The four objective domains divide the expository portion of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta into four major sections. Two of these sections, the first and the fourth, have several subdivisions. When the divisions are added up, we obtain altogether twenty-one meditation subjects. Several of these can be used as means to develop serenity (samatha), but the satipaṭṭhāna system as a whole seems especially designed for the development of insight. The main sections with their divisions are as follows:
- Contemplation of the body (kāyānupassanā). This comprises fourteen subjects of meditation: mindfulness of breathing; contemplation of the four postures; clear comprehension of activities; attention to the unattractive nature of the body (viewed by way of its organs and tissues); attention to the elements; and nine charnel ground contemplations, contemplations based on corpses in different stages of decomposition.
- Contemplation of feeling (vedanānupassanā). Feeling is differentiated into three primary types—pleasant, painful, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant—which are each further distinguished into carnal and spiritual feelings. However, because these are all merely different types of feeling, the contemplation of feeling is considered one subject.
- Contemplation of mind (cittānupassanā). This is one subject of contemplation—the mind—differentiated into eight pairs of contrasting states of mind.
- Contemplation of phenomena (dhammānupassanā). The word dhammā here probably signifies phenomena, which are classified into five categories covered by the Buddha’s teaching, the Dhamma. Thus dhammānupassanā has a dual meaning, “dhammas (phenomena) contemplated by way of the Dhamma (the teaching).” The five categories are: the five hindrances, the five aggregates, the six internal and external sense bases, the seven factors of enlightenment, and the Four Noble Truths.
Discourses from the Pali Canon, pp. 262
Satipaṭṭhāna – development of insight