The Four Foundations of Mindfulness | Dr. Larry Ward

Larry Ward here

The Earth Gate

is an interweaving of several different disciplines and practices

they are all based in, rooted in, the four foundations of mindfulness

as we know them in English

in Pali it is as Satipaṭṭhāna

and that means the direct path to realization

so i want to review a little bit of the four foundations, and of course in Buddhism as usual

there are several versions of this.

All four still be the same, but there's in the fourth one, there's some variations

and you're free to do the research
and see what might be most helpful for you

but I'm going to use four that
I'm most familiar with practicing

and share this with you, so first, a recap on mindfulness.

Mindfulness has three qualities

It has the quality of depth awareness and attention,

it has secondarily
equality of intention

the intention to be alert, the intention to be awake

so that when our mind wanders from where
we were going to put our attention

we become conscious of that or this meta-awareness
and we are able to consciously bring our attention back

to this object of our observation or looking

or experiencing

and the third is clear comprehension

Mindfulness is not a practice simply...

to practice it

it also has within it the invitation

to clearly see and feel, and understand
what your experience is

your lived experience, to being human
in the moment

and these four foundations

are four ways or means of practicing

to become skillful in your awareness

in your meta awareness, in your clear
comprehension of your experience of four things

the experience of the body

the experience of feelings as feeling is
understood in Buddhism

the experience of the mind

and the experience of the contents
of your mind

so I'll quickly go through those

the other thing I want to say is
every part of the earth gate

every meditation, every exercise

everything we do

you will find reflected here

in the four foundations of mindfulness.

Now many of you are already familiar with mindfulness of breathing

I'll get to that because that
is the first section

of the mindfulness of the body,
contemplating mindfulness of the body

the Ānāpānasati Sutta, the mindfulness of
breathing is how you begin to enter into
your contemplation of the body

because the breath is there

the breath is not contrived

It is a natural, lived occurrence

and so it has been learned that
that's the best way

easiest vehicle in which to begin to
bring

awareness to the body

and the mind

intention to the body and the mind

and clear comprehension of our lived experience

first is mindfulness of the body

and which is really what the Earth Gate is focusing on

the physicalness of the body

the breathing

are all parts of this

the cemetery meditations, which has been recorded
already for you, and is there

the impermanence meditation
is another way to say that