The Satipathana Sutta (translated as The Foundations of Mindfulness) provides instructions on different ways to meditate. There are four references for establishing mindfulness: body, feeling, consciousness and mental objects. The most often quoted portion of the sutta is as follows:
"Here, bhikkhus [monks] , a bhikkhu lives contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly comprehending (it) and mindful (of it), having overcome, in this world, covetousness and grief; he lives contemplating the feelings in the feelings, ardent, clearly comprehending (them) and mindful (of them), having overcome, in this world, covetousness and grief; he lives contemplating consciousness in consciousness, ardent, clearly comprehending (it) and mindful (of it), having overcome in this world covetousness and grief; he lives contemplating mental objects in mental objects, ardent, clearly comprehending (them) and mindful (of them), having overcome, in this world, covetousness and grief."
A focus on breathing while meditating is a form of body contemplation. The Mahasi technique is body focused. One observes the rising and falling of the abdomen, noting other objects as they arise, and then returning to the rising and falling as the default object. A focus on feeling involves being mindful of feeling tones associated with sensations: pleasant, unpleasant and neutral feelings. Contemplating consciousness involves being mindful of various mental states such as greed or lust, hate or aversion and delusion or ignorance. The focus of meditation in contemplation of mental objects can be essentially anything but as seen through categories associated with Buddhist teachings such as the five hindrances, five aggregates and the six sense-bases.
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