A Zen Perspective on the 4 Foundations of Mindfulness

A viewer asked me if I could do a video on the four foundations of mindfulness—a teaching from the historical Buddha himself.

Since I’m trained in the Zen tradition, I wasn’t really familiar with this teaching concept, which is mostly taught in the Theravāda school—but I’ll try to answer it from a Zen perspective. Before I do that, let me quickly introduce myself: My name is Christian, I’ve been practicing Zen Buddhism for the past few years, and now I want to inspire your spiritual journey.

What are the four foundations of mindfulness?

• Mindfulness of the body
• Mindfulness of feelings
• Mindfulness of the mind
• Mindfulness of the Dharma (Truth)

The goal of developing this “mindfulness” is to cultivate deeper awareness and ultimately gain insight into the true nature of reality in order to overcome suffering. This is done by observing the four foundations—body, feelings, mind, and dharma—with clear awareness. Not judging them, not trying to change them, but becoming aware of the qualities of these four foundations: seeing that they are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and so on. It basically means cultivating qualities and awareness in order to enable us to attain enlightenment.

When you study different spiritual traditions, you’ll see that most of them are actually quite similar. Each of them has a system to help students purify their awareness, loosen their attachment to phenomena, and polish their minds to become pure. However, in Zen it’s not about a process. It’s not about becoming more pure, or more enlightened or whatever. We are already it!

Here is a famous Zen story that depicts this idea very well.

Zen Master Mazu, when he was still an ordinary monk, was seen by his teacher while he was meditating intensely in the dharma room. Mazu was known for his dedicated meditation practice; he often meditated long hours in solitude. So when his teacher passed by, he used this chance to teach the young monk.

The teacher asked him, “What’s your intention in sitting in meditation?”

Mazu said, “I want to become a Buddha.”

Then, the teacher picked up a roof tile from the ground and began grinding it on a rock.

Mazu was confused and asked his teacher what he was trying to make by grinding it.

His teacher replied, “I want to make it into a mirror by grinding it.”

Mazu asked, “How can you make a mirror by grinding this tile on a rock?”

His teacher responded, “If I can’t make a mirror by grinding a tile on a rock, how can you become a Buddha by sitting in meditation?”

…

There is a certain usefulness in practicing various teachings to cultivate purity of mind, but if we do it with the motivation of becoming a Buddha, we’re doing it wrong. Trying to become a Buddha—seeking Buddhahood—is the very thing that prevents you from seeing that you are already Buddha, an awakened one. Zen is not so much concerned with a one-sided view of good versus bad, right versus wrong, pure versus impure.

Is purity better than impurity?

If you attach to purity, your mind has become impure.

If you see that your mind is impure, purity has already appeared.

What are you doing right now?

Sitting, watching, listening.

Is this impure or pure?

If you say it’s impure, you are attached to being a human. If you say it’s pure, you are attached to being a Buddha.

Being attached to one side means you do not see clearly.

So what is this?

It’s just sitting, watching, and listening.

Just being wide awake to what’s happening right now in front of you—not judging it, not labeling it, not seeking to make it into something else. If we refrain from trying to make something into something else—like using the four foundations to make our awareness more clear, trying to make a human into a Buddha, or polishing a tile into a mirror—we can see clearly.

We can see Truth as it is.

If we don’t attach to our thinking, if we let it go, our mind is like a clear mirror: whatever appears in front of us is perfectly reflected by that clear mirror.

The sky is blue, the grass is green. This is Truth. If you find Truth, you have already attained the correct way.

Ultimately, the four foundations of mindfulness are not different from this.

• Mindfulness of the body: What is your body doing right now?
• Mindfulness of feelings: What are you feeling right now?
• Mindfulness of the mind: What are you thinking right now?
• Mindfulness of the Dharma: What is Dharma, Truth, right now?

But if you are enthusiastic, trying to answer any of these questions in order to "get" this clarity, in order to “attain” truth, you have already gone too far.

You are already it. You don’t need to polish the tile into a mirror. The four foundations of mindfulness are actually only one foundation: What is this? From moment to moment, just keep this question.

I hope this answered your question.

I wish you all the best, your friend of the way. Bye.