Applying the Four Foundations of Mindfulness

When you apply the Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness to your asana practice, it becomes a fully integrated mindfulness practice. On any given day you can choose to devote your practice to any one of the four foundations, or work through them sequentially.

1.Mindfulness of Body

This is the awareness of the body as body; a reminder that the body is actually a collection of many parts. Skin, bones, teeth, nails, heart, lungs and all other parts; each is actually a small “body” located within the larger entity that we refer to as “the body.” In this foundation we train ourselves to observe the body part by part, rather than trying to observe the whole body at once, making mindfulness much more accessible. When we look at the body as composed of many parts, it also helps us to see the body as a body and not as “my” body or as “myself.” It is simply a physical form like all other physical forms. Since it is not “myself,” the body can also be called “selfless.” This foundation helps us to recognize that the body is impermanent, subject to injury, illness, and death, and therefore not a source of lasting happiness. In the Buddha’s words, it teaches us to “know the body as it really is.”

2.Mindfulness of Feelings

Mindfulness of feelings refers to both bodily sensations and emotions. Similarly to the body, feelings can also be subdivided. Here the Buddha is telling us to contemplate “the feeling in the feelings.” Whether they be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, we learn to observe and fully acknowledge our feelings, and that they eventually always dissipate. Through this foundation, one learns to simply observe feelings as they come up, and not identify with them or attach any judgment to them. They do not define who you are, they are simply feelings. Seeing a feeling as an emotion or sensation rather than “my” feeling, we come to know that feelings are selfless. In this way, Buddha says we recognise the truth about feelings. In other words, we “know feelings as they really are.”

3.Mindfulness of Mind

Mindfulness of mind is not referring to the thinking mind, rather, it is more like consciousness or awareness. Again, we talk about the mind as if it were a single object, but it is actually a series of particular instances of “mind in mind.” This foundation of mindfulness teaches us that consciousness arises from moment to moment, on the basis of information coming to us from the senses, as well as from internal mental states. The mind on its own cannot exist, only certain states of mind that appear, depending on internal or external conditions. When we pay close attention to the way each thought arises, and then passes away, we gain some understanding that we are not our thoughts. We learn not to attach our identity to our thoughts and we come to know “mind as it really is.”

4.Mindfulness of Dharma

The word “dharma” is another Sanskrit word that is as difficult to define as the word “yoga.” It can simply be described as ”natural law” or “the way things are.”

This foundation of mindfulness is sometimes called “mindfulness of mental objects.” With this teaching, we learn that everything around us exists for us as mental objects; manifestations of reality. They are what they are because that’s how we recognise them. Mindfulness of Dharma is to practice awareness of the inter-existence of all things, and awareness that they are temporary, without self-essence, and conditioned by everything else.

*The Four Foundations of Mindfulness is cited from O’Brien (2017) and Gunaratana (2018).

(source: What is Mindfulness Yoga by Michelle Ribeiro, BCom.)