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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


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