The Merit and Benefits of Practicing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness

By cultivating in accordance with the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta, one's meditative concentration (samādhi) keeps growing stronger, and one feels increasingly benefited by the practice. By persistently contemplating the breath and contemplating the material body while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, the mind becomes ever more tranquil and ever more refined, until in the end one can observe all the changing phenomena of the material body from head to toe, from inside to outside; the mind becomes extremely keen and wise—all of this is due to meditative concentration. Without cultivating meditative concentration, the mind is very coarse, and one can observe and discover nothing of the conditions inside and outside the material body. In particular, the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion within one's own mind, and the various kinds of ignorance—first, one cannot discover them, and second, one cannot subdue them. Therefore, one must cultivate meditative concentration and cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna), in order to grow the wisdom of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), subdue afflictions, and refrain from creating evil karma, or create less of it.

In the course of cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness, the mind becomes more and more tranquil. When the tranquility reaches a certain degree and the conditions and season are complete, upon encountering a dharma or a condition, one can immediately introspect and investigate, instantly gaining inspiration, and thereby realizes the dharma. When meditative concentration is cultivated well, the mind becomes extremely nimble, with strong powers of concentration, able to remain anchored in the present moment at all times, knowing one's own body and mind, inside and out. No matter what external states arise, although the mind is very clear about them, one can manage to pay them no heed and remain unmoved; when inner afflictions arise, the mind is also clear about them, yet can refrain from following the afflictions to create karmic actions. This is the merit of meditative concentration: the mind is tranquil (praśama) and can subdue afflictions. Once the afflictions become somewhat lighter, craving and attachment to the world will decrease and lessen; one will no longer be willing to spend more time and energy on worldly enterprises, and many things will come to seem unimportant. With the mind single-pointedly turned toward the Path, the power of aspiration becomes vast, the practice gets on the right track, and seeing the Path becomes merely a matter of time.