Second, Third and Fourth Satipatthanas

[matt_s]

Hello all,

From what I can tell, much of the meditation/relaxation practice of Stretch Therapy revolves around the first satipatthana. Has anyone here obtained good results from advancing their practice to the other satipatthanas? Or does anyone know whether Kit has ever explicitly discussed the other satipatthanas in relation to the meditation/relaxation component of Stretch Therapy?

I know that really all four satipatthanas are inseparable, and that my curiosity about the "further" stages is just another form of grasping, and that I could probably spend the next 50 years doing nothing but counting the breath without ever exhausting the possibilities of that practice. Still I can't help but be curious.

Edited yesterday at 02:50 AM by matt_s

[Kit_L]

To begin this discussion, perhaps you could give a précis of what you understand the first satipatthana to be, and contrast this with the others.

[matt_s]

Ah yes, of course. My understanding is that the four satipatthanas point to additional objects of meditation to be contemplated alongside the awareness of the breath during meditation. Namely,

First - the body, its feelings, and how the breath conditions the body

Second - the pleasant/unpleasant/neutral quality of feelings

Third - the mind and the thought-stream

Fourth - philosophical concepts like impermanence, emptiness, no-self, renunciation, etc.

With the goal at each step being to investigate how that set of objects conditions and is conditioned by the others, and ultimately to relax and let go with respect to that set of objects.

Yesterday I looked through the thread of relaxation scripts and saw that the titles of the 2014 Govinda Valley "Touching Awakening" recordings seem to fit this scheme ('tracking breathing', 'tracking feeling', 'tracking thought', 'clear understanding'). I haven't had time yet to listen to them but I suspect the answer is right there. If so, my apologies for starting a redundant thread.