Talk Series

The Satipatthana Sutta

Various locations | Jan 2010

The Satipatanna sutta is the fundamental teaching by the Buddha, revered by all Buddhist traditions, on the application of mindfulness.  Mindulness is the the basic teaching that connects the isolated individual to his/her internal and external environments.  Through a steady integration of mindfulness our unconscious tendencies become conscious, and we discover a preexisting awareness and interconnectedness to life that changes everything.  The four applications of mindfulness (body, feelings, mind, and mind objects) as well as the underlying principles behind it are explored thoroughly through talks, discussions, dyads, and homework.

Talks in this series

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Foundations

    by  Rodney Smith | Jan 19, 2010

    The Satipatthana Sutta is the application of the Buddha's teaching.  After the view has been offered and an intention has been aroused, it answers the question, "What do I do now?" 

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Selfless Application

    by  Rodney Smith | Feb 2, 2010
    Let the application of the teaching be informed by the root principle of selflessness and each mindful exercise manifest that selflessness through bare attention and total acceptance.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Moving the Principle Through the Application

    by  Rodney Smith | Feb 16, 2010
    Guiding the application of the teaching from the sense of self and not the true principle of selflessness is the single greatest mistake made in Buddhist practice and distorts all the revelations.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Wise Effort

    by  Rodney Smith | Mar 2, 2010
    It is important to learn the meditation technique, but to adhere too strictly to the form of the practice can mask self-doubt. Risking doing it wrong begins the “art” of practice, and insight develops within the art of quiet observation free from the pressure of failure.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Understanding Mindfulness

    by  Rodney Smith | Mar 16, 2010

    Mindfulness is at the heart of the Buddha’s teaching but few people understand how it evolves from the simple practice of being mindful into a mature, full-embodied awareness.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: From Mindfulness to Awareness

    by  Rodney Smith | Mar 30, 2010

    Mindfulness is the tool, awareness is the result. All we need to do to convert the tool into the result is get out of the way.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Body as the Body

    by  Rodney Smith | Apr 13, 2010

    The body is a residing stranger to most of us.  We think we know what it is, but have not given ourselves to it thoroughly so that it reveals its secrets.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: The Image of the Body

    by  Rodney Smith | Apr 27, 2010
    We continually misrepresent the body by forcing it to be governed, controlled, and defined by the mind. When we set the body free from imposed boundaries we find a natural and intelligent life-energy that knows its way.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: The Body in Movement

    by  Rodney Smith | May 11, 2010

    Movement integrates our insights into living reality rather than theoretical assumptions. When the insights become part of the living tissue of our body, a natural spontaneity arises.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Integrating Body and Actions

    by  Rodney Smith | May 25, 2010

    Once we have accepted the fact that we cannot control the dharma, our practice opens up to the full catastrophe of living.  We open first by backing away from our egoic demands and then by infusing our actions with the wisdom of the body.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Loving the Whole Body

    by  Rodney Smith | Jun 8, 2010

    We start with an aversive or attractive response to the body or body part and quickly an emotional attitude arises that fixates upon the appearance, a story is formed, an opinion is held, and our body is made into something it never was.  To love the whole of the body requires a intentional reversal of stepping out of those perceptual fixations and embracing the pleasant and unpleasant components in totality.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Death and the Body (1)

    by  Rodney Smith | Jul 6, 2010

    The Buddha seems to be encouraging an exploration of the themes of death and the body in this passage of the Satipatthana Sutta. Though all of us know we are going to die, few of us realize that fact as a living truth. This passage is meant to release us from our denial that fixates on permanency and continuity.

  • Satipatthana Sutta: Death and the Body (2)

    by  Rodney Smith | Aug 3, 2010

    As we explore the body from this Sutta we realize the inevitability of loss and begin to see death everywhere.  Death takes us through various stages of realization, altering our life and changing it forever. We learn to live consciously with all beginnings and endings.

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