Skip to main content

Question: What is the correct definition for Mindfulness?


From stackexchange, someone asked 

What is the correct definition for Mindfulness?


answer:
What is the OP really asking?
1) What is the English definition of 'mindfulness'?
2) or What is the correct definition of  'sati', the pali word often translated as 'mindfulness'? 


1) the English definition of 'mindfulness' has been hijacked 

What was once based on the Buddha's definition of 'sati' (and 'sampajano'), has been hijacked and transformed by two major forces in the modern world. 

a) Buddhist teachers, even famous and intelligent ones, perhaps influenced by each other and modern psychotherapy's version of 'mindfulness', generally understand 'mindfulness' as a kind of choiceless  bare awareness. Not properly differentiating between 'sati' and 'sampajano', and not understanding the core suttas, they've ended up with not only a watered down 'sati', but a dangerously wrong interpretation that misses some of the most important aspects of 'sati'. 
 
a) Modern psychotherapy reshapes the watered down Buddhist misinterpretation from (a) into a secular method of meditation for stress relief. Certainly still a very useful tool, hence its popularity, but throws out some of the most important benefits of the real 'sati'.


2) The correct definition of  'sati', the pali word often translated as 'mindfulness'

Can only be determined from a careful comprehensive study of the early suttas. 

A detailed analaysis can be found here: 

sati 7🐘


A short excerpt of the main points:

sati 7🐘 = remembering

0. Basic function and Pre-buddhist (MN 36 5ind) meaning of sati: 'remembers' what was done and said from long ago (SN 48.9 sati-indriya).
1. Whenever you see 'sati' without qualification in the suttas, almost always the intended meaning is the specialized Buddhist definition in SN 47.2.
1a. sati = STED 4sp🐘 satipattana formula
1b. Sati is recursively defined as S&S🐘💭 (sati & sampajano) in each of the 4sp, remembering & lucid-discerning.
1c. The lucid-discerning (sampajano) that rides shotgun with sati in S&S, is a thin disguise for right view 1👁. Pajano is a form of pañña 5👁 (discernment), and many suttas equate pañña with right-view. So sati can not be a choiceless awareness zombie with Right View joined at the hip with sati like siamese twins.
2. Sati remembers ☸Dhamma. Always (SN 47.6, SN 47.7). ☸Dhamma = Buddha's teaching that leads to ... viraga, nirodha, ... Nirvana. The 4sp formula in the official sati definition is another concise way to express ☸Dhamma. So is the 4👑☸.
3. Sati is the head of the 7sb dragon (SN 46.1). When you see 'sati', often it's implied you should slurp in all 7sb☀️ awakening factors into the picture, which you already start to do by slurping in 2nd factor ☸Dhamma-vicaya. ☸Dhamma is what sati remembers, and ☸Dhamma is what the 2nd factor in 7sb investigates. The 3rd factor Viriya vigorously executes the ☸Dhamma instructions recalled by sati. Etc.

✅Right and ⛔Wrong

✅Sati can take on any one or more of the meanings above in any combination, simultaneously. They're not mutually exclusive.
✅In the suttas, you often see S&S🐘💭 as a compound, or just 'S' sati on its own. Whichever form is used, usually all meanings are implied. I.e. sati includes S&S🐘💭, 4sp🐘, 7sb☀️.
⛔Sati is not choiceless awareness *
⛔Sati is not bare present moment awareness *
* Sati may at times manifest superificial symptoms that resemble a choiceless awareness zombie, but that is a side effect, and not the true meaning of sati.

STED 4sp

kāye kāyā-(a)nu-passī viharati
Body-as-body – continuous-seeing (he) abides-in,
ātāpī sampajāno satimā,
(he is) ardent 🏹, (a) lucid-discerner 👁, (a) rememberer 🐘,
vineyya loke abhijjhā-do-manassaṃ;
vanquishing worldly avarice-(and)-distressed-mental-states.
vedanāsu vedanā-(a)nu-passī viharati
Experienced-sensations-(as)-experienced-sensations – continuous-seeing (he) abides-in
ātāpī sampajāno satimā,
(he is) ardent 🏹, (a) lucid-discerner 👁, (a) rememberer 🐘,
vineyya loke abhijjhā-do-manassaṃ;
vanquishing worldly avarice-(and)-distressed-mental-states.
citte cittā-(a)nu-passī viharati
Mind-as mind – continuous-seeing (he) abides-in,
ātāpī sampajāno satimā,
(he is) ardent 🏹, (a) lucid-discerner 👁, (a) rememberer 🐘,
vineyya loke abhijjhā-do-manassaṃ;
vanquishing worldly avarice-(and)-distressed-mental-states.
dhammesu dhammā-(a)nu-passī viharati
☸Dhamma-[teachings]-as-☸Dhamma – continuous-seeing (he) abides-in,
ātāpī sampajāno satimā,
(he is) ardent 🏹, (a) lucid-discerner 👁, (a) rememberer 🐘,
vineyya loke abhijjhā-do-manassaṃ;
vanquishing worldly avarice-(and)-distressed-mental-states.

Sati is memory

elephant and bodhi treeThe elephant never forgets.

sati = remembering = two way memory access, memorization + recollection (SN 48.9 sati-indriya).
SMRTI = You (S)uppose to (M)emorize and (R)ecollect (T)errific (I)deas.
SATI = You (S)uppose to (A)ctualize (T)errific (I)deas
☸Dhamma = those (T)errific (I)deas.

sati remembers ☸Dhamma. Always.

Meaning of the cryptic 4sp🐘 formula

He abides, continuously seeing the body as a body, [as it actually is, according to reality]...
He abides, continuously seeing the experienced-sensations as experienced-sensations, [as it actually is, according to reality]...
He abides, continuously seeing the mind as mind, [as it actually is, according to reality]...
He abides, continuously seeing the ☸Dhamma as ☸Dhamma, [as it actually is, according to reality]...
🔗proof & details


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advice to younger meditators on jhāna, sex, porn, masturbation

Someone asked: Is porn considered harmful sexual.activity? I don't have a sex life because I don't have a partner and I don't wish to engage in casual sex so I use porn to quench the biological urge to orgasm. I can't see that's it's harmful because nobody is being forced into it. The actors are all paid well and claim to enjoy it etc. The only harm I can see is that it's so accessible these days on smart devices and so children may access it but I believe that this is the parents responsibility to not allow unsupervised use of devices etc. Views? Frankk response: In another thread, you asked about pleasant sensations and jhāna.  I'm guessing you're young, so here's some important advice you won't get from suttas   if you're serious about jhāna.  (since monastics are already celibate by rule)   If you want to attain stable and higher jhānas,   celibacy and noble silence to the best of your ability are the feedstock and prerequiste to tha
Post a Comment
Read more

SN 48.40 Ven. Thanissaro comments on Ven. Sunyo's analysis

This was Ven. Sunyo's analysis of SN 48.40: https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2024/05/exciting-news-honest-ebt-scholars-like.html And here is Ven. Thanissaro's response to that analysis: I think there’s a better way to tackle the issue of SN 48:40 than by appealing to the oldest layers of commentarial literature. That way is to point out that SN 48:40, as we have it, doesn’t pass the test in DN 16 for determining what’s genuine Dhamma and what’s not. There the standard is, not the authority of the person who’s claiming to report the Buddha’s teachings, but whether the teachings he’s reporting are actually in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma that you know. So the simple fact that those who have passed the Buddha’s teachings down to us say that a particular passage is what the Buddha actually taught is not sufficient grounds for accepting it. In the case of the jhānas—the point at issue here— we have to take as our guide the standard formula for the jhānas, a
Post a Comment
Read more

1min. video: Dalai Lama kissing boy and asking him to suck his tongue

To give more context, this is a public event,  * everyone knows cameras are rolling  *  it's a room full of children * the boy's mom is standing off camera a few feet away watching all of this * the boy initiated contact, he had already had a hug with Dalai Lama earlier and then asked Dalai Lama for another hug which triggered this segment  17 min. video showing what happened before that 1 min. clip and after, with some explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0qey5Ts78 16min talk from Ajahn Acalo with his thoughts on Dalai Lama kissing boy, relevance to Bhikkhu monastic code, sexual predators in religion in general, and how celibate monastics deal with sexual energy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2m0TcUib0 The child's comments about the incident in a filmed interview later https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2023/04/18/643eba5d46163ffc078b457c.html The child: It's a great experience It was amazing to meet His Holiness and I think it's a great ex
Post a Comment
Read more