The Four Foundations of Mindfulness is a term that is used a lot in Buddhism, which is understood as establishing and building upon mindfulness and awareness to help people reach enlightenment and the fullness of the awakening mind. It is also the philosophy of the Buddha transmitted thousands of years ago but the practice is still intact and is inseparable from the practical causes of human life. Therefore, for monastic disciples and lay Buddhists alike, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness is an extremely practical teaching in life that must be applied and practiced.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness is an extremely practical teaching in life for monastic disciples and lay Buddhists to apply and practice.
I. What are the four pillars of Mindfulness?
Four means four, mindfulness is nostalgia, memory is always safe in the heart.; Origin is an address, a location. Therefore, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness are roughly understood to be the four main foundations of the Dao Emperor that Buddhist practitioners need to pay attention to, appreciate, observe, and remember. 4 Mindfulness is: The body is impure; the religion of the no-self; Mind is impermanent, it is unhappy.
In Theravada Buddhism, it is also said that the practice of meditation will focus on four objects, which are: sharira (body); feeling (feeling); Religion and Mind. These are the main categories or principles of the Buddha’s teachings.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness It is the only way that leads living beings to purity, cessation of pain and suffering, overcoming sorrow and grief, attainment of true knowledge and ultimately attainment of Nirvana.
Before beginning the practice of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Buddha taught that one must follow the precepts. If you follow the precepts, your body and mind will be pure, light and tolerant enough to enter into the meditation practice and reap many good results.
Second. Concept of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Bodies
The Buddha taught: All sentient beings do not distinguish between caste, superiority or race. If everyone behaves according to his teachings, then they will become free, they will become happy, they will be free from sorrow. According to Buddhism, salvation is not far away, but in this present life. The only way to liberation which he taught us through the bodies is concentration, preaching and wisdom. This is what the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Sutra always teaches:
“Bhikkhu, this is the only path that leads to the purity of all sentient beings, the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, the attainment of true knowledge, the cessation of suffering and sorrow, and the attainment of nirvana. These are called the four foundations of mindfulness.
There are four bases of mindfulness: contemplating the body on the body; to consider the mind; Contemplation of feelings on feelings and contemplation of Dhamma on Dhammas.
The four pillars of mindfulness are the method of just-contemplation, also known as concentration-mangal. The precepts are compared to a solid barrier to prevent foreign ghosts from entering, maintain inner peace and enter samadhi easily. Therefore, the Buddha taught his disciples to always practice the teachings before meditating. This was clearly stated by the Buddha in the following great sutta:
- Compassion and dignity must be known while receiving Prasad.
- Body, mind, speech and life should be pure and pure.
- Must maintain all apartments.
- Keep restraint in food.
- Always be alert.
The only way to liberation that the Buddha taught sentient beings through the Nikaya Sutras is through concentration, precepts, and wisdom.
Third. The meaning of the four pillars of mindfulness
1. contemplation of the body
Being mindful of the body means practicing meditation on the body to bring peace and purity in life. This mindfulness is practiced through the breath, through the gestures and through the component parts, namely:
1.1. contemplation of the body through the breath
Contemplating the body through the breath is a form of breath counting or contemplation. It is a way of looking at the inhalation and exhalation of the breath. At that time I myself realized and came to know the importance of my every breath. Man can fast for some time without drinking or eating, but he cannot live without breathing. If you don’t have any breath left, your life is gone.
The Buddha taught that, as we breathe in and out, we need to be aware and follow that breath. Short and long breaths should be noted as short and long, so clear and alert.
1.2. Thinking of the body through actions.
Contemplation of the body through actions is through gestures like walking, sitting, standing, lying down etc. to control all the movements of the body.
He advised Buddhists to be aware in everything they do, to always be aware when they go, they know where they are going; Know where to stand when standing; When I sit, I know how I sit;…
From there, through contemplation of the body, it helps us to consciously control our movements. This brings us back to the present; Far away from the lifestyle of seeking happiness through fantasies…
1.3. contemplation of the body through its components
According to Buddhist tradition, the human body is made up of the four elements, that is, the four elements: water, earth, air and fire. The body is subject to birth, old age, disease and death. However, we should not be pessimistic considering the body as impermanent, impure, discarded or destroyed. Because, the purpose of contemplating the impure body is to help people overcome pain and attachment to this body.
Through out-of-body contemplation, it helps us control our actions and bring us back to the present.
2. Contemplation of longevity
Feeling is a short form of the word Bhavana, meaning to probe into the psychology of sentient beings. It is one of the indispensable bases in the formation of the human brain.
Emotion includes the emotion of the mind and the emotion of the body, which has three stages:
- Happy life is psychological happiness, euphoria, euphoria before the object.
- Pain is a psychological state of boredom, suffering…
- Non-sadness and non-pleasant feelings indicate a neutral mindset, biased towards neither pain nor pleasure.
According to Central Division III, number 140, the Buddha taught sentient beings: “Bhikkhus, happiness arises because of the state of contact with bliss. Unhappiness arises because of the state of contact with adukh and unhappiness.” Unhappiness and unpleasant feelings arise.”
To recognize life it is necessary to have consciousness. If there is no awareness of it, there will be neither a painful feeling, nor a pleasant feeling, or neither pain nor pleasure.
Long life makes us happier, but austerity always comes with happiness. People are always afraid of dying early and not being able to enjoy all the material and wealth they have created. Or you are always in fear of being stolen and you will be extremely unhappy when this happens. Or being left empty handed in misfortune and suffering extreme pain, boredom, disappointment etc., all these are the sufferings of material happiness.
However, the emotion that leads to happiness or unhappiness depends to a large extent on the level of enlightenment of each individual. Buddhists who have practice and contemplative wisdom always put their mind under control before their emotions.
Buddhists who practice have contemplative wisdom, they always control their mind
3. Reflection of mind
It is difficult to define the mind as a specific thing, but it is easy to identify and define it through commonly heard concepts: good mind, bad mind, greed, anger, selfishness, etc. Manifestations of mind in life.
Contemplating the mind means that we are using the mind to contemplate the mind, that is, being aware of our mind and observing its presence and activity.
There is also a feeling of peace and suffering in the mind. Therefore, people always have a serious and difficult to treat disease called mental illness. The main cause of this disease is greed, hatred and delusion. Greed for position, material wealth, emotions… Greed because of not being able to do it, then anger, suffering and sorrow which give rise to disease.
The Buddha taught: “Bhikkhus, attachment to the mind is permanent but wrong and attachment to the body is permanent. For the human body may still exist for a few decades to a hundred years, but one’s mind is born every moment occurs and perishes” (Journal of a Ham, T.II).
4. Meditation on religion
According to Buddhist teachings, the term dharma includes both human life and the universe, spiritual and physical, psychological and physical. Dharma is divided into two groups: mental and physical phenomena:
- Mana dharma is that dharma which cannot be seen, which has no form but perception.
- Rupa is a form that causes many obstacles and has no perception (for example, a table, a glass of water, a tree, etc.).
Dharma is divided into two groups, mind and material things
Thoughts on the legality of both mind and root. The form is used only for external and human religions. Mind dharma and form dharma are formed by causes and conditions, hence they are called false illusions.
The Shurangam Sutra teaches: “The cause and effect of reconciling the false hope of taking birth, life and the precondition of removing the false hope of death”. Meaning: When the causes and conditions converge together, the falsehood will be born and if the causes and conditions separate, the falsehood will be destroyed. It is enough to know this much: all religions make conditions for each other, but there is no self-signature. There is no self-signature, i.e. “no-self”.
For example, due to predetermined circumstances in the dream, the dream appears to be some or the other scene and the dreamer also mistakenly thinks that it is real. I didn’t realize until I woke up that it was just a dream scene. We humans are the same if we do not recognize the falsity of things. While the visible is related to the mind, the mind is related to the visible, everything is visible in the universe, we also mistakenly think that it is real. But in reality, all religions are “non-self”.
Not knowing the “Dharma of the Self”, the mind wants to be happy, but it cannot always be at peace, always caught in the whirlpool of competition, birth and death, etc. Hence, the concept of dharma is to bring the mind and body back to live with the underlying reality.
Thus, through the above article on Buddhist objects, readers have been helped to understand to some extent about the concept The Four Foundations of Mindfulness Also the meaning of the four awareness of body-religion-emotion-mind which he taught. Buddhist objects Follow Buddhist tradition, provide many valuable Buddhist content non-profit, hope the above information will be useful for you.
Wish you Amitabh Buddha!
