Four Foundations of Mindfulness

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A Reader recently wrote:
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I was recently reading something and the author mentioned the “Four Foundations of Mindfulness.” What are these? The same as the Noble Truths?

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My Answer:
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No, the four foundations are not the Noble Truths, but they may look familiar to something we’ve seen before.

Theravada Buddhists use an ancient text called the Satipatthana Sutta, which means “foundation of mindfulness.” Other groups that rely heavily on meditation also use these teachings. The teachings contained in that sutta is more commonly known as the ‚ÄúFour Foundations of Mindfulness.‚Äù The full document is too long to include here, but I will include it in this week’s ‚ÄúWeekly Buddhism.‚Äù As usual, though, you don’t need to read the entire thing to learn the basic idea.

The four foundations are different types and sub-types of contemplation subjects to consider while meditating. Yes, it’s another ‚ÄúBuddhist List‚Äù:

1. Contemplation on the Body, which includes contemplations on in-and-out breathing, posture, clear understanding, impurities, elements, and nine stages of corpses.
2. Contemplation on the Emotions
3. Contemplation on the Mind.
4. Contemplation on the Teachings/Dharma, including contemplation on hindrances, aggregates, sense bases, enlightenment factors, and the Four Noble Truths.

If you want to compare these to the 40 meditation subjects we covered last month, you’ll see there is a lot of duplication. It’s essentially a different sect’s viewpoint on the same basic idea.

40 Meditation Themes Part 1 & 2:
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/229
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/231

Read the Satipatthana Sutta at: http://www.buddhanet.net/imol/mahasati/index.htm or next weekend in Issue #6 of the Weekly Buddhism.
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