The Buddhist Path to Enlightenment (study)
by Dr Kala Acharya | 2016 | 118,883 words
This page relates ‘Power of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness’ of the study on the Buddhist path to enlightenment. The Buddha was born in the Lumbini grove near the present-day border of India and Nepal in the 6th century B.C. He had achieved enlightenment at the age of thirty–five under the ‘Bodhi-tree’ at Buddha-Gaya. This study investigates the teachings after his Enlightenment which the Buddha decided to teach ‘out of compassion for beings’.
1.4. Power of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness
The mindfulness, which is capable of distinguishing (=keeping in mind)corporeal dhammas, which is capable of discarding on wrong knowing, wrong perceiving, wrong viewing called vipallāsadhammas (illusions) on “all bodily constituents (rūpakāya)” as subha (comely ones), is accomplished through the noble path. It is, therefore, called kāyānupassanā.
1. The mindfulness, which is capable of distinguishing (=keeping in mind) feeling, which is capable of discarding on wrong knowing, wrong perceiving, wrong viewing called vipallāsa-dhammas (illusions) on “feeling” as sukha (agreeable ones), is accomplished through the Noble Path. It is, therefore, called vedanānupassanā.
2. The mindfulness, which is capable of distinguishing (=keeping in mind) consciousness, which is capable of discarding on wrong knowing, wrong perceiving, wrong viewing called vipallāsa-dhammas (illusions) on “consciousness” as nicca (permanent ones), is accomplished through the noble path. It is, therefore, called cittānupassanā.
3. The mindfulness, which is capable of distinguishing (=keeping in mind) dhamma phenomena, which is capable of discarding on wrong knowing, wrong perceiving, wrong viewing called vipallā-sadhammas (illusions) on “dhamma phenomena” as atta (self), is accomplished through the Noble Path. It is, therefore, called dhammānupassanā.[1]
Due to occurrence of capable of finishing four kinds of functions by a single mindfulness which associates with the noble path-knowledge, it has got designations as kāyānupassanāsatipaṭṭhāna, vedanānupassanāsati-paṭṭhāna, cittānupassanā satipaṭṭhāna, dhammānupassanāsatipaṭṭhāna, respectively. It is, therefore, explained that “lokuttaramaggakkhaņe pana eka citteyeva labbhanti -at arising of the supramundane poble path (-moment) those are available in one mind moment only”.[2]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
MA I, p. 246
[2]:
Vbh-A II, p. 273, 274