Considering Sati of the Satipatthana Sutta
To practice meditation is to look deeply in order to see into the essence of things. With insight and understanding we can realize liberation, peace and joy.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Sati can be translated as mindfulness or awareness. Patthana is Pali for foundation or cause. Satipatthana, Sutta is the Pali discourse recording Gautama' Buddha’s instructions for mindfulness. Often said to be the most succinct description of the practice leading to Buddha’s awakening, the Satipatthana Sutta offers a detailed articulation of mindfulness in four domains - kaya meaning body, vedana meaning feeling, citta translated as mind and dhammas meaning mind objects. Keep in mind that before Japanese Zen, Chinese Chan, and Indian Dyana practice which was written in Sanskrit, there was Pali, the language that Buddha’s words were first recorded in some 150 to 300 years after he passed away 25 centuries ago. The teachings of Satipatthana appear in several discourses in the Pali Canon. The Mahasatipatthana Sutta is almost identical with an additional extensive treatment of the four noble truths. Today, mindfulness is embedded in contemporary language and practice, thus, a brief excursion back into the original teaching seems like a potent inquiry. Our Winter Practice Period 2024 is devoted to deepening our understanding of this practice through this seminal text. The translation we will be using is found in Satipatthana: The Direct Path To Realization by Analayo
Bhikku Analyo’s discussion of the word Sati insightful. Sati is ‘present moment awareness’. We usually use mindfulness for this, but the inferences around the meaning of the word tell a deeper story. Sati has a sense of ‘memory’ which is best exemplified by Ananda, the Buddha’s attendant, who was able to recall most of the Gautama Buddha’s discourse from memory. Memory or recollection adds a dimension to the meaning of sati. When sati is present, memory will function well, which is particularly useful given how easily one can forget to pay attention to the present moment (think of mind-wandering during meditation!). Sati is not only required to take in the present moment, but in order to bring this moment back to attention, to “re-collect.” I am reminded of Jun Po Roshi’s Ninth Koan of Mondo Facilitaton - “What must you do to bring this realization forth right now and at any time in your daily life? Remember and Choose! In this way sense, returning to present moment awareness - sati.
Sati also appears in the Eightfold Path as samma sati - ‘right mindfulness’ and it’s the first of the Awakening Factors, “If the mindfulness awakening factor is present in him, he knows “there is the mindfulness awakening factor in me…” In this usage sati involves mindfulness, clear knowledge, inclining the mind toward sati. The seven Awakening Factors described in the Satipattana Sutta.
Looking deeper into the function of sati, one could say that the task of the satipattana is to observe and know, rather then to take action or do anything. Action is the domain of ‘right effort’ (samma vayama), and ‘right action, (samma kammanta), both of Eightfold Path. With sati, the mind calms, allowing for the necessary information for wise action with wise effort to emerge.
Contemporary teachers utilized this quality sati., uninvolved and detached receptivity. One could easily associate sati with shinkantaza of the Soto Zen notion of ‘just sitting’. In Mondo Facilitation, Jun Po Roshi’s thirteenth koan includes the instruction ‘stop and drop,’ then listen for what you really care about, what deeply matters. This receptivity to Clear Deep Heart/Mind allows for the necessary conditions such that one can respond rather than reacting. Again, sati is receptive mindfulness of the present. Responding is “right action with ‘right effort.”
Venerable Bhikkhu Analayo shares that “the non-interfering quality of sait is required to enable one to clearly observe the building up of reactions and their underlying motives.” He says that “the detached receptivity of sati enables one to step back from the situation at hand and thereby to become an unbiased observer of one’s subjective involvement and of the entire situation.” I am reminded of Robert Kegan’s description of ego development in which one moves from subjective experience to having perspective upon one’s subjective experience. This is not only objective, it allows one to see beyond the subjective into the situation or context. as well as to consider one’s own interior experience without the initial reactive charge often so quick to occur. (One might also see this similar to shifting from a system one thinking - instant, instinctual, to a system two response - reflective, posited by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahnemann.
Sati also has an element of ‘bare attention’ in that before the mind conceptualizes any object or event, there is a split second of bare cognition. “Through bare sati,” says Analayo, one is able to see things just as they are, unadulterated by habitual reactions and projections. He goes on to say “By bringing the perceptual process into the full light of awareness, one becomes conscious of automatic and habitual responses to perceptual data. Full awareness of these automatic response is necessary preliminary step to changing detrimental mental habits. I’m hearing quite a bit of Jun Po Roshi’s Emotional Awareness Intervention Koans instructions.
Finally, sati is essential for the development of deep concentration. While sati and concentration are not the same, concentration is a narrowing in or down to a single object of attention. Sati enhances this experience, with ‘presence of mind’, and thus sati in addition to concentration is key ingredient of insight.
I hope this discussion of sati is serve to increase your curiousity about spending a few weeks together with the Satipatthana Sutta. Together, as a sangha, attending to key concepts of Buddhist thought will likely help us serve the dharma as Thich Nhat Hanh notes in the opening quote, hasten our liberation and bring peace and joy.
Winter Practice Period 2024 starts January 20th, 2024
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All passages are quoted from Analayo, Satipatthana: The Direct Path of Realization (2003), Windhorse Publications.