This discourse shows how a practitioner first develops the four kinds of mindfulness meditation for gaining immersion, along with practicing “situational awareness” (sometimes called “mindfulness in daily life”), before developing insight into the nature of feelings.

The “infirmary” (gilānasālā) is mentioned only in this discourse and the next, and in AN 5.121. The practice of visiting people when sick to give encouragement and support is still an important part of Buddhist culture.

The same treatment of being “mindful and aware” is at DN 16:2.12.2 and SN 47.2, and slightly differently at SN 47.35.

In the Gradual Training, the mendicant “establishes mindfulness” to begin meditation. Here this practice is expanded, and it is expanded even further in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10 = DN 22) and the Satipaṭṭhāna Saṁyutta beginning with SN 47.1.

This marks the first appearance of the satipaṭṭhāna formula in the Saṁyutta. Despite the modern perception that satipaṭṭhāna is essentially the practice of insight, it appears nowhere in the great wisdom Saṁyuttas on dependent origination, the aggregates, the senses, or the elements. In the Suttas, satipaṭṭhāna is the support for immersion, with insight emerging from immersion.