Identity and Experience_Hamilton_1996

The attitude towards the body
I73
Likewise, in the Satipa!/ziina Samyutta, we read: "The four foundations of
mindfulness, if cultivated and developed, are conducive to complete
indifference, passionlessness, cessation, tranquility, highest knowledge,
complete enlightenment, to nibbiina".15 The text goes on to state: "Whoever
neglects the four foundations of mindfulness also neglects the noble path
which is the way to the complete destruction of unsati~factoriness".~~
The four bases, or meditational objects, for the mindfulness exercises are
the body (kiiya), feelings (uedani), states of mind or thoughts (citta) and
abstract mental objects (dhammq. We shall see that in this context volitions
are included in the general term citta. According to the sources which
describe the practice of sati in detail, all four of these are to be practised in
precisely the same way. But we nevertheless read in the Awttara Nika'ya that
mindfulness concerning the body (fiyagati satz) is sufficient in itself for the
attaining of Nirvana." We shall see from the more detailed descriptions of
sati that the point is to achieve liberating insight into selflessness. The
practice of all four of the exercises is advocated, but insight can be gained
simply by meditating on the body. It is interesting to recall here that
according to Buddhist tradition, it was observing the impermanent nature
of the human body, through seeing in turn an ill person, an old person and
a corpse, that prompted the bodhisatta Gotama to go forth from home on
the journey that was to lead to his Enlightenment.
The Sah)atJhZna Suttas contain detailed descriptions of the method to be
followed in the mindfulness exercises. All procedures are first of all to be
followed using the bhiMu's own (ajhattam) body, feelings, states of mind and
abstract mental objects as the object of meditation. Then, the same
procedures are to be followed on external (bahiddhii) body, feelings, states of
mind and abstract mental objects. In this context, the term bahiddhii refers
not just to what is 'external' to oneself in general, as it did in descriptions of
the riipakkhandha (and the use here of @a, not riipa, for 'body' probably
reflects this), but to the body, feelings, states of mind and abstract mental
objects of someone else.18 With regard to the body, the bhikWlu is first of all
to centre his attention on the body qua body, and not on the feelings or
anything else he might associate with the body but which are the subject of
another specific mindfulness exercise. The techniques are essentially
identical for the other three meditational subjects mentioned above, and in
this way each of the subjects of meditation is considered to be distinct from
the others. With regard to the body, we read (and the form is the same for
the other subjects of meditation):
In this [exercise], bhikhus, a bhikkhu proceeds contemplating the body qua
body, ardent (i.e. conscientious), attentive and mindful, in order to remove
[himself] from the covetousness and misery (abh~~omanasram) in the world.lg
I have translated abhijjhZdomanassam as 'covetousness and misery', but
the term clearly refers to desire, which binds one to samszra (sa~sira is