Satipatthana

Translations of Satipaṭṭhāna
Pali	सतिपट्ठान (satipaṭṭhāna)
Sanskrit	स्मृत्युपस्थान (smṛtyupasthāna)
Chinese	念處
Japanese	念処 (nenjo)
Glossary of Buddhism

Satipaṭṭhāna is the establishment or arousing of mindfulness, as part of the Buddhist practices leading to detachment and liberation.

Traditionally, mindfulness is thought to be applied to four domains, "constantly watching sensory experience in order to prevent the arising of cravings which would power future experience into rebirths," namely mindfulness of the body, feelings/sensations, mind/consciousness, and dhammās.

According to Polak, this is a misinterpretation of the oldest teachings, in which the four foundations refer to the six sense-bases, contemplation on the vedanās, which arise with the contact between the senses and their objects (vedanānupassanā), the altered states of mind to which this practice leads (cittānupassanā), and the development from the five hindrances to the seven factors of enlightenment (dhammānupassanā) as the result of this practice.

The modern Theravadan Buddhism and the Vipassana or Insight Meditation Movement promote satipatthana as key techniques for achieving mindfulness, promoting "mindfulness" as meaning careful attention instead of the recollection of the dhamma.

Satipaṭṭhāna is a compound term that has been parsed (and thus translated) in two ways, namely Sati-paṭṭhāna and Sati-upaṭṭhāna. The separate terms can be translated as follows:

The compound terms have been translated as follows:

While the latter parsing and translation is more traditional, the former has been given etymological and contextual authority by contemporary Buddhist scholars such as Bhikkhu Analayo and Bhikkhu Bodhi.

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