Here we summarise the practice of satipaṭṭhāna. The essence of the practice is extremely simple — be present to this, now. When we do this continuously over time, we find that this, now, changes; this, now, is different, now. And so we enter into the perception of impermanence (anicca-saññā).

How can we continue this practice in our workaday lives, outside retreat? And can we keep our insights (ñāṇa) that we may have realised during retreat? If insight is not our possession, how can we take it with us? These are the kind of issues we examine this morning.
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Vipassanā bhāvanā (the development of insight) has two aspects — seeing (dassana) and understanding (ñāṇa). Seeing entails a direct engagement with this present event; understanding entails a stepping back from the immediate present to appreciate the patterns of events as they come and go over time. It is this second movement — understanding — that opens up insight.
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This morning we look at how the Buddha describes the various imbalances of energy that can characterise how practice — energy that is too slack or too tense, constricted internally or distracted externally.

To be in a state of imbalance is normal; how do we learn to balance the mind? First, by recognising and understanding the imbalance, which already stimulates mindfulness (sati), the balancing factor; and then by trying various strategies appropriate to the condition.
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Tonight we examine the Buddha’s teaching of not-self (anattā), contained in his second discourse, Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta (The not-self characteristic). This is possibly the most obscure and difficult — in the sense of counter-intuitive — aspect of the Buddha’s teaching. It was so in the Buddha’s time, and continues to be so today. The Buddha introduced it only when he thought his students were ready for it.
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This morning we discuss cetanā, “intention,” “choice,” “decision to act.” We are constantly making choices, most of which become habits and disappear beneath the surface of awareness. The realm of choice is centrally important because it is the major way in which we shape or form our lives. The arena of choice is the arena of moral responsibility.

How do we get to understand the choices that we make? By learning to aim our awareness more accuracy. This, in turn, allows us to cultivate a greater skill and flexibility in our meditation practice.
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Tonight we examine the Buddha’s teaching of saddhā, normally translated “faith” or “confidence,” and its relationship to paññā “wisdom” or “understanding.” For us, faith is essentially about belief, but for the Buddha, saddhā represents the heart relationship to reality — how the heart is moved to act because of what it sees to be true. Faith partners wisdom, rather than being opposed to it. And faith, in its maturity, is virtually indistinguishable from wisdom.
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This morning we are looking at how we can track the state of our citta. Citta is a key technical term used by the Buddha. It could be translated as “mind,” “heart,” “heart-mind,” or even “soul,” in the non-theological sense of that word. In the context of our practice, citta represents our inner state; how we are, at this time. It is intimately connected to the body, and is in a state of constant change. While the state of our citta may be quite subtle, often we are moved to contemplate it when we find ourselves disturbed by emotion. Here we discuss using emotion as a meditation object.
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We continue our examination of impermanence, here seeing it in terms of our relationship to the present. We think we are “permanent,” lasting unchanged over time, and this perception blinds us to the real nature of what is happening, now. And so in our practice we learn to see the freshness, the uniqueness, of things, and discover the impossibility of ever returning to our meditation object after a period of distraction.
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Our addiction to thinking creates a major barrier to settling into samādhi, “unification” or “concentration.” Often we try to push thought away, or simply endure it as an unpleasant fact of life. But the essence of this practice, according to Mahāsī Sayādaw, is to “note,” or be deliberately aware of, whatever is predominant in any of the six sense fields, now. If thinking is currently predominant, then thinking should be our meditation object.

How can we become objective spectators of our subjective mental processes? This morning we conduct some experiments in using the thought-stream as a meditation object, and discuss the results.
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Here we look at the cultivation of the “perception of impermanence” (anicca-saññā), which the Buddha sees as central to the awakening of insight (vipassanā). The perception of impermanence is meant to reveal an existential anxiety, where we see that our sense of “self” — of who we think we are and what we think the world is — is a product of our continual attempts to avoid facing the groundlessness of things. The perception of impermanence is the first step into facing that groundlessness, and finding the courage to step into it.
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This morning we move onto the third satipaṭṭhāna, that of vedanā, usually translated “feeling.” We explore what we mean by feeling, and try to come to an understanding of what the Buddha means by “vedanā.” Vedanā can be seen as the affective aspect of experience, the capacity of any given experience to move us in some way — to provoke a response. For the Buddha, feeling and response are inextricably linked. To understand what we do, we must understand what — and how — we feel.
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We continue to examine the nature of mindfulness, beginning with its inescapably ethical function of “guarding” (rakkhati), creating the conditions whereby we can distinguish between the wholesome/skilful (kusala) and the unwholesome/unskilful (akusala). From there we look at how the Buddha speaks of the process of becoming mindful — of “establishing” (upaṭṭhahati) mindfulness, and what this tells us of the nature of mindfulness. Finally, we look at the relationship between mindfulness and the work of “insight” (vipassanā) and equanimity (upekkhā).
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This morning we experiment with breathing as our meditation object. We learn to experience breathing as air element (vayo dhātu) — the movements within the body associated with inhalation and exhalation — and cultivate a sense of detail and precision in tracking these movements.
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What do we mean by “mindfulness” (sati)? Tonight we look at how the Buddha speaks of mindfulness in Mahāsīhanāda Sutta (Greater discourse on the lions roar M12), and in particular the relationship between mindfulness and wisdom. This may explain why satipaṭṭhāna is regarded as a wisdom practice.
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The foundation of satipaṭṭhāna (establishing mindfulness) is the tracking (anupassanā), or contemplation, of our experience of body. As we remain present to physical experience over time, we learn to drop beneath our concepts of body to its direct, sensual impact. What we normally take to be “my body” becomes, as we go deeper, different manifestations of the four elements of earth, air, fire and water.
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Tonight we examine the opening section of Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, to gain an understanding of how the Buddha conceives the cultivation of mindfulness as a practice. Satipaṭṭhāna, establishing, applying or cultivating mindfulness, is a meditation method which is not limited to any particular meditation object or technique. Then what is it?
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Today we introduce the method of meditation we are practising during this retreat. By applying a specific method to our investigation of experience we practise what the Buddha calls yoniso manasikāra, “appropriate attention.” Our meditation method is that created by Mahāsī Sayādaw of Burma (1904-1982), which is structured by his division of experience into primary and secondary object, along with the fundamental activities of noting, naming and noticing.
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