7 The footnotes to this guide are intended to be more than a quick eye to the meaning of a word or to the context of a phrase. Mixed in the footnotes is a rich vein of information with links to commentaries and original texts, along with a few personal definitions and comments. These veins and threads offer the reader the opportunity to consult and study the necessary fundamentals of this meditation practice. It definitely provides a retreatant a way to best utilize the Home Retreat Guide.
Tip: Using the indexes and footnotes in this Guide will open doors to scriptural study and, for many, is a key to a better understanding of what meditation does and is about.
Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering, Bhikkhu Bodhi.
Mahasi Sayadaw: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasi_Sayadaw
Vipassanā: 1. In English vipassanā, mindfulness, sati, and insight, are often used interchangeably to describe the meditation practice of bringing one’s unfiltered attention to our experience at any of the six sense doors. The Pāli term sati is also commonly used to mean vipassanā. allan cooper 2. Vipassanā, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India’s most ancient techniques of meditation. It was rediscovered by Gotama Buddha more than 2500 years ago and was taught by him as a universal remedy for universal ills. This non-sectarian technique aims for the total eradication of mental impurities and the resultant highest happiness of full liberation. https://www.dhamma.org/en/about/vipassana 3. Insight meditation (vipassanā): Attending to objects of consciousness with bare attention. 4. ‘The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering’, Chapter Six, Sammā-Sati, Bhikkhu Bodhi.
Sati: 1. ‘Mindfulness’ is one of the Five Spiritual Faculties and Powers, one of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment and the Seventh link of the Noble Eightfold Path, and is, in its widest sense, one of those mental factors insperarately associated with all karmically wholesome and karma-produced lofty consciousness. Buddhist Dictionary by Nyanatiloka. 2. Sati, vipassanā and insight meditation are often used interchangeably in English. For the purpose of this Guide it is helpful to translate vipassanā to mean sati-sampajañña, and that sati and sampajañña as having different and distinct meanings. allan cooper.
Sampajañña: Clear Comprehension: 1. Attending to four categories of attention: Purpose, Suitability, Domain, and Reality. allan cooper. 2. ‘The Heart of Buddhist Meditation’, Nyanaponika Thera. 3. Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta MN:10.
Sati-sampajañña: 1. Sati and sampajañña are two terms combined to mean one thing. Sati is the function of the mind that can bring meditative focus on any conscious object and get to know it without self-referencing or preference. Sampajañña is the wholesome attempt to understand what an object is. Without sampajañña sati is simply a function of the mind without understanding. Sampajañña without sati is speculation. Combined these mental functions can de-condition and reorient the mind towards freedom from unwholesome patterns of mind, speech and action. allan cooper 2. Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta: MN:10.
Yogi: 1. Theravada: The one who trains in the development of concentration. Person who practices satipatthana or samatha meditation. Source: Dhamma Dana: Pali English Glossary. 2. Synonym for meditator. allan cooper
Vinaya: (Basket of the Discipline). 1. The vinaya, literally meaning “leading out,” “education,” and “discipline.” It is the regulatory framework for the sangha or monastic community of Buddhism based on the canonical texts called the Vinaya Pitaka. Wikipedia. 2, In other words, the rules and conventions that all Buddhist monastics agree to adhere to when they are ordained. Code of conduct. Livelihood. allan cooper.
Abbreviations in footnotes: AN: Aṅguttara Nikāya, DN: Dingha Nikāya, MN: Majjhima Nikāya, SN: Saṃyutta Nikāya
