From investigating Dhamma to dwelling in jhāna,
Bhikkhu Cintita (2025)
Satipaṭṭhāna (often translated as “Foundations of mindfulness”) is the Buddha’s method of wisdom contemplation, best known through the ancient practice tutorial The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. It is recognized as the basis of the modern vipassanā or insight meditation movement. Unfortunately, the currents of Buddhist intellectual history have not been kind to this early teaching.
Rethinking Satipaṭṭhāna is a thoroughgoing reevaluation of the early satipaṭṭhāna teachings that integrates right view, right recollection and right samādhi based on a critical rereading of the earliest Buddhist texts in an effort to recover a doctrinally coherent, cognitively realistic, etymologically sound, functional, and explanatory interpretation of this ancient wisdom practice.
Satipaṭṭhāna is seen as a practice that extends Dhamma study to investigation, verification, and internalization in terms of direct experience to produce the fruit of “knowledge and vision of things as they are.” The jhānas are seen, in accord with modern cognitive research, as an aid to internalization that offloads sophisticated Dhamma understandings onto the effortless and intuitive “intrinsic” system of human cognition.
Bhikkhu Cintita is an American Buddhist scholar-monk. He is a former professor and research scientist in linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. Since 2001 he has dedicated himself full time to Buddhist study and practice. He ordained in 2003 as a Soto Zen priest, then in 2009 as a Theravada monk in Myanmar. He currently resides in a monastery with 4 Burmese monks in rural Minnesota, and is the author of several books, including Buddhist Life/Buddhist Path, an introduction to Buddhism based on the earliest texts. He’s been a meditator for 45 years.
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