대념처경(Mahasatipatthana sutta)의 실천법 연구

A Study on the practical method of Mahasatipatthana sutta

This study focuses on the contemplation of feelings in Vedananupassana and its problem of interpretation. The contemplation of feelings is the second of the four foundations of mindfulness(satipatthana ). According to the method of its practice, practitioner can contemplate on feelings as the object of meditation with the eradication of craving (ton/za) and that helps the understanding of true nature of things. In this practice, practitioners try to find and learn the textual reference for the verification of their practice whether they are following right way or not. Many buddhist scholars and meditation masters who have their own clarifications and experiences give textual evidence at times. These clarifications are helpful but it is not so always. M any buddhist scholars and meditation masters are apt to follow the traditional way of interpretations as the textual explanation. Such as, commentaries(aff/Ta/caf/ia) and Visuddhimagga, etc. Sometimes, they accept the explanations of the Buddhaghosa as the Buddha’s taught itself without comparative studying between the original text(P ali-N ikaya) and commentaries. Therefore, in this study, an attempt is to find out what is the contemplation of feelings exactly in Nikayas, and to examine whether the commentarial interpretation and practices have deviated from the original practice, if so what these deviations are, and what could have led to such deviation and so on. One of main points of contention is whether contemplating feeling as feelings externally indicates feeling of other person or not. The Maha- satipatthana sutta and Satipatthana sutta explain in detail the practice of the contemplation of feelings(vedananupassana). In this practice, meditator contemplates his internal feeling at first, and he again contemplates on external feelings, and last he contemplates on both, internal and external feelings. These two types of practice, internal and external are common to all Satipatthana practices. These two words, feelings internal and feelings external deserve close study in the Satipatthana practice. Here, two interpretations are possible for these terms. First, internal feelings mean, meditator’s mental feelings which are mentally agreeable feelings(somanassa vedana), mentally disagreeable feelings(domanassa vedana) and neutral feelings(upekkha). A nd external feelings mean, meditator’s physical feelings which are his bodily agreeable feelings(si//cha vedana) and bodily disagreeable feehngs(dukkha vedana). The other is literal interpretation according to which internal feelings mean whatever mental or physical feelings pertaining to the meditator himself. And external feelings indicate feelings pertaining to other persons. Vens. Soma Thera, Piyadassi Thera, and Nyanaponika Thera also translate this term ‘external’ as other person’s feeling. This is because their translations are based on the explanation of Buddhaghosa. The SumangalavilasinI explains internal and external as concerning meditator’s own feeling (= attano) and external as other’s feeling (= parassa). For this, one possible interpretation is that one can not know but can infer others’ feeling. More acceptable interpretation for this term is that both terms internal and external are connected with one’s own being. This interpretation appears more fitting to vedananupassana. Therefore, this study shows that practitioners in order to engage in vedananupassana properly should focus on the original text(P ali-N ikaya) before they accept the commentarial interpretations.