Cultivating the Four Establishments of Mindfulness: A Process from Ignorance to Clear Knowing

This Satipaṭṭhāna Sūtra is not merely a sūtra on cultivating meditative concentration; it is also a sūtra in which śamatha and vipaśyanā operate simultaneously. As a result of śamatha and vipaśyanā, wisdom arises—this wisdom is the wisdom that eradicates the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), the wisdom by which the dharma eye becomes purified and the mind attains liberation. What is meant by the wisdom of liberation is this: through observation, when one's knowledge of the observed dharma reaches a certain degree, knowledge born of ignorance transforms into knowledge born of enlightenment. The former knowledge was ignorant knowledge, unclear about the dharma; the present knowledge is clear knowledge that understands the true meaning of the dharma—understanding that all the observed dharmas, the five aggregates of body and mind, are subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, subject to change, suffering, empty, and not-self. At that point, the wisdom of liberation arises, and afterward one can attain liberation. 

Therefore, in the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the four satipaṭṭhānas, the mind must at every moment maintain an awareness—and it must be an awareness while the mind is in meditative concentration (samādhi), not the awareness of a scattered mind. These two kinds of awareness are different: the awareness of a concentrated mind includes the awareness of the manas, whereas when the mind is scattered, it is the scattered awareness of the mind consciousness. Scattered awareness is all ignorant knowledge; with the awareness of a concentrated mind, ignorance can gradually diminish, ignorant knowledge can gradually transform into clear knowledge, and one can open wisdom and attain liberation. The awareness present when the mind is scattered manifests only the functions of the mind consciousness; the awareness present when the mind is concentrated includes not only the clear, distinct awareness of the mind consciousness, but also the lucid awareness of the manas, with the manas's function of deliberation (manasikāra/manana). Only thus can one eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and purify the dharma eye. This is the practice method the Buddha taught us—not using the mind consciousness for thinking, analyzing, weighing, inference, or reasoning; none of these methods are to be used at all. All dharmas exist in direct perception; they are inherently so. As long as one maintains this knowing until a certain point, one can clearly understand the true meaning of the world.