This week I finished listening to the amazing series of talks on the Satipatthana Sutta and I’ve blogged about much of it. It has inspired my practice and deepened my understanding of the Buddha’s Dharma. Above all, I thank Joseph for producing such a fine series of talks.. even though in the first talk he references how it will go “…in the coming weeks” and says he doesn’t know “how long it will stretch out.” Analayo deserves enormous thanks as well for providing the excellent commentary upon which the talks are largely based; and thanks again to the Buddha for laying down such an amazing system for the liberation through these four excellent gates of mindfulness: the body, feelings, the mind and dhammas. It is thoroughly penetrating and skillful. I am sure to have much to say about other sections of the Sutta, as much has gone unwritten.

My highlights were:

• The talks about remaining “independent” in the refrain;
• The simple understanding regarding bare attention of the posture and movements;
• The discovery of pleasant feelings as a motivator of actions;
• Worldly and Unworldly feelings: the taste of renunciation;
• The clear and empty mind non-dichotomy;
• All of the dhammas, the Hinderances, Factors of Enlightenment, Aggregates, SenseGates, Four Truths and the whole of the Dhamma in the last step of the way, the eight fold path.

And I’ll end my gratitude post here with a line mentioned by Joseph in the final talk. It’s a line from the great sage, BodhiDharma, who described practicing the BuddhaDharma thus, he said “the two steps necessary are to start, and to continue…”