Ambapālisutta
In Ambapālī’s Mango Grove
At Ambapālī’s mango grove, the Buddha teaches the mendicants about the “way to convergence”, the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.
Translations
Satisutta
Mindful
At Ambapālī’s mango grove, the Buddha teaches the mendicants about the four kinds of mindfulness meditation and the practice of situational awareness.
Translations
Bhikkhusutta
A Monk
When a mendicant asks for a teaching to take on retreat, the Buddha issues an unexpected rebuke. Evidently the mendicant had been badly behaved; but now, he insists, he is sincere. The Buddha relents, and teaches the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, well grounded on ethics.
Translations
Sālasutta
At Sālā
Newly ordained mendicants <em>should</em> practice the four kinds of mindfulness meditation; trainees <em>are</em> practicing them, and perfected ones have perfected the practice.
Translations
Akusalarāsisutta
A Heap of the Unskillful
The four kinds of mindfulness meditation are a complete heap of what is skillful.
Translations
Sakuṇagghisutta
A Hawk
The parable of the quail and the hawk. When the quail ventured outside her ancestral territory, she became vulnerable. And what is a mendicant’s ancestral territory? The four kinds of mindfulness meditation.
Translations
Makkaṭasutta
A Monkey
The parable of the foolish monkey who gets trapped in tar when it ventures outside its ancestral territory. And what is a mendicant’s ancestral territory? The four kinds of mindfulness meditation.
Translations
Sūdasutta
Cooks
The parable of the cook. They present different kinds of dishes to the king, and observe which the king likes. In the same way, a mendicant observes why their meditation succeeds or fails. When the four kinds of mindfulness meditation succeeds it leads to giving up hindrances and entering immersion.
Translations
Gilānasutta
Sick
The Buddha decides to spend his final rains retreat at Vesālī in Beluvagāmaka. During the retreat he becomes very ill, but later recovers. Ānanda wonders who will guide the Saṅgha when the Buddha dies, but the Buddha says they should be their own refuge, grounded on the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.
Translations
Bhikkhunupassayasutta
The Nuns’ Quarters
When Ānanda visits the nuns’s quarters they tell him that their meditation is prospering to higher and higher levels. Ānanda reporrts the good news to the Buddha, who speaks of two ways of developing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation: directed and undirected.