ABSTRACT
The four satipaWWhAnas are widely mentioned or expounded in the Canon. Especially, the SatipaWWhAna Sutta of the Majjhima NikAya, the MahAsatipaWWhAna Sutta of the DCgha NikAya and the SatipaWWhAna SaSyutta of the SaSyutta NikAya are devoted to them. The basic satipaWWhAna formula, which will be discussed in Section 2.1, can be seen as a definition of the four satipaWWhAnas. According to this formula, the four satipaWWhAnas refer to contemplations of the body, feelings, mind and dhammas. The etymology and meanings of the term satipaWWhAna have been discussed very thoroughly by Gethin (2001: 30-36). C.A.F. Rhys Davids (Woodward, 1930: xv.) says that the verb for sati is always upaWWhApeti (derived from upa-√sthA) in the PiWakas, but “the Commentaries agree in treating the word, never as satyupaWWhAna, as in the reading in Buddhist Sanskrit texts, but always as sati plus ‘paWWhAna’, a word which has no independent existence, save in that very late appendix to the Abhidhamma Piwaka: the seventh Book.” I would like to suggest that a good way of understanding the etymology of satipaWWhAna is found in a passage at AN II 218: attanA ca upaWWhitasati hoti, parañ ca satipaWWhAne samAdapeti, “He is himself one whose mindfulness is present/established, and he rouses another to establishment of mindfulness.” Here satipaWWhAna is evidently rephrasing upaWWhitasati, and so there is no doubt that satipaWWhAna is composed of sati and a word derived from upa-√sthA.
