammabb.gif (839 bytes)sati, the seventh factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, thusim09.JPG (11601 bytes) entails an examination of its characteristics and variations, its effects, its benefits, its relationship to other dhammas, and the role it plays in the practice leading to ultimate cessation of dukkha. Such an understanding of sammabb.gif (839 bytes)sati is of inestimable value to the practising Buddhist.

“This is the one way, O Bhikkhus, for the purification of beings, for the passing beyond sorrow and lamentation, for the cessation of pain and distress, namely, the Four satipattha.gif (845 bytes)na.”

go_home.JPG (1757 bytes)go_content.JPG (2130 bytes)

Copyright © 2002 Mahidol University All rights reserved.
Mahidol University Computing Center, Rama VI Road, Rajathewi, Bangkok 10400, THAILAND Tel. (662) 354-4333