Contemporary Buddhism

An Interdisciplinary Journal

ISSN: 1463-9947 (Print) 1476-7953 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcbh20

THE SATIPAṬṬHṬNA SUTTA: AN APPLICATION OF

BUDDHIST MINDFULNESS FOR COUNSELLORS

Kin Cheung (George) Lee & Ong Chez Kuang

To cite this article: Kin Cheung (George) Lee & Ong Chez Kuang (2019): THE SATIPAṬṬHĀNA
SUTTA: AN APPLICATION OF BUDDHIST MINDFULNESS FOR COUNSELLORS, Contemporary
Buddhism, DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2018.1576292

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1576292

Published online: 22 Feb 2019.

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CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM
https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1576292

THE SATIPAT T HĀNA SUTTA: AN APPLICATION OF

_ _
BUDDHIST MINDFULNESS FOR COUNSELLORS
a
Kin Cheung (George) Lee and Ong Chez Kuangb
a
Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; bDepartment
of Psychology, University of the West, Rosemead, US

ABSTRACT
In the field of counselling, an increasing number of counsellors are trying to
incorporate Buddhist ideas and practices into their practice, but few pragmatic
resources from the Buddhist framework are available. In response to this need,
this paper focuses on the foundational Buddhist text on meditation, namely
the Satipatthāna Sutta. Original Buddhist scriptures are not easily understood
__
without guidance; thus, this paper provides a commentary for counsellors by
explaining the relevant Buddhist concepts and practices, proposing a note,
know and choose model based on the sutta, and providing a case study to
illustrate the application of the Satipatthāna Sutta for counselling.
__

Introduction
Buddhism provides a comprehensive analysis of the human mind and a sys-
tematic methodology to eliminate human suffering that has been a mental
health treatment for millions of individuals in human history. Although there
are many different schools and subcultures of Buddhism, all forms of teachings
and counselling are congruent with the fundamental teachings of the Buddha,
such as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Three Marks of
Existence (Lee 2017). The essence of all these teachings describes mindfulness
as a central component of a comprehensive spiritual and/or religious practice
with the end goal of eliminating suffering (Sun 2014).
Among all Buddhist scriptures on mindfulness practice, the Satipatthāna
__
Sutta holds a critical position in both Buddhism and psychology, as it was the
foundation for Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn’s mindfulness-based stress reduction model
(Brazier 2013); it is also one of the most important, fundamental and structured
texts of Buddhist mindfulness practice, one that has been well accepted in all
Buddhist traditions (Anālayo 2003). Because of the valuable position of this
scripture, the current paper uses the Satipatthāna Sutta as theoretical founda-
__
tion to develop a note, know and choose model for counselling. The traditional

CONTACT Kin Cheung (George) Lee [email protected]

© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 K. C. LEE AND O. CHEZ KUANG

Buddhist practice assumes mindfulness to be a personal and introspective

practice to cultivate the mind and that suffering decreases through the
advancement of experiential learning. This paper proposes an application of
the Satipatthāna Sutta to counselling using counsellors as the guide for intro-
__
spection in order to provide an alternative counselling method based on the
same teachings. To accomplish this goal, this paper will describe the theoretical
background in mindfulness, explicate the main ideas of the Satipatthāna Sutta
__
and introduce a pragmatic application to counselling.
Several contemporary theoretical approaches and Buddhist-derived inter-
ventions, such as acceptance and committee therapy, dialectical behavioural
therapy, and mindfulness-based cognitive behavioural therapy, are influenced
by Buddhism. They may share concepts and practices similar to those deli-
neated in this paper. Since mindfulness is a multifunctional intervention that
can align with and enhance many theoretical approaches, some such simila-
rities are foreseeable. Moreover, this paper uses the word ‘practitioners’ to refer
to individuals who practise Buddhist mindfulness.

Theoretical assumption of mindfulness in the Buddhist context

The word satipatthāna is a combination of two Pali roots: sati and upatthāna.
__ __
The literal meaning of sati has the sense of remembering and recollection, but it
is generally translated as ‘the mind’, while upatthāna means ‘attending’, ‘stand-
__
ing near’, or ‘guarding’ (Lee 2017). Taken together, satipatthāna refers to the
__
guarding or watching of the mind. The practice of the Satipatthāna Sutta
__
teaches the Buddhist principle of Right Mindfulness, a key teaching of the
Noble Eightfold Path (Thera 1988 [1954]). One major clarification is that being
right does not refer to correctness in following the doctrines; rather, it refers to
whether the actions lead to wholesome, positive and conducive consequences.
In contrast, being wrong refers to negative and damaging results. Hence, one
can make conscious, beneficial choices.
Before analysing the sutta, it is important to elucidate two foundations of
Buddhist mindfulness: Samatha (concentration) and Vipassanā (insight).
Samatha is the concentration required for practitioners to pay sustained,
comprehensive, and deep attention to an object (Dhiman 2008). Through
devoted practice, one can expand one’s attention and length of sustained
focus, can notice fine details in the object of meditation, can increase aware-
ness of the subjectivity of how the mind pays attention, can gain knowledge of
how the external environment, body and mind interact, and, finally, can attain a
state of absorption into the object of meditation such that there is no longer
any differentiation between the practitioner and the object, which is some-
times referred to as ‘one-pointed’ meditation (Bodhi 1995). For example, the
beginning practice of mindful breathing helps the practitioner to increase
awareness of the sensations, rhythms, occurrences and other physical
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 3

mechanisms involved in breathing. When one dwells on the breath, awareness

of how the whole body is involved in each in and out breath, how breathing in
every second may be a little different, and how thoughts and bodily sensations
interplay with breath will expand (Dhiman 2008). One important product of the
practice is that practitioners gain a metacognitive view of all the body and mind
activities, so that one can respond, instead of react, to internal and external
stimuli (Kornfield 2009).
For example, before a practitioner reacts aggressively to an anger-pro-
voking situation, he or she may note bodily sensations such as heat, muscle
tension or sweat, the unpleasant feelings that arise from these sensations,
the mind’s habitual interpretation of these sensations and feelings as
‘anger’, and the mind’s activities, such as anger-provoking thoughts. With
the awareness of all these body and mind processes, the practitioner will not
be pulled into unpleasant feelings and thoughts, will have the mental
capacity to think about the consequences of different reactions, and can
consciously choose a more beneficial response to the current situation.
Although samatha helps practitioners to calm their minds, its primary role
is to enhance the capacity of the mind to gain insight. It is similar to
upgrading the random-access memory (RAM) and central processing unit
(CPU) of a computer to gain stronger processing capacity and a clear and
detailed view of all the mind’s activities. In other words, samatha alone only
strengthens the competency to complete certain tasks; it is not a task or end
goal in itself.
Vipassanā needs an enhanced mind, and it is usually translated as ‘insight’ or
the ‘insight into the nature of reality’. Unlike with most theoretical orientations
in counselling, there is an assumption of objective reality or universal truth in
Buddhism (Dhamma), and this is signified by the three marks of existence:
impermanence (anicca), meaning that every phenomenon is constantly arising
and passing; suffering (dukkha), meaning that attachment will eventually result
in suffering because any object of attachment will inevitably change; and not-
self (anatta), meaning that the existence of self is ultimately dependent on
some other things that are impermanent and, in turn, that the self is neither
independent nor stable (Bodhi 1995). As delineated in the Second Noble Truth,
attaching, craving or holding on to things that will inevitably change and
disappear ultimately binds oneself to suffering. Truly seeing, understanding
and accepting these three marks of existence leads to ultimate liberation from
suffering. Therefore, a core practice of mindfulness is to note, know and see any
one of the three marks of existence because truly seeing one of them will lead
to understanding of the other two. However, seeing and accepting this reality
can be very difficult.
Vipassanā in Buddhist mindfulness is a specific practice to enhance the
practitioner’s ability to see the true nature of phenomena. To practise
vipassanā is to focus, observe, analyse and, finally, gain insight. This process
4 K. C. LEE AND O. CHEZ KUANG

is not peculiar or mystical; instead, it is a detached perspective from which

to see phenomena (Kornfield 2009). For example, when one uses in and out
breathing as a guide to sustain attention, one can observe how bodily
sensation, feelings and thoughts arise, sustain and dissolve. Breathing is
used as an anchor for attention, allowing the mind to examine and inves-
tigate its activities rather than being pulled or lured into them. In these
mental processes, practitioners can also gain first-hand knowledge of dis-
satisfaction, contentment and other conditions that give rise to different
feelings, understand the consequences of thoughts and actions, and make
conscious and deliberative decisions after the investigation.
For example, through vipassanā meditation, an anxious person can realise
the chain of experiences that lead to the arising of anxiety: a thought about
stress from work induces stomach pain and expansion, the perception of
physical discomfort gives rise to feelings of anxiety, and the person attempts
to control the anxiety by ruminating about work, which leads to intensified
anxiety and physical discomfort. In such a situation, a counsellor using the
Buddhist mindfulness approach may instruct the client to sit with the feeling,
trace it back to the interpretation of a bodily sensation, note the chain of
activities, and pay close attention to how the processes arise and dissipate.
The aim of this practice is to be fully aware of experiences while not engaging,
pursuing or attaching to them (Dhiman 2008). By noting, knowing and
remembering the chain of activities, a practitioner can gain insight into how
anxiety is impermanent and transient and how the rumination actually
aggregates the anxiety, and then make a conscious decision to not engage
in anxiety-provoking thoughts and perceptions (Kornfield 2009). In short, the
practice can be described as knowing by gaining awareness of body and
mind, shaping by making positive changes and adjustments based on
insights, and releasing by freeing the mind from bondage to negative emo-
tional states and using skilful ways to let go of unnecessary burdens.

The Satipatthāna Sutta

__
The next sections will focus directly on the Satipatthāna Sutta. The text of
__
the sutta used in this paper is from the version translated from the Pali into
English by Jotika and Dhamminda (1986). The sutta begins with an affirma-
tive statement by the Buddha:

Bhikkhus (monks), this is the one and the only way for the purification (of the
minds) of beings, for overcoming sorrow and lamentation, for the cessation of
physical and mental pain, for attainment of the Noble Paths and for the
realisation of Nibbāna. That (only way) is the four satipatthānas. (Jotika and
Dhamminda 1986, 7)
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 5

The Buddha described the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness as

the ‘only way’ for human beings to become liberated from all suffering
(Karunadasa 2013). In the framework of counselling, the Buddha might be
describing three common components of treatment: (1) psychopathology as
sorrow, lamentation, physical and mental suffering; (2) the treatment method
referred to as the four foundations of mindfulness; and (3) the treatment goal
being to reach nibbāna. The following sections will discuss these three domains.

Psychopathology in Buddhism: Dukkha

Dukkha, translated as ‘suffering’ or ‘dissatisfaction’, has two levels of mean-
ing. On a basic level, dukkha refers to all physical and psychological experi-
ences that lead to suffering, such as pain, aches, depression, sorrow or
anxiety (Jotika and Dhamminda 1986). On a metaphysical level, Buddhism
further defines dukkha as a universal phenomenon and a common human
experience that includes positive, negative or neutral feelings (Karunadasa
2013). The rationale for this delimitation is that Buddhism holds that all
phenomena have an impermanent nature and, thus, clinging onto these
ever-changing phenomena will eventually lead to dissatisfaction. Suffering
arises from the conflict between the subjective desires of the self and the
ever-changing external reality that one clings onto as a permanent phenom-
enon – such as life, youth, beauty – thus becoming unwilling to accept
inevitable changes. From the view of impermanence, birth and death, health
and illness, and togetherness and separation are all part of the everchanging
nature of the world, and no single human being can exert control over these
unsustainable events (Karunadasa 2013). Denial of or unwillingness to
accept loss, fantasising relationships as everlasting, craving for sensual
pleasure regardless of the consequences, or coercing through control to
resist changes are all called ignorance and will eventually result in suffering.
When one becomes less attached to personal views, beliefs and identities
through repeated and constant application of the Buddhist mindfulness
practices, the sorrow, lamentation and suffering from the attachment will
decrease (Kornfield 2009). For example, if a client criticises a counsellor for
being incompetent and irresponsible, an attached perspective may lead the
counsellor to doubt his or her competence, and become resentful of what s/
he done for the client, frustrated at being disrespected, and defensive or
even aggressive to protect the self. A counsellor who can attain a more
detached perspective will note physical discomfort in the body and reactive
thoughts about being disrespected, have a mental pause between the
feelings and reactions, have more mental space to consider the client’s
reasons for complaints, and make a more beneficial decision in response.
6 K. C. LEE AND O. CHEZ KUANG

Treatment method: meditation

In the third paragraph of the Satipatthāna Sutta, the Buddha summarises the
__
essence of mindfulness practice by elucidating its method and core
components:

Here (in this teaching), bhikkhus, a bhikkhu (i.e. a disciple) dwells perceiving
again and again the body (kaya) as just the body (not mine, not I, not self, but
just a phenomenon) with diligence, clear understanding, and mindfulness,
thus keeping away covetousness and mental pain in the world. (Jotika and
Dhamminda 1986, 7)

First, the Buddha described Vipassanā as ‘dwells perceiving’, or ‘lives con-

templating’. ‘Lives contemplating’ and ‘dwells perceiving’ refers to two parts
of a mechanism through which one ‘lives’ or ‘dwells’ when contemplating a
specific object of meditation (Jotika and Dhamminda 1986). In other words,
it suggests a sense of sustained attention and an attitude towards ‘the body
as just the body’. Living, dwelling or staying with a bodily sensation can be
extremely difficult. Buddhist mindfulness guides practitioners to turn
towards and stay with the disturbance without proliferating and fabricating
thoughts. This is based on the assumption that most emotional suffering is
induced by unnecessary proliferation of judgements, criticisms, memories or
inferences about the future. In the Sallatha Sutta (Thanissaro 1997), the
Buddha used a two-arrows paradigm to describe emotional suffering: that
external events in life shoot the first arrow that induces unavoidable pain,
while an unskilful mind uncontrollably aggravates the internal pain, which is
the second arrow. It is an inevitable experience in life to be shot with the
first arrow, which is the suffering that arises from physical pain, illness,
ageing, the loss of loved ones or other negative life events (Hanh 2014).
However, individuals can shoot themselves with the second arrow by hold-
ing perceptions and attitudes towards the first arrow that can multiply the
suffering by creating resistance to inevitable events, grasping onto the
transient pleasurable feelings, excessive focus on painful feelings, and rumi-
nating and expanding on negative thoughts (Karunadasa 2013). For exam-
ple, on hearing a loud horn while driving, the first arrow is a strong sound
that causes some level of physical discomfort. However, the second arrow
might be thoughts of being disrespected, offended, threatened or accused
of driving errors, which instantly gives rise to all sorts of emotional reactivity,
such as annoyance and rage. This emotional suffering proliferates and
multiplies easily and immediately through the pursuits of the negative
thoughts, which are controllable through the cultivation of a mind to see
things as they are.
In a simplistic sense, contemplating ‘the body as just the body’ can be
understood as seeing the body without the necessary proliferations of ideas
about the body, or to see things as their original form. When the interpretation
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 7

of the honking driver is as the most evil, arrogant, malicious and raging person
on the entire freeway, it is certainly not seeing things as they are. In contrast,
seeing how the sound of the horn produced an unpleasant sensation, noticing
the interpretation of the situation through the other person’s thought, noting
the mind’s anger-provoking reaction, and knowing the physical sensation of
the heartbeat increasing and palms sweating can lead to refraining from
negative assumptions and thoughts and to seeing things as they are.
With mindfulness, diligence and clear comprehension, the practitioner can
contemplate ‘the body as just the body’ to gain an understanding of the nature
of the body (Jotika and Dhamminda 1986). Applying these mental qualities to
vipassanā, observing the ‘body as just the body’ can be a method to see
through impermanence. In the meditative mind, the body’s participation in
the in-breath and out-breath becomes crystal clear as the evanescence and
inconstancy of the breath guides the practitioner to perceive the imperma-
nence of the body (Thera 1988 [1954]). Whenever distractions to the mind arise,
the practitioner will note the distraction, refrain from chasing any thoughts
about the distraction, and resume focus on the body. This practice, different
from controlling the breath or thoughts, requires letting go of the intrusive
thoughts so that the mind can become appeased by itself. For example, to
tranquilise a cup of rippling water, attempting to stabilise it by shaking it in
opposite directions will only excite more ripples; instead, holding the cup still
will gradually let the ripples calm down.
With continuous deepening of one’s meditation on the ‘body as just the
body’, the practitioner will reach more insight into our understanding of and
assumptions about, and the true nature of, the body (Dhiman 2008). Notions
and concepts (cognitive schemas) are formed from experiences interacting
with external environments; individuals develop cognitive schemas through
assimilation and accommodation. As one experiences the body, one tends to
conceptualise the body as a permanent entity and uniform object that one lives
with every day. The way that the mind functions is similar to the functioning of
computers, which can perform numerous highly complicated processes with-
out knowing that they are computers since, in reality, they are merely a product
of various components and mechanisms. In other words, human beings are
usually not aware of what they are and how they function.
In the practice of body contemplation, practitioners may focus on anatomi-
cal body parts, experiences of the body (including pleasure and pain), changes
in one’s experiences in response to different internal and external stimuli, and
the interaction between the mind and the body (Jotika and Dhamminda 1986).
Again, with clear comprehension, mindfulness and diligence, one can gain the
insight that the body is nothing more than its constituents. The concept of a
‘body’ refers to a collection of internal organs, skin, limbs, hair, body liquid, and
other parts and components with which one’s mind identifies (Anālayo 2003).
When the mind forms such a concept, the thoughts and perceptions are limited
8 K. C. LEE AND O. CHEZ KUANG

within that concept. For example, when one has a concept of a car, one sees an
image of that car, but the concept of a car does not represent the true nature of
the ‘car’ itself. When one looks deeply into the body, one realises that the body
is not a unity that exists independently. Rather, it is composed of many different
parts, with each body part playing a role in supporting the major system, which
is dynamic and ever changing. Deepening this kind of awareness can help the
practitioner to reach more insights into non-self.

Ultimate treatment goal: to reach Nibbāna

Nibbāna, literally translated as ‘blowing out’ or ‘extinguishing (a fire)’, is the
most common way to describe an ultimate state of liberation from suffering,
according to early Buddhist scriptures (Karunadasa 2013). Since Buddhism
holds that the existence of the self is a delusional grasping onto evanescent
phenomena, the end of goal practice is to see clearly through the delusion.
Seeing the ‘body as just the body’ and understanding that the concept of self is
fabricated is to realise gradually ‘the mind trick’ of consciousness as it grasps for
permanent conditions (Anālayo 2003). Once the realisation of the emptiness of
self and all phenomena has come, the mind will become completely detached
from desire and immersed in a state of peace without suffering. Using a
psychological perspective to understand nibbāna, Johansson (1970) described
a liberated person as emotionally free from desires related to egocentrism and
attachments, cognitively seeing and understanding the nature of pleasure and
suffering, and maintaining minimal survival needs to sustain life. In other words,
nibbāna is described as a freedom or liberation because the mind no longer
fabricates experiences or falls into the delusion of attachments or desires,
thereby achieving a deep inner peace.
The Buddhist path to nibbāna is a transformation instead of a transient
emotional or cognitive change (Kornfield 2009). It creates a systematic altera-
tion of the conscious and subconscious mind, resulting in lasting changes to
the perception of the internal and external world. Nibbāna, or the realisation of
non-self, is the ultimate goal of the Buddhist path, and the foundational
practices of Buddhism appear to be highly compatible with counselling,
which will be illustrated in the next sections. According to the original scripture,
the Satipatthāna Sutta is a comprehensive and sequential system of contem-
__
plative practices that can eventually lead to the elimination of suffering
through the contemplation of the four foundations: body, feelings, mind and
dhammas (Anālayo 2003). Of course, the goal of professional counselling is to
reduce clients’ emotional suffering and functional impairment, rather than
helping them to reach Nibbāna and relinquish their attachment to the self.
However, the first stage of practice in the sutta is beneficial to helping indivi-
duals diminish rigid attachments to the self, thereby reducing their emotional
suffering.
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 9

The application of the Satipatthāna Sutta: note, know and

__
choose
The essence of Buddhist practice, described in Satipatthāna Sutta, is to train the
__
mind to pay sustained attention to appropriate objects in order to attain a more
realistic and objective view of reality (Anālayo 2003), and the goal of treatment
is to reduce the emotional suffering that arises from the second arrow. Instead
of solely relying on the introspective effort of clients, this model proposes to
have the counsellor guide the client in his or her discovery of insights. The
practice can be divided into three components: note, know and choose.

Note
To understand how the ‘the body is just the body’, the practitioner notes bodily
sensations and slowly strengthens and expands the awareness of bodily
changes through constant practice (Anālayo 2003). An uncultivated mind has
a limited capacity to sustain and direct attention and, hence, many bodily
sensations become misinterpreted and aggravated through attachment rumi-
nations. By pausing the proliferating thoughts and training the mind to stay
focused at the level of physical sensations, accurately noting the body’s actions
and reactions can prevent the arising of additional physical and emotional
suffering (Dhiman 2008). ‘Noting’ has a binary application in treatment: (1)
counsellors can assess clients’ verbal and nonverbal reactions in order to guide
clients to note their bodily sensations and (2) clients can practise and learn the
skills needed to note their bodily sensations as an internal assessment tool for
physical and emotional reactivity. Teaching clients to note helps them to track
their conditions and notice how different thoughts, feelings and behaviours
lead to different consequences. The noting stance manifests as a fully aware
and present mind state that does not pursue a thought or dwell on a particular
feeling. It also involves directly turning towards sensations and feelings without
distractions, intentional relaxation or other controls; it is a nonattached way of
noting and seeing. When focusing on physical sensations without pursuing
thoughts, one can mobilise the mental capacity to observe and know how each
thought leads to different physical, emotional and behavioural consequences
(Kornfield 2009). As stated in the previous discussion, diligence is an important
ingredient in practice, and hence noting bodily changes requires a consistent
and repeated effort.

Know
Along with conveying an increased attentive capacity to note, counsellors can
teach clients to know the causes, conditions and effects of their thoughts,
feelings and behaviours. To know is to understand, clearly comprehend and
10 K. C. LEE AND O. CHEZ KUANG

discern the interrelationships between stimulus, bodily sensations, mental

processes and emotional reactivities (Jotika and Dhamminda 1986). For exam-
ple, a road-raging driver can learn to notice how the driving of others induces
heat and tightness in his chest; when identifying these feelings as anger, he
begins having thoughts about being offended and threatened, which amplifies
the sensation of heat and emotional suffering, causing him to drive with a sense
of vengeance. By knowing how the chain of experience arises, the driver can
clearly comprehend how a stimulus triggers a chain of reactions, resulting in
suffering and unpleasant consequences. When the driver catches the physical
sensation in the chest and identifies the anger-provoking thoughts, he can
examine his initial thoughts and explore alternative perspectives such as, ‘That
person may be in a rush’ or ‘It’s not worth it to race with crazy people on the
road’. In the mist of various thoughts, one can see and know how paying
attention to negative thoughts will result in more emotional suffering and
how alternative thoughts result in less suffering.

Choose
In the Buddhist understanding of mind, mental activities occur in a flash,
and an external stimulus can become a highly disturbing emotional reaction
in a millisecond (Kornfield 2009). However, embedded in every individual’s
mental activities are numerous decisions that the mind has made before the
escalated emotion results. With an enhanced ability to note and know, one
can put these mental activities into slow motion in order to identify various
choice points that might begin to lead to a negative thought, feeling or
behaviour (Hanh 2014). The job of a counsellor is to help clients to identify
the choice points in an emotional event in order to increase the client’s
awareness of the decisions they have made and to empower them to reflect
and choose more constructive perceptions. When a raging driver decides to
chase after a driver who has honked at him, he makes a series of decisions
to grasp onto the initial thought of being disrespected, to proliferate the
thoughts into being threatened and needing to teach the driver a lesson, to
generate the intention for revenge and to implement the response. In this
situation, the counsellor can help disrupt the driver’s choice point by
redirecting him to note the present moment, reflect on his physical and
emotional reactions, process each choice point (from hearing another dri-
ver’s honking to stepping on the gas pedal to chase the driver) and explore
alternative decisions at each point.

Application to counselling: case study illustration

A hypothetical case study summarised with counselling experiences from
actual clients is described below in order to illustrate vividly the application
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 11

of the Satipatthāna Sutta to the process of counselling. In this case example,

__
Satipatthāna Sutta is applied as a secular counselling method that does not
__
require any religious beliefs or values.
Mrs Leung is a 60-year-old Chinese housewife who was encouraged by her
husband to seek counselling as part of their health services. The counsellor is a
32-year-old female who works at a community mental health centre. During
the initial session, Mrs Leung denied any problem or disturbance and she
described herself as the one who ‘keeps the family running’ and ‘does every-
thing for the family’. Mrs Leung presented as defensive and distant, and she
often doubted the counsellor’s competency to help her. For example, Mrs
Leung asked the counsellor, ‘I have many more life experiences than you do.
What makes you think you can teach me what to do?’
The counsellor has been practising Satipatthāna Sutta, which helps her to
__
attain a balanced mental stance without imprisonment to emotional reactivity.
She notes her physical sensation (heat on her face and an increased heart rate)
as well as her initial thought: ‘Who are you to judge me?’ The counsellor
acknowledges her unpleasant feelings and focuses on Mrs Leung’s possible
reasons for feeling insecure about being in therapy, being ashamed of coming
to see a counsellor, and doubting whether she would receive the services that
she really needs. Using a calm and neutral attitude, the counsellor responded,
with a smile, ‘You are right. I may have one PhD in psychology, but you have 10
PhDs about your life, and it would be my honour to learn from your life
experiences. Would you mind sharing more of your story with me?’ Since
meditation can cultivate the intrapersonal experiences of being comfortable
and relatively undisturbed by emotional turbulence, counsellors with consis-
tent practice can give rise to equanimity, which can be extended to their clients
(Watson 1998). The ease and respect of the counsellor dissolved some of Mrs
Leung’s defences and allowed her to share her husband’s complaints
about her.

After two sessions, Mrs Leung revealed that her husband’s family sees her as
‘cold’, ‘cruel’, and ‘dominant’ and that there were many conflicts between Mrs
Leung and her mother-in-law as well as between her and her husband. Mrs
Leung feels hurt and angry at her husband’s incompetence in protecting her,
and the fights she had with her husband usually escalated to her yelling or
throwing things at him. Her husband ended up avoiding her, which made her
feel more lonely and angry. The counsellor introduces Mrs Leung to Buddhist
mindfulness intervention and asks if she feels comfortable with trying this
intervention. As Mrs Leung is atheistic but has a good impression of
Buddhism, she agrees to try. The counsellor then teaches Mrs Leung basic
mindfulness skills, including focusing on the in and out breath, noting the
bodily sensations and thoughts while anchoring the mind using breathing,
and examining different bodily sensations and interpretations in more detail.
In particular, the counsellor uses three steps to teach Buddhist mindfulness
throughout the next three sessions.
12 K. C. LEE AND O. CHEZ KUANG

First, the counsellor guides Mrs Leung to breathe to relax and increase her
awareness to a sense of relief while breathing. The counsellor teaches Mrs
Leung to sit in a position that is upright, balanced and relaxed. The counsellor
collaboratively works with Mrs Leung to help her find her balance by adjusting
sitting postures, sensing the centre of her support in the back bone, and
ensuring that her back is strong and upright while her chest area is relaxed.
Once Mrs Leung finds a stable and comfortable position, the counsellor invites
her to close her eyes and take five slow, deep breaths while thinking of filling
her belly with air on inhalation and slowly releasing it like air coming out of a
balloon on the exhalation, just focusing the mind on breathing. The counsellor
discusses Mrs Leung’s experiences and difficulties with breathing and teaches
her to mentally note ‘Breathing in’ when she is inhaling and note ‘breathing
out’ when she is exhaling. The counsellor then guides Mrs Leung to refrain from
engaging in distracting thoughts for 5 minutes as she explores her feelings
from breathing. Mrs Leung states that she is able to feel ‘relaxed’ and ‘a little
peace’ during some in breaths. The counsellor helps her to focus on and sustain
such joy in breathing as the major goal of this beginning practice and suggests
that Mrs Leung practise mindfulness for fifteen minutes per day at home.
Second, the counsellor proceeds to raise Mrs Leung’s bodily awareness and
her interpretation of bodily sensations. After Mrs Leung meditates for five min-
utes, the counsellor uses the following detailed questions to guide her under-
standing of the body: What happens to your chest when you breathe in? Does
the chest expand when you breathe in? What happens to your stomach when
you do not breathe in – does your stomach expand when you do not breathe
in? These questions can be applied to many different body parts, and increasing
details are revealed through Mrs Leung’s increased mindfulness of the body.
For example, Mrs Leung starts to notice that her shoulders are constantly
tightening and that she can intentionally relax them. She also notes how her
stomach expands and hurts when she cannot sleep at night. Third, the coun-
sellor prompts Mrs Leung to notice her bodily sensations during daily life and to
choose these as points at which to make different decisions. When Mrs Leung
talks about how her husband’s inadequacy ‘drove her crazy’, the counsellor
guides Mrs Leung to slow down and focus on her bodily sensations. Mrs Leung
gradually becomes more mindful of her role in the interactions with her
husband. When her husband triggers her anger, Mrs Leung starts to notice
and analyse her bodily reactions (teeth grinding, flushing, muscle tensions and
heat in the chest). She also begins to notice her initial thought, which triggers
the chain of anger-provoking thoughts: ‘He did it again!’ Through this explora-
tion with the counsellor, Mrs Leung realises that there are situations in which
her anger is disproportionate to the minor behaviours of her husband.
In processing her feelings with the counsellor, Mrs Leung realises that her
expectation of her husband to protect and care for her has been unfulfilled for
years, and she is deeply wounded about her husband’s unwillingness to stand
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 13

up for her. Through the counsellor’s validation of her feelings and guidance to
see the relationship with her husband from a more detached perspective, Mrs
Leung reaches a radical acceptance of reality: her husband is not a protective
and caring person as she would expect, and pushing him to change only causes
him to avoid the relationship. With this insight into her husband and the
relationship as it is, Mrs Leung feels more relieved and cultivates more compas-
sion for her husband, who has been pushed and criticised constantly by her.
After locating and accepting her unfulfilled expectations, Mrs Leung learns to
pause her reactions whenever she notices the physical reactions in her body
and to explore different choices, such as focusing on the present situation
instead of resenting the past and ignoring the continuation of anger-provoking
thoughts. Mrs Leung reports less frustration and dissatisfaction, even though
her husband remains unchanged, and she starts to engage in leisure activities.

Ethical considerations
Although Buddhist mindfulness based on the Satipatthāna Sutta is not a faith-
__
based intervention, there are important ethical considerations for counsellors
wishing to use these techniques. It is important for counsellors to self-monitor
their beliefs and attitudes about Buddhism and its Buddhist practices (Lee
2017). According to the American Counselling Association Code of Ethics
(American Counselling Association 2014), counsellors should avoid imposing
their religious values and biases on their clients while valuing clients’ spirituality
and religious beliefs instead. Although the practice of Buddhist mindfulness
does not require any religious components, clients of different religious affilia-
tions may not accept the concept of mindfulness, knowing that it originates
from a Buddhist tradition. It is imperative, however, for counsellors to maintain
their objectivity by providing psychological services to clients in their best
interests and asking for clients’ permission before implementing Buddhist
interventions. It is also important for counsellors to seek clients’ feedback
throughout treatment in order to ensure clients’ acceptability of and response
to the intervention.
This paper focuses on using the Satipatthāna Sutta to guide counselling
__
interventions and teach clients basic Buddhist meditation techniques instead of
teaching counsellors to teach advanced Buddhist meditation. Only skilled
Buddhist meditation teachers should teach advanced meditation to students
or clients, and counsellors should only use Buddhist mindfulness as an inter-
vention within their scope of competence. Counsellors can foster their compe-
tence by receiving training from a qualified Buddhist mindfulness teacher,
completing training courses in qualified meditation centres, seeking super-
vision from qualified mental health professionals, and attaining additional
education and training in Buddhist counselling, Buddhist chaplaincy or related
areas of applied Buddhism. Should counsellors observe any adverse effect in
14 K. C. LEE AND O. CHEZ KUANG

clients after practising Buddhist mindfulness, they should stop their interven-
tions, ensure clients’ well-being, and seek proper consultation and supervision.

Conclusion
In the current discussion, the Satipatthāna Sutta informed a counselling
__
method, but it is not a treatment manual for clients. The goal of Buddhist
practice is to help practitioners liberate themselves from suffering, and most of
the time suffering arises from one’s denial, unacceptance or rejection of reality.
The note, know, choose model aims to help these individuals accurate see reality
and to know, shape and free the mind from many bondages and burdens that
are self-induced. In bridging individual Buddhist practice and counselling, this
paper presents a preliminary application of the Buddhist practice in order to
help interested counsellors learn the original Buddhist teachings to support
their therapeutic work.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors
Kin Cheung (George) Lee is an honorary assistant professor in Buddhist counselling
at the Centre of Buddhist Studies, the University of Hong Kong, as well as a licensed
clinical psychologist in the state of California (PSY28022). He received his PhD and
MA in clinical psychology from Alliant International University-Los Angeles, an MA in
marriage and family therapy from the University of Southern California, and an MA in
Buddhist studies from the University of Hong Kong. He has a number of publications
in the areas of Buddhist mindfulness practices, application of Buddhist practices to
psychotherapy, acculturation and family conflicts, and international student psychol-
ogy. His current research interests include applied Buddhism for professional psy-
chology, interpretation of Early Buddhist teachings for mental health professionals,
and Buddhist counselling.
Ong Chez Kuang is a former Chinese Buddhist monk with a background in psychol-
ogy from the University of the West. He has been a research assistant on several
projects which aim to integrate Buddhist teachings into professional counselling. He
is also a co-author of several academic articles in this research field.

ORCID
Kin Cheung (George) Lee http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2281-211X
 CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 15

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