Satipatthana 1 - Introduction

This Dharma Talk is the first in a multi-series course introducing the Satipatthana Sutta, the Establishments of Mindfulness teaching offered by the Buddha 2600 years ago. The course covers the entire teaching in small, simple steps and was taught to a live group on Zoom in 2021.

Transcript

Dear beloved ones,

Today we will start exploring the Satipatthana Sutta,

Often translated as the four foundations of mindfulness,

Or some other translations would go to the establishments of mindfulness.

Here are some different terms,

But the Sati is mindfulness,

Patthana,

Establishment,

Foundation,

Basis of mindfulness.

And then Sutta is discourse of the Buddha.

And so this week I sent out three different translations of the first few paragraphs,

Because before we even get into the content,

I want us to all be grounded in the fact that these are translations.

And to always just remember,

No matter how exact certain words sound,

They then pass down through time,

Through languages,

Through many cultures,

Through many evolutions of Buddhist traditions even.

So I'm going to put the first translation from Thich Nhat Hanh into the chat box,

And then the next two.

The next is from Bhikkhu Sujato,

Who has this website Sutta Central.

Sometimes there's some interesting variations he does that I appreciate.

And then Bhikkhu Analayo,

A German monk who's done a lot with translations of the suttas as well.

We're going to draw on some of his work as well.

And I wonder if we could have three volunteers,

One for each version.

Is anyone willing to read?

Judy Sherry,

And we'll see who will read the third when we get there.

Judy can you read the first one?

But Sherry will do the second.

So I have heard.

At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Kurus,

Near the Kuru town named Kama Sadama.

There the Buddha addressed the mendicants.

Mendicants?

Venerable sir,

They replied,

The Buddha said this,

Mendicants,

The four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the path to convergence.

They are in order to purify sentient beings,

To get past sorrow and crying,

To make an end of pain and sadness,

To end the cycle of suffering and to realize extinguishment.

Thank you.

Should I actually read the one that starts with I heard these words?

Thanks.

I heard these words of the Buddha one time when he was living at Kama Sadama,

A market town of the Kuru people.

The Buddha addressed the bhikkhus.

Oh bhikkhus,

And the bhikkhus replied,

Venerable lord,

The Buddha said,

Bhikkhus,

There is a most wonderful way to help living beings realize purification,

Overcome directly grief and sorrow and pain and anxiety,

Travel the right path and realize nirvana.

This is the four establishments of mindfulness.

Thank you.

Continue.

Could we have one Nancy?

Oh.

Did somebody else want to read?

Thus have I heard.

On one occasion,

The blessed one was living in the Kuru country at a town of the Kurus named Kama Sadhamma.

There he addressed the monks thus,

Monks,

Venerable sir,

They replied.

The blessed one said this,

Monks,

This is the direct path for the purification of beings,

For the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation,

For the disappearance of dukkha and discontent,

For acquiring the true method for the realization of nibbana,

Namely the four satipatahanas.

Thank you.

I'd like to invite us to just take,

I don't know,

A minute or two,

If you can read in the chat box if you'd like,

To just look at some of these nuances of how different these three variations are in some ways,

Even though they're also quite similar.

And if you'd rather just tune into whatever the experience is of listening to those three variations,

You don't have to read them,

Just whatever helps you to process.

Let's just take a few minutes to.

The first one in the chat box is Thich Nhat Hanh.

The second is Ajahn Sujato from Sutta Central.

The third is Analiya,

Which is in your email,

So don't worry about remembering anything.

But yes,

The first is Thich Nhat Hanh.

Memento.

Analiya.

Crystal.

So instead of having sort of the back and forth of I give a talk and then we open it up I want to open it up right away just to see what you notice in reading and hearing these three different versions.

Does anything strike you overall or are there particular variations of words that you find interesting?

Is this new for you thinking of these suttas as translated differently by different people?

So I'll open it up here.

Hello,

Ismibaweinin.

So we're all going to have sometimes similar,

Sometimes different responses to the individual ones,

But as we're beginning this study,

And we're not going to do a lot of academic study,

But we are going to pull apart certain words and then see how do they land in the body,

What do we do with them.

I just wanted to get us grounded in this is all translation.

Because I know sometimes I'll read something and I receive the words as if they're fixed,

As if they're permanent,

And yet these reminders are like no.

Even the quote unquote best translators in the world,

It's all still translation.

And yet that doesn't mean that there's no substance to the words.

But we have to hold them lightly.

So I know for myself,

I even just found it interesting Thich Nhat Hanh who doesn't use that much of the Sanskrit or Pali,

He still uses obikus.

He doesn't translate bhikkhu.

Whereas the others do into mendicants or monks.

And there's something I find really lovely about leaving the bhikkhus in there.

And some teachers I know like to say,

You know,

The Buddha was talking to monks at the time,

So he said,

Oh monks,

Obikus.

But if he was talking to lay people,

He would say,

Oh,

Disciples of the Buddha,

Or he would address whoever he's talking to.

But the monks are the ones who recorded the teachings given to the monks more than anyone else.

So that's why we have so many talks that begin with the Buddha addressing the monks,

The bhikkhus,

Right?

It doesn't mean that the Buddha's teachings are all for monastics or just the monks.

It means that the monks recorded,

Remembered,

Memorized the teachings given to them.

And so those form the body of what was passed down.

And the Buddha gave a lot of his teachings,

Of course,

To the monks.

But I know some people who,

When they see bhikkhus in a sutta,

And I do this sometimes,

You may have noticed,

Intentionally translate that as practitioner.

Even though it's not an accurate translation of the word,

The spirit can help open.

So we'll do some playing.

And then,

Yeah,

You know,

Some people just translated,

Thich Nhat Hanh translated the four establishments of mindfulness,

Satipatthana,

Into the four establishments of mindfulness.

Whereas Bhikkhunalaya leaves it as the four Satipatthanas.

You know,

When do we bring in a Pali or Sanskrit word like nirvana and dharma have become commonplace even in English,

But others haven't.

And so this whole dance,

I want us to get a bit of a bit of fluency,

A bit of comfort with it,

Just just a little bit of the textual stuff.

Because I find it's like a map.

If we have a number of reference points,

It's so much easier to use.

And so a few different translations can sometimes give a few reference points.

I know there's so many other words,

I really move my heart in Thay's translation.

And then near the end,

It says to travel the right path.

And something about the right path,

It actually makes my heart pull back of like,

Oh,

That sounds so,

You know,

Judgmental to other paths or something.

And then I get to another translation that says for acquiring the true method,

Oh method,

For me,

That feels more open.

And I don't have to just choose one,

No one has to just choose one.

But if something feels like a snag,

A closure,

There's always an invitation of,

Oh,

I wonder what another translation is.

So I hope that we'll be able to pull this into our exploration.

Just looking at the chat.

Most translations of the suttas begin with,

So have I heard,

Not the words of the Buddha,

But what I've heard exactly because the recitations and transcriptions of the suttas started by monks sitting around and saying,

Hey,

I heard the Buddha say this,

Let me tell you,

I've memorized it,

Let's all learn it.

So that's part of the characteristic of a traditional discourse from the Buddha.

And it's one thing to hear these words over and over again,

But to then to go,

Wait a minute,

Someone heard this and memorized it,

And then taught it to others.

And then others,

And then others for thousands of years.

You know,

There's this,

There's so,

Thus have I heard or so have I heard,

I mean,

That actually says volumes that connects us into this mouth to ear.

The oral transmission that has never stopped,

That has just been added with the written transmission of the teachings of the Buddha.

And just sometimes it's nice to have a moment of gratitude or of amazement.

Wow.

And sometimes I like to just open my hands like,

Wow,

I get to receive this.

Such blessing.

And just amazing that,

You know,

Through all the political upheaval and floods and fires and wars of all the transmissions and teachings that have been lost,

Some have been carried on.

And these ones I find pretty special.

So we can also bring this,

You know,

We don't have to get into analytical dissection,

But big picture holding.

What does it mean to have translations of teachings from thousands of years ago that somehow help us to live beautifully even today?

And that so many different people find different ways to access,

To give nuance,

To translate,

To translate through our lived practice,

Not just academic translations of words,

Because really our life,

Our practice is a translation of the Dhamma.

How we understand it,

How we,

Especially if we,

You know,

Are part of a sangha,

Where we talk about it,

Where we maybe mentor someone,

Where we tell a family member,

Hey,

You know,

If you're having a hard time,

Why don't you try this breathing thing I learned?

There's so many ways that we all are translating and transmitting the Dharma,

These discourses,

The living spirit in it.

And so while there are so many suttas that are just,

I mean,

Literally there's like,

If you stacked just from the Theravada Pali tradition,

If you stacked all the books that are sort of the canonical discourses,

They're just like,

You'd have a stack,

You can't even see my arms in the video screen.

I think I've seen one before,

It was at least a few feet high.

And that's,

You know,

The thinnest paper,

Thousands and thousands of pages.

And then when you get to the Mahayana tradition,

Where there are,

There's plenty of good scholarship that's pretty clear that there's a lot of places where it says,

Thus have I heard to use the formulation.

But these suttas often arose sort of three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Eight hundred years after the time of the Buddha,

Seems to be pretty solidly,

At least an academic take on it.

And still,

I mean,

This is a very beautiful,

This is a community of practitioners,

A living body of wisdom that continue to grow and generate and be passed down.

And we're part of it.

We're so lucky.

So I want us to invite us just to go back and see if there's a little phrase in any of these versions that brings any sort of inspiration.

You're welcome to just copy and paste it and post it into the chat if you have access to chat.

And if not,

You're also welcome to speak a little phrase.

Just take a moment.

Because the sutta is promising a lot.

Is there any particular part of it that calls you that inspires you?

Absolutely bowing in.

I really liked the overcome directly grief and sorrow.

I just like I like the word directly like making it sound actually doable.

Thank you.

So I'll just start reading some of these out the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the path to convergence and the cycle of suffering.

The disappearance of dukkha and discontent.

This is the most wonderful way to help living beings realize overcome directly grief and sorrow and pain and anxiety travel the right path and realize Nirvana.

A most wonderful way to help living beings.

The disappearance of discontent.

Have a nice poem that we're making.

So as we we're not quite at the end of our time,

But I want to pull back again from the specific words into this context of the Buddha here is saying if you do these practices,

You can overcome transcend and surmount dukkha dissatisfaction suffering sorrow.

It's one thing to hear these words over and over again and sometimes you like yeah,

That's great and then have a part of the heart mind stream that goes I can't do that.

That's way too much for me.

Maybe I'll just try try a little bit or not good enough or oh,

Yeah,

Maybe in like a few years I'll get that and then a few years into our practice we go.

Oh,

It's a lot harder than I thought so I wonder I'm going to pause the recording in a moment and I'd like to open up for conversation around.

You know,

What what do we have some deeper conditioning around our beliefs of what's actually possible with this practice some of it more helpful some of it less helpful,

But we need to actually look at it to know what's informing our practice.

So I want to open up some conversation for this but first I'll just invite three sounds the bell.