Sati—Awareness Sati means awareness, the witnessing of every reality pertaining to mind and matter within the framework of the body. Only with proper understanding and wisdom does it become satipatthāna. tthāna means getting established. Patthāna means getting established in a proper way, which is in different ways, or pakārena: Pakārena jānātī’ti paññā. Paññā, wisdom, jānāti, understands, reality from different angles. Witnessing from only one angle is partial, distorted truth. You have to try to witness the totality, which is done by observing from different angles. Then it is pakārena, and it becomes paññā. Thus sati becomes patthāna when it is joined with paññā. Whenever the Buddha uses the words sati or sato, he also uses sampajāno, as in the Sutta: ātāpī sampajāno satimā Ātāpī means ardently. However sati is perfect only with wisdom, sampajāno, with the understanding of the nature of reality at the experiential level—that is, its basic characteristic of anicca, arising and passing. Because its nature is to be impermanent, the characteristic of dukkha, misery or suffering, is also inherent. Practising with paññā, you will understand dukkha with your own experience. Every pleasant experience, every pleasant situation is anicca. Everything within the framework of the body changes into something unpleasant, so it is nothing but dukkha. The law of nature is such. Yet the tendency of the mind is to get attached and cling to a pleasant experience, and when it is gone you feel so miserable. This is not a philosophy but a truth to be experienced by pativedhana: dividing, dissecting, disintegrating, dissolving you reach the stage of bhanga, total dissolution. You witness the solidified, material structure, the body, as actually nothing but subatomic particles, kalāpas, arising and passing. Similarly the mind and mental contents manifest as very solidified, intensified emotions—anger, fear, or passion—which overpower you. Vipassana, pativedhana, helps you. With piercing, penetrating paññā you divide, dissect, disintegrate to the stage where this intense emotion is nothing but wavelets. The whole material and mental structures and the mental contents are nothing but wavelets, wavelets, anicca, anicca. Then the reality about this I or mine or myself becomes clear. They are just conventional words. There is no I to possess this mind-matter structure, these material and mental phenomena. Mere mind and matter constantly interact, constantly influence each other, and become a cause for the arising of each other, resulting in currents, cross-currents, and under-currents going on in what you call I. Anattā becomes clear at the experiential level. Anicca, dukkha, anattā—that is, impermanence, misery, and egolessness—should not just be taken as a sectarian philosophy. They don’t apply just to Buddhists. Everyone, man or woman, of any colour or religion, is merely a constant interaction of mind and matter. Out of ignorance, enormous attachment develops to this false ego, this I, which brings nothing but misery. The law of nature becomes so clear with pativedhana, with piercing, penetrating paññā. Without this, mere awareness will not help because you will always remain with the apparent truth, and you won’t understand the real, ultimate truth. A circus girl on a tightrope is very aware of every step she takes. Her life and parts of her body are in danger. Still she is far from liberation, because she is only with apparent truth, not with paññā inside. The sati is not perfect, because it has to be established with the wisdom of anicca, dukkha, anattā at the experiential level. Satipatthāna is sati with paññā. Then it plays a very important part in the practice of Dhamma, of witnessing the truth. The Satipatthāna discourse is for this purpose. In the ordinary ten-day discourses, you hear of five friends: saddhā, faith; viriya, effort; sati, awareness; samādhi, concentration; and paññā, wisdom. They were called indriyas by the Buddha. Indra means ruler, king. It is the name of the king of the celestial world. The sense doors are one type of indriya: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. They are called this because they keep mastering and overpowering us. The five friends, or faculties which we master, are another type, and sati is one of these. These indriyas were also called forces or strengths (balas). For every meditator these five are very important strengths, and sati is among them. It is so important. Sati is also a very important factor of enlightenment. With every one of the seven factors of enlightenment you start with awareness, and you are aware of it till you reach the final goal. However sati is important and fruitful only if used properly, as explained by the Buddha in the teachings of this Satipatthāna Sutta. (Sourse:-Satipatthana Sutta discourse by -S. N. Goenkaji) For attending ten day courses and details follow link vridhamma.org dhamma.org
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 03:03:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015