「以管窺天」到「洞見自身實相」──《大念處經》宗教修行之現象學研究 =From Doctrinal View to Insight into the Reality of Body and Mind---A Phenomenological Study in the Religious Experience of "Mahaa Satipaṭṭhhaana Sutta"
In the past few decades, "mindfulness therapy" and its related research have become popular in the United States. In recent years, it has also become a popular research trend in Taiwan. "Mindfulness," in fact, is not an invention of American psychologists. It is one form of Buddhist practice described in "Mahaa Satipaṭṭhaana Sutta.” In this Buddhist text, mindfullness, is called "Sati (Paali)," and is defined as a method utilized to help practitioners become aware of the nature of suffering and in so doing approach the cessation of suffering. Currently, the body of research literature about "Mahaa Satipaṭṭhaana Sutta" consists mostly of literature comparisons of personal understanding about the sutta or the Buddhist doctrines mentioned in the sutta. Articles that qualify as empirical research are mostly in the form of laboratory based psychological research which focus on evaluating the effectiveness of the practice. These empirical research definitely contribute to our understanding of the curative effect; however, they are less helpful if one is interested in “how” the experience of mindfulness is derived. This study tries to address the question regarding “how” mindfulness experience. It divided into four steps. First, inspired by methods of phenomenological investigation, it temporarily suspends the doctrine of Buddhist teaching on related issues and emphasizes the documentation of the practitioner's experience. Second, from two distinct approaches one focusing on the data of practitioner’s experience: “the present moment” and “by the description of the experience, let the experience speak itself ” Third, it addresses the question regarding “how” mindfulness experience perceived by way of the result of its analysis. Finally, it returns to the texts of Buddhist doctrine on mindfulness and examines if they are enriched by the illumination of the empirical and phenomenological exploration of practitioner’s experience. In conclusion, through the practice of direct observation of the self, the practitioners can distinguish between sati, thoughts, and the perception of self and time. The sati and thoughts is a changing progress of mind. The process transition from thoughts, sati, satipaṭṭhaana, then become samma-sati. Through the process, the practitioners realize the truth of impermanent, suffering and non-self. In daily life, only the samma-sati coheres with the Buddhist teaching of Eightfold Path, and at this point, the practitioners are approaching the cessation of suffering.
