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B. Analayo and his new book, a wrong definition of 'mindfulness'

Excerpt from the book announcement:

Anālayo is particularly well placed to give an authoritative account of early Buddhist mindfulness in practice and theory. He is able to conduct research by comparing Chinese Agamas and Pali Canonical texts, with reference to Tibetan and Ghandharvan text fragments. And he is that rare and precious combination, a scholar-practitioner. 
...
 
Anālayo ends this book with a new and more comprehensive definition of mindfulness than is used in most current scholarship, Buddhist or secular. He defines it as “an openly receptive presence that enables a full taking in of information, resulting in an awake quality of the mind that facilitates clarity and recollection by monitoring, in the present moment and without interfering, the internal and external repercussions of whatever is taking place.”   

 

I don't know what scholars are reading and what they're thinking if that's what they think 'mindfulness' is. It certainly isn't the Buddha's definition of 'sati' in the pali suttas, the agamas, etc. 

Sati ("mindfulness") interferes actively whenever necessary. If defilements arise, you kick them out the door immediately. You don't stand idly by "without interfering", like a choiceless awareness zombie with "an open receptive presence." 



AN 7.67 -🏰  Ask yourself if you want that guy in the picture to be your gatekeeper to the fortress (simile of mindfulness) in this sutta.


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