This is an extremely important lesson.
Hardly anyone teaches this thoroughly and completely correctly, so pay very close attention.
When you see the word 'sati' in the suttas, it means 'remembering' (or the more common translation of 'mindfulness').
In the famous Nike sneaker commercial, they had a popular slogan "just do it."
You should be asking "what" is "it" I should do?
The motif of their commercial campaign, is that one should stop making excuses, procrastinating, and 'just do' that important thing you've always wanted to do or need to do, like exercise or fight injustice.
It's a great mantra, and really resonated for people.
(Nike corporation's real message though, was to use the catchy idealistic mantra to make you, "just buy our overpriced 200$ sneakers that were produced in China for 1$ by child slave laborers working 14 hours a day without pay so we can gorge ourselves on the multimillion dollar stock options and bonuses.")
When I was in calculus (math) class, my teacher used to say this a lot about derivatives. "We're deriving that with respect to WHAT?"
Similarly, when you see "sati, mindfulness" in suttas, you should be asking this:
What am I supposed to 'remember' (sati)?
What am I supposed to be 'mindful' of?
Just as in English, if I say "go", it really means:
[someone] goes [some place].
[some place] in this example is a 'direct object'.
di·rect ob·ject
noun: direct object; plural noun: direct objectsa noun phrase denoting a person or thing that is the recipient of the action of a transitive verb, for example, the dog, in "Jimmy fed the dog."
Sati 'slurps' in Dhamma and Sampajano
In the EBT suttas, whenever you see 'sati' in isolation, what you should be doing in your mind is slurpš„¤ in the full phrase intended with the single word 'sati':
[I] remember [Dharma] and [I lucidly discern that Dharma].
If there is no specific dharma instruction in that context, then you slurp in the 4spš formula as your default direct object of 'sati'.
Right view (sampajano) always rides shot gun with 'sati'!
The 4sp formula recursively includes, 4 times for each frame, S&Sšš (the second 's' is sampajano).
Sati = Remembers Dharma and lucidly discerns it.
Appendix:
proof that 'dhamma' is direct object of sati and sampajano rides shotgun with sati
| (implied: pamojja and pīti would result from contact with inspiring monks) | |
(0. š BhikkhÅ«naį¹ dhammaį¹ sutvÄ) | 0. š listen to Dhamma [teaching] from a monk [and memorize it] |
(1. š Sati: taį¹ Dhammaį¹ anus-sarati anu-vitakketi) | 1. š that Dhamma [teaching] (he) recollects and thinks about |
(2. š Dhamma-vicaya: taį¹ Dhammaį¹ paƱƱÄya, pa-vicinati pa-vicarati pari-vÄ«maį¹sam-Äpajjati ) | 2. š that Dhamma discerning; he discriminates, evaluates, investigates |
(3. š¹ VÄ«riya: Äraddhaį¹ hoti vÄ«riyaį¹ a-sallÄ«naį¹.) | 3. š¹ his aroused vigor is not-slackening |
(4. š PÄ«ti: Äraddha-vÄ«riyassa uppajjati pÄ«ti nir-ÄmisÄ,) | 4. š his aroused vigor leads to arising of rapture not-carnal (of jhana) |
(5. š Passaddhi: PÄ«ti-man-assa, kÄyo-pi passambhati, cittam-pi passambhati ) | 5. š with enraptured-mind, his body becomes pacified, his mind becomes pacified |
(6. š SamÄdhi: Passaddha-kÄyassa sukhino, cittaį¹ samÄdhiyati.) | 6. š with pacified body, he is in pleasure, mind becomes undistractable and lucid. |
(7. š Upekkha: so tathÄ-samÄhitaį¹ cittaį¹, sÄdhukaį¹ ajjh-upekkhitÄ hoti) | 7. š he of such undistractable & lucid mind, thoroughly looks-upon-it-with-equanimity |
sampajano (corresponds to paƱƱa) above.
Remember, if there is no other more specific Dharma designated by context, then the 4spš formula is what you slurp in and use as the direct object of 'sati'.
Questions and responses to this article
Someone asked a good question on the difference between sati and saƱƱa (perceptions), and differences between right and wrong sati:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/hhx86x/the_slurp_for_sati_remembering_mindfulness_has_an/
Ven. Kumara makes a good suggestion that I agree with:
(I'll include the change to my sutta translation in SN 46.3 on next website update)
taį¹ Dhammaį¹ anus-sarati anu-vitakketi
My choice: repeatedly remembers that Dhamma, repeated thinks about that Dhamma.
taį¹ Dhammaį¹ anus-sarati anu-vitakketi
ReplyDeleteMy choice: repeatedly remembers that Dhamma, repeated thinks about that Dhamma.