Stalac Hoiton's Key Ideas from Mindfulness
by Joseph Goldstein

In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha takes joy in telling his students how the body can lead the way to enlightenment. Begin, he advises, by sitting on the floor with your back straight and your legs crossed. Focus on your breath. 

Start by simply noting what is happening: I am breathing in. I am breathing out. Then take note of whether the breath is short or long. Eventually, you’ll become aware of where you are in the breath – the beginning, middle, end. As you go on, you’ll notice that you don’t just breathe with your nose and your mouth, or even lungs. Breath occurs through the whole body

The first is impermanence. Feel your nerves spark with micro-sensations, and note that these always pass. Second, witness the driving force of suffering. See how you shift positions to counter an ache in your tailbone or stretch to ease a cramp.

Third and last, see how mindfulness of the body reveals the absence of the self. You are skin, bone, sinew, organs, bile, snot, and tears. You are an interdependent system of things. There is no bigger you behind it. In this context, “you” – as the entity directing the system – are a fiction.