A Mindless View of the Satipatthana Sutta
NotImportant posted extensively to talk.religion.buddhism in the mid-to-late 2000s from Southeast Asia, writing on vipassana, tantra, and Buddhist psychology with a practitioner's directness and an independent mind. Their posts consistently questioned received assumptions about meditation method and offered their own clear-eyed interpretations of canonical teaching.
This post, from May 2008, takes on one of the most persistent debates in contemporary vipassana circles: whether the "noting" method — mentally labelling each sensation as it arises — is what the Buddha intended when he said the practitioner would "know body in the body." NotImportant argues it is not. Labelling adds perception to awareness; true knowing of the body in the body is pre-conceptual, wordless, without elaboration. Insights arise only when the monkey mind stops.
The argument is simple and the writing is casual, but the point is sharp. The millipede that tries to consciously track each of its legs has already lost the walk.
In the traditional practice of insight meditation — vipassana — the practitioner was told to "note" whatever arises. The noting is done by labelling it.
In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha stated the result of arriving at insight: the practitioner will "know body in the body." The emphasis of the two main traditions from Myanmar and Sri Lanka paid undue emphasis on the word "know." The teaching in these traditions argued that to "know" we need to label. Such an argument failed to understand the true nature of insight and how insights can only arise when the monkey mind stops all elaboration.
This doesn't mean that there is no thought. Concentration meditation can take a person to the mental state of no thought, but insight meditation will not. Insight meditation leads us away from thoughts, feelings, emotions, bodily sensations. Thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations — these arose due to our karma, conditioning, and circumstances. The art of insight meditation is to develop a mind that detaches itself from all these.
So what is "knowing the body in the body"?
The Buddha used breath and the four bodily postures as objects. In the longer Mahasatipatthana Sutta the four elements were also mentioned. When we are lying down, for example, the awareness that we are lying down is just that. We "know" only the body is lying down. There is nothing else added to that basic awareness. If we start to tell ourselves "lying down, lying down," we have essentially added perception to what we "know." Perceptual knowledge is an elaboration. Then what we know is not the body as it is, but the "body in the perception skandha."
This is the same with walking meditation. If we kept telling ourselves "rising, rising, rising" we don't "know the body in the body" — we know each tiny little movement within the body. One teacher even argued that as you see finer and finer moments you will see more and more. That is provided you don't topple over. It is like a millipede trying to figure out which leg should move forward first.
In the advanced training of insight meditation, practitioners were told to note the sensation of warmth, coldness, agitation. When warmth in a certain part of the body arises, they are supposed to "note" it by labelling it as "warmth," and the mind will "know" that it is from the fire element. If we have to go through logical hoops to arrive at the "knowing the fire element," then again it is not an insight but a conclusion that came about through mental elaboration.
When we "know body in the body" without any elaboration, without any mental engagement — insights will start to arise. Initially insights come in glimpses, in short spurts. Then they come in complete form, and there is great clarity. Often when such insights arise, it is difficult to put them down in words. Words are linear — one-dimensional — while insights are complete. Looking at multiple facets of an issue from different angles is not insight. A person can piece together many one-dimensional thoughts and yet it is not insight. However, due to insight's completeness, many aspects of an issue could be brought up.
"Knowing feelings in feelings" becomes easier as we understand what exactly "body in body" is. When you "see" the body, you "know" that the body is just that — the body and nothing else.
May all be well and happy and gain the bliss of nirvana quickly.
Colophon
Posted to talk.religion.buddhism (and alt.religion.buddhism) on 29 May 2008 by NotImportant (posting account: WfYptQoAAAADDB6A_RXnKtHV32r7L0So). Message-ID: <9ba1b807-4992-4683-811f-17dec339d80f@q27g2000prf.googlegroups.com>. Thailand teachers are described as "more flexible and less fixated" than the Burmese and Sri Lankan noting traditions. The Satipatthana Sutta, in both its Majjhima Nikaya (MN 10) and Digha Nikaya (DN 22) versions, is the foundational text of Theravada meditation practice; the debate about whether "bare awareness" or "noting" is the correct reading remains live among contemporary teachers.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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