Acharn Sujin reminded us time and again that the development of satipatthana should be very natural. The sotapanna sees things as they are, but this does not mean that he cannot live his daily life. He does not avoid the world of conventional truth, but he has no wrong view, he does not take the unreal for reality. The sotapanna sees visible object and after the seeing there can be thinking of the concept “person”, but he has no misunderstanding about seeing and thinking of concepts. He knows that there is no person there, only namas and rupas which are impermanent and non-self, but this does not mean that he cannot think of a person; thinking is conditioned. When thinking arises, he knows that it is a reality that thinks, no self who thinks. The objects the sotapanna experiences and the objects the non-ariyan experiences are the same, but the sotapanna has eradicated wrong view about them. The objects are the same, but right understanding which experiences them can grow.

We have often heard that the development of satipatthana should be very natural, but have we really grasped this? Is there right understanding in our daily life, for example, while we are eating? We may know when we have eaten enough. Can there be mindfulness at that moment? It is daily life, but perhaps we have never considered such a moment. The monks have to remember that the food they take is like a medicine for the body, that it is not for enjoyment. Food sustains the body so that one can go on with the development of right understanding. These considerations are also useful for lay-followers. We enjoy our meals, but do we know when the citta is kusala citta and when akusala citta while we are eating? While we consider what clothes to wear for such or such occasion, for example, when we are going to the temple, there can be mindfulness of those moments. When it is cold, don’t we reflect about what to wear? These things belong so much to our daily routine that we forget to be mindful. However, right understanding can be developed, no matter what we are doing, no matter of what we are thinking.