What a Difference a Translation Makes: Satipatthana

Many translations of the Satipatthana Sutta can be found in today's libraries. I’ve been cycling through three translations - Bhikkhu Analayo’s Satipatthana: The Direct Path To Realization, Thich Nhat Hanh’s, Transformations and Healing: Sutra of the Establishments of Mindfulness , and a recently published Being Nature: A Down to Earth Guide to The Four Foundations of Mindfulness by Wes Nisker. Each bring a refreshing perspective. Let’s take a look.

Analayo’s Satipatthana: The Direct Path To Realization is in many ways the definitive text on the Sutta. (I’m going to stick with the Pali, rather then more common sanskrit Sutra.) This was his doctorate dissertation, which gives one the idea of the scholarship. The presentation is clear, direct, and strait forward. This is the translation we are using for the Winter Practice Period 2024. It’s easy to follow. He follows each section of the text with a critical examination of each element for historical meaning and context. This was not the first translation I read, but after reading, I feel my understanding of the terms and concepts of the text and the overall structure vastly improved.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s treatment is significantly different. He is teaching with the text, and rather then conform to the formalities of the structure, he’s directing us to the overall purpose of the text - transformation and healing. Unlike Analayo’s didactic structure, Hanh offers a practical orientation. In order to do this, he embeds the instructions of the Anapanasati Sutta. While for some, this may be confusing. The Anapansati Sutta gives meditation instructions that facilitate one’s understanding and embodiment of the Satipatthana Sutta. Similar to Satipatthana, Anapansati is organized into four tetrads or stages that correspond to the four satipatthanas, Anapanasati is basically a practical guide to mindfulness through the breath. As separate suttas it’s can be confusing the technical differences. Hahn’s Transformations and Healing text just integrates the two together into one seamless practice with commentary.

An example: for the first foundation, mindfulness of the body. his first exercise “Conscious Breathing” starts from the beginning of Satipatthana - “He goes to a forest, to the foot of a tree…he breaths in, aware that he is breathing in. He breaths out aware that he is breathing out.” His second exercise Following the Breath, reads like this, “When he breaths in a long breath, he knows, “I am breathing in a long breath.” When he breaths out a long breath, he knows, “I am breathing out a long breath.” etc. While still the Satipatthana, he commentary discusses how these two practices as well as the third, Oneness of Body and Mind, and the fourth exercise, Calming, are in fact the four practices of Anapanasati - the tetrad of kaya, the body, with the focus of the breath in the body. Following this rhythm, Hanh weaves Anapanasati into his text, commentary and practices of the Satipatthana. I find this to approach to be quite useful. His overall commentaries are insightful to say the least.

Wes Nisker, on the other hand, takes quite a vernacular approach to the translation, meaning, his language is contemporary and commonplace, and he weaves evolutionary biology and quantum science into his commentary. His initial text for Mindfulness of the body reads like this. “There is one thing that when cultivated and practiced regularly leads to deep spiritual intention, to peace, to mindfulness and clear comprehension, to vision and knowledge, to a happy life here and now, and to the culmination of wisdom and awakening. And what is that one thing? It is mindfulness centered on the body.” One can easily see that rather then providing a translation of the text, he is paraphrasing the ideas of the text in a manner to best help the ready make meaning out of the principles being offered. He is teaching the basics of Buddhism. The book is thus for a general audience, and in this way, in contrast to the Analayo translation, he is orientated to providing sense-making imagery that helps the reader become familiar with the concepts and terms. He then goes on to explain “no-self’ or “non-self” (anatta, though he does not use the sanskrit), He discusses the concepts of chi, from the Chinese, Nephesh, from the Hebrew, and psyche, or breath-soul, from the Greek. Then he quotes Jack Kerouac, “I breath in ignorance and wisdom breath, and I breath golden mind essence with compassion breath, evenly, deliberately, peacefully, - Fumigating the universe with Mind Essence.” Using the structure of the text, he paints a picture of the principles of the Satipatthana, without staying particularly close to the text. He brings in contemporary and familiar authors achieve his goal of making this text accessible.

In this way, Nisker’s text is a fascinating read, with broad strokes of evolutionary biology. He paints a picture of Gautama Buddha as a scientist eons before his time, and associates Satipatthana with a postmodern evolutionary perspective of the cosmos and consciousness. Certainly, we’ll worth the read. He too provides exercises that generally move through the similar pattern as Satipatthana, But here again, he takes broad brushstrokes and expands practices such as the four elements meditation or the charnel ground meditation. In this way, the reader is bathed with Buddhist principles that are accessible and perceptive. Does one conclude with a clear understanding of Satipatthana? Not exactly.

With great delight it’s been a wonderful journey through these three brilliant perspectives of Satipatthana. As a scholar, I loved Analayo’s academic depth. As a method for developing compassionate interbeing, Thich Nhat Hanh’s text offers practices that are profoundly healing. For a glimpse of the potential for Buddhist scholarship to fight into contemporay science and consciousness studies, Nisker brings together many a diverse perspective into a novel universe of detail and wonder.

Meanwhile, on my cushion, Satipatthana is still the practice of Mindfulness - Sati. Mindful of body, feeling, mind objects and dhammas. In this way, the texts are simply commentaries. The power is in the practice. I continue to be mindful of as much as I can of what is arising, moment to moment. For this, it’s my own attention that is where the action is. The books simply lie on the table, peacefully waiting for the next reader. Me, I’m remembering and choosing to be mindful, over and over