The Way of Mindfulness: The Satipatthana Sutta And Its Commentary

The Satipatthana Sutta, the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness, is generally regarded as the canonical Buddhist text with the fullest instructions on the system of meditation unique to the Buddha’s own dispensation. The practice of Satìpatthana meditation centres on the methodical cultivation of one simple mental faculty readily available to all of us at any moment. This is the faculty of mindfulness, the capacity for attending to the content of our experience as it becomes manifest in the immediate present. What the Buddha shows in the sutta is the tremendous, but generally hidden, power inherent in this simple mental function, a power that can unfold all the mind’s potentials culminating in final deliverance from suffering. 

Bibliography: Soma Thera. The Way of Mindfulness: The Satipatthana Sutta And Its Commentary. Kuala Lumpur: Buddhist Publication Society. 1999