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 slurp🥤 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 4sp🐘 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&S🐘💭 (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. 👂 Bhikkhūnaṃ dhammaṃ sutvā) | 0. 👂 listen to Dhamma [teaching] from a monk [and memorize it] |
(1. 🐘 Sati: taṃ Dhammaṃ anus-sarati anu-vitakketi) | 1. 🐘 that Dhamma [teaching] (he) recollects and thinks about |
(2. 💭 Dhamma-vicaya: taṃ Dhammaṃ paññāya, pa-vicinati pa-vicarati pari-vīmaṃsam-āpajjati ) | 2. 💭 that Dhamma discerning; he discriminates, evaluates, investigates |
(3. 🏹 Vīriya: āraddhaṃ hoti vīriyaṃ a-sallīnaṃ.) | 3. 🏹 his aroused vigor is not-slackening |
(4. 😁 Pīti: Āraddha-vīriyassa uppajjati pīti nir-āmisā,) | 4. 😁 his aroused vigor leads to arising of rapture not-carnal (of jhana) |
(5. 🌊 Passaddhi: Pīti-man-assa, kāyo-pi passambhati, cittam-pi passambhati ) | 5. 🌊 with enraptured-mind, his body becomes pacified, his mind becomes pacified |
(6. 🌄 Samādhi: Passaddha-kāyassa sukhino, cittaṃ samādhiyati.) | 6. 🌄 with pacified body, he is in pleasure, mind becomes undistractable and lucid. |
(7. 👁 Upekkha: so tathā-samāhitaṃ cittaṃ, sādhukaṃ ajjh-upekkhitā hoti) | 7. 👁 he of such undistractable & lucid mind, thoroughly looks-upon-it-with-equanimity |
sampajano (corresponds to pañña) above.
Remember, if there is no other more specific Dharma designated by context, then the 4sp🐘 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 sañña (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)
taṃ Dhammaṃ anus-sarati anu-vitakketi
My choice: repeatedly remembers that Dhamma, repeated thinks about that Dhamma.
taṃ Dhammaṃ anus-sarati anu-vitakketi
ReplyDeleteMy choice: repeatedly remembers that Dhamma, repeated thinks about that Dhamma.