Satipatthana

In the Buddhist tradition, satipaṭṭhāna refers to foundations for (in Pali, paṭṭhāna) or the presence of (in Pali, upaṭṭhāna) mindfulness (in Pali, sati).

Quotes

• Emphatically did the Buddha proclaim again and again that man is in full possession of all the resources needed for self-help. The most simple and most comprehensive way in which he spoke about these resources is this method of Satipaṭṭhāna. Its essence may be compressed into two words: “Be mindful!” That means: Be mindful of your own mind! And why? Mind harbours all: the world of suffering and its origin, but also ill’s final cessation and the path to it. Whether one or the other will be predominant depends again on our own mind, on the direction that the flux of mind receives through this very moment of mind-activity that faces us just now. Satipaṭṭhāna, always dealing with this crucial present moment of mind activity, must necessarily be a teaching of self-reliance. But self-reliance must be gradually developed, because men, knowing not how to handle the tool of the mind, have become used to leaning on others and on habit; and, owing to that, this splendid tool, the human mind, has in fact become unreliable through neglect.
  • Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (1965), pp. 78-79