I am not going to go through all 16, they are also in the 20 Suttas. The entire Satipattana Sutta is in there. But I will say something about those 16. They all relate specifically to the meditation practice. Now, with using this teaching, any state of mind works, whether you see it in those 16 or not. You wake up in a bad mood in the morning. You are in a state of mind. You have aversion, that's a state of mind. You wake up in a loving mood, fine, that's a state of mind. You're super concentrated, fine, you've got a concentrated mind. You're lost, wandering, you've got an unconcentrated mind. Some of that is specific in the 16. But really, any state of mind works here. You don't have to limit it to those 16. We are going to work within the Satipattana Sutta as to that foundation but with any kind of state of mind.
Now, in the Satipattana Sutta the Buddha gives us specific instructions. They are very simple instructions, not too difficult to do for any kind of state of mind. And that is for us to know that the state of mind is impermanent. To know that it had its own arising, caused by a condition, and it's going to pass, once the condition causing it has passed. Know that it is impermanent. That's a very simple teaching, and when I first read this and learned it (and memorized it because I thought it was so important) I thought, there's something missing in this third foundation. "It's too short. The Buddha has to tell us to do something." You know, you look at the fourth foundation, which includes the Five Hindrances. See what hindrance is there, see where it comes from, see how it goes away, see how it won't come back in the future. "Oh, that's constructive. That's something we can get into, we can really work out." But in the mental states, there isn't any of that. He just basically said to understand that it is impermanent. So I thought something was missing.
It was a few years later that I discovered that when you are in a state of mind, that's really all you can do. The minute you step into more clarity as to what the state of mind is, you have moved into the fourth foundation. Now you can figure out where that anger is coming from. So this was an area in the practice that the Buddha knew quite well, that we get stuck in a state of mind, and sometimes you just can't get out. But we know we're in there. We generally know we are not feeling good today, or whatever it is. We know we are stuck, but we just can't see clear enough to get out. But the Buddha said, get the thought in there: it is impermanent, it is impermanent. Train that thought so that when you're stuck in the state of mind that thought will come up.
The minute we get more clarity, we can move into the fourth foundation. Then we start doing the constructive work. To give you an idea of how this works, in terms of getting moments of clarity into a thought, imagine you are in a train station. And the tracks are in front of you, and there is another platform on the other side. Your friend is on the other side, on the other platform. And you're talking to each other, as there are no trains coming by. Then imagine, all of a sudden, a passenger train comes by. And all the windows have those windows where people can see out but you can't see into the train. So a passenger train goes by, and you can't see your friend at all. They are over there, but you can't see them. Now, imagine a wagon train goes by. You know, one wagon has wood in it, one wagon has bricks in it, and they are coupled together. But there is a little gap in between every wagon. As that train goes by, can you see your friend? Yes, when a wagon train goes by, you can still see your friend through the gaps, even though it gets blocked most of the time. This is an analogy of how we are breaking through a fog when we are in a mental state. We get more moments of clarity in there. When we get enough in there eventually the train breaks apart.