Seven Steps to Awakening
1) Systematic Introspection (Satipaṭṭhāna)
This Systematic Introspection (satipaṭṭhāna) cannot be performed properly without completing the first and second levels of meditation practice given in the first and second booklets on meditation. This practice of the third level is only a continuation of the second level of meditation practice. This means these three levels of practice gradually flow from one to the other, because they are three parts of the Supernormal Eightfold Way. They are not separate practices.
This practice at the third level comes after the Harmonious Exercise (sammā vāyāma), which was practiced at the second level, and which included four parts as follows:
(1) Prevention (Saŋvara)
(2) Elimination (Pahāna)
(3) Cultivation (Bhāvanā)
(4) Maintenance (Anurakkhaṇa).
The practice of sytematic introspection (satipaṭṭhāna) was the third stage in this fourfold practice. Without going through the first two stages, it is not possible to get into the third stage. The first two stages are:
(1) Withdrawing attention from perceptual images (indriya saŋvara),
(2) Withdrawing attention from memory images and imagination of the future (pahāna).
In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta the Buddha points out how the introspection should be practiced: “The attention that is normally focused on external surroundings, is withdrawn from surroundings and focused within” (parimukan satin upaṭṭhapetva). In other words, it is only by withdrawing attention from the objective surroundings that one can focus attention subjectively inwards. This focus of attention inwards is achieved in four ways: Focusing on the movements of the body, focusing on the feelings in the body, focusing on the emotional state or mood, and focusing on the thoughts in the mind.
The two procedures in the first two stages of the fourfold practice is the withdrawal of attention from the external surroundings. The third and the fourth procedures is the Systematic Introspection, where the attention is focussed, not on objects perceived, but on the unconscious emotionalreaction to those objects that go on within. This procedure of consciously focusing on the unconscious reactions to circumstances, stops the unconscious emotional reactions, because the unconscious reactions cannot continue consciously. They can continue only unconsciously. This procedure is somewhat similar to the psychoanalytic procedure of Sigmund Freud.
In practicing this introspective attention, one becomes aware of one’s emotional reaction to external sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches in the present, as well as emotional reactions to memories of the past, and to imaginations about the future. When the attention is focused within in this way, the reaction is noticed in four ways. Therefore this practice of Systematic Introspection (satipaṭṭhāna) is divided into four practices as follows:
(1) Kāyānupassanā – Observing the physical manifestation of the reaction in the body, as movements or tensions in the body.
(2) Vedanānupassanā – Observing the manifestation as feelings in the body: pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
(3) Cittānupassanā – Observing the manifestation in the form of emotional excitements, or calmness of temperament.
(4) Dhammānupassana – Observing the manifestation in the form of thoughts in the mind, which are interpretations of circumstances past, present, and future.
Thus the emotional reaction is observed in four different ways: as two physical manifestations and two mental manifestations. As one becomes more and more aware of these reactions, they begin to stop because the unconscious process cannot go on when it has become conscious. The consequence is relaxation of the body and calmness of the temperament. In other words, all emotional disturbances disappear, and one begins to enter a state of mental tranquility and physical relaxation. In other words one enters a state of mental and physical equilibrium (samādhi). To achieve this state of mental equilibrium, it is essential to maintain the Systematic Introspection throughout the day, without interruption, while walking, standing, sitting, or even lying down.