Linked Discourses on Mindfulness Meditation

At Ambapālī’s mango grove, the Buddha teaches the mendicants about the “way to convergence”, the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

At Ambapālī’s mango grove, the Buddha teaches the mendicants about the four kinds of mindfulness meditation and the practice of situational awareness.

When a mendicant asks for a teaching to take on retreat, the Buddha issues an unexpected rebuke. Evidently the mendicant had been badly behaved; but now, he insists, he is sincere. The Buddha relents, and teaches the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, well grounded on ethics.

Newly ordained mendicants should practice the four kinds of mindfulness meditation; trainees are practicing them, and perfected ones have perfected the practice.

The four kinds of mindfulness meditation are a complete heap of what is skillful.

The parable of the quail and the hawk. When the quail ventured outside her ancestral territory, she became vulnerable. And what is a mendicant’s ancestral territory? The four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

The parable of the foolish monkey who gets trapped in tar when it ventures outside its ancestral territory. And what is a mendicant’s ancestral territory? The four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

The parable of the cook. They present different kinds of dishes to the king, and observe which the king likes. In the same way, a mendicant observes why their meditation succeeds or fails. When the four kinds of mindfulness meditation succeeds it leads to giving up hindrances and entering immersion.

The Buddha decides to spend his final rains retreat at Vesālī in Beluvagāmaka. During the retreat he becomes very ill, but later recovers. Ānanda wonders who will guide the Saṅgha when the Buddha dies, but the Buddha says they should be their own refuge, grounded on the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

When Ānanda visits the nuns’s quarters they tell him that their meditation is prospering to higher and higher levels. Ānanda reports the good news to the Buddha, who speaks of two ways of developing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation: directed and undirected.

Sāriputta asks the Buddha what is a great man, and the Buddha says it is someone whose mind has been freed by developing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

Sāriputta boldly claims that no-one has ever, or will ever, be more enlightened than the Buddha. He admits that he cannot read the minds of all the Buddhas, but he understands a principle of the Dhamma: all those who become awakened do so by giving up the five hindrances, practicing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, and developing the seven awakening factors.

Sāriputta dies of illness, and the novice Cunda together with Ānanda take his bowl and robes and report the sad news to the Buddha. The Buddha dispels Ānanda’s sadness by speaking of the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

After the passing of Sāriputta and Moggallāna (whose actual death is unrecorded in the canon), the Buddha says the Saṅgha looks empty; yet he is not sad.

When Venerable Bāhiya asks for a teaching to take on retreat, the Buddha teaches the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, well grounded on ethics.

When Venerable Uttiya asks for a teaching to take on retreat, the Buddha teaches the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, well grounded on ethics.

The four kinds of mindfulness meditation lead to the end of suffering.

Just after the Buddha’s awakening, Brahmā Sahampati supports the Buddha’s reflection that the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the way to convergence.

Two acrobats discuss whether one should support the other, or the other way around. The Buddha says they should support each other. In the same way we should practice the four kinds of mindfulness meditation both for one’s own benefit and to protect others.

A parable that sets up an impossible challenge: to walk between a popular performer and the crowd jostling to see her, carrying a bowl of oil filled to the brim, while a man with a drawn sword waits to chop off your head if you spill a drop. That’s mindfulness!

Venerable Bhadda asks Ānanda about the ethical virtues encouraged by the Buddha—what is their purpose? To develop the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

Venerable Bhadda asks Ānanda about the conditions under which the true teaching lasts long or does not last long after the Buddha’s passing. Ānanda says it depends on whether the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are practiced.

Venerable Bhadda asks Ānanda about the conditions under which the true teaching declines. Ānanda says it depends on whether the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are practiced.

A simple teaching on the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

A brahmin asks the Buddha about the conditions under which the true teaching lasts long or does not last long after the Buddha’s passing. The Buddha says it depends on whether the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are practiced.

Sāriputta asks Anuruddha what makes someone a trainee. It is someone who has partly developed the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

Sāriputta asks Anuruddha what makes someone an adept. It is someone who has fully developed the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

Anuruddha claims to have developed the various direct knowledges by practicing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

When the householder Sirivaḍḍha is sick, Ānanda visits him and encourages him to practice mindfulness meditation. But he has already developed them, and abandoned the five lower fetters.

When the householder Mānadinna is sick, Ānanda visits him and encourages him to practice mindfulness meditation. But he has already developed them, and abandoned the five lower fetters.

The full knowledge of mindfulness meditation was not learned before the Buddha.

The four kinds of mindfulness meditation lead to peace.

Someone who has neglected the four kinds of mindfulness meditation has neglected the noble path.

The four kinds of mindfulness meditation lead from the near to the far shore.

Mindfulness is the four kinds of mindfulness meditation. Situational awareness is watching the arising and passing of feelings, thoughts, and perceptions.

When the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are developed, perfection or non-return may be expected.

Developing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, desire is abandoned.

The four kinds of mindfulness meditation lead to realizing the deathless.

The development of the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

The Buddha teaches the simple passage on the four kinds of mindfulness meditation and an advanced analysis, which involves contemplating them as impermanent.

Develop the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, don’t let the deathless be lost.

The causes for the origination and cessation of the phenomena upon which the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are grounded.

The Buddha tells the mendicants how, just after his awakening, Brahmā Sahampati supported the Buddha’s reflection that the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the way to convergence.

Be mindful by developing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

The four kinds of mindfulness meditation are a heap of the skillful.

When a mendicant asks for a teaching to take on retreat, the Buddha teaches the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, well grounded on restraint in the code of monastic rules.

When a mendicant asks for a teaching to take on retreat, the Buddha teaches the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, well grounded on good bodily, verbal, and mental conduct.

You should encourage your friends to practice the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

The four kinds of mindfulness meditation help to understand the three feelings.

The four kinds of mindfulness meditation help to give up the defilements.