Wrong Mindfulness is not Right!

What is Mindfulness? Who decided what English word to be used for the word Sati. The word mindfulness was the translation chosen for the Pali word Sati. Sati is the word that represents Mindfulness.

But who decided this? Were they monks? Did they practice meditation. Is this the correct translation that should be used for the word mindfulness.

So let's take a look at the history of the first translations into English that were made. Lets go to the web:

The first English translations of the ancient Buddhist Suttas, including texts like the Majjhima Nikāya, began in the late 19th century. Notable early translators include:

1. Thomas Rhys Davids - A British scholar who founded the Pali Text Society in 1881. He and other members of the society were pivotal in translating many Pali texts into English. Rhys Davids himself translated several important texts and played a crucial role in making Buddhist scriptures accessible to the English-speaking world.

2. F. L. Woodward - Another key figure associated with the Pali Text Society, who translated numerous suttas, including works from the Majjhima Nikāya, during the early 20th century.

So that's who translated Pali into English. Rhys Davids wasn't a monk or a meditator but a scholar. He picked English words that he speculated represented the Pali term.

What we need to understand is that the Buddha experienced things in his meditation and his philosophy that were never before experienced in western culture.

One example is the word feeling. We see feeling as an emotional feeling. But the Buddha described feeling much more broadly. He said "Feeling is anything that can be felt." That's pretty clear. You could also translate it as sensation, but its both physical and mental. There is mental, as well as physical feeling. When you remember a vacation you went on you might have a pleasant mental feeling arise.

So, just what is the translation of the word Mindfulness in the dictionary, when we look it up?

Lets ask the Chat Bot:

The Buddhist word for "mindfulness" is "sati" in Pali and "smṛti" in Sanskrit. These terms refer to a key concept in Buddhist practice, which involves maintaining awareness and attention in the present moment.

"Sati" encompasses several aspects:

• Awareness: Being conscious of what is happening in the present moment.

• Attention: Focusing on specific objects or experiences without distraction.

• Remembering: Keeping in mind the teachings of the Buddha and the principles of the Dharma.

In the context of meditation and daily practice, mindfulness is about being fully present and engaged with whatever activity or thought process one is involved in, observing it without judgment.

What Mindfulness means currently:

This is a valid translation but, the second bullet point is: Attention: Focusing on specific objects or experiences without distraction." Let's look at that one. This is the one many meditation practices are based on.

The problem here is that this indicates a FOCUSED attention or what one might say a One-Pointed attention of an object or experience. And thus you have the current definition of mindfulness, that is most commonly used. Focusing on an object. Or even just being mindful of something, like "be mindful of the door."

Or "Be Careful and look where you are going"

There is another element that was missed in the translation. The word Sati comes from the word "smrti" in sanskrit. Delson Armstrong described, in a talk on the 8 fold path, that smrti has a quality of "remembering" in it. It is be careful to Remember!

Remember what? Awareness! Remember to be Aware!

Its not about remembering to watch your step, its about remembering to watch your mind's attention! Not the object you are looking at but you are remember to watch the mind "move" from one object to another. Watching to see where your attention/awareness is going. Remembering to come back to the present moment.

It isn't becoming absorbed into an object like breath or a candle flame. It is Right Effort that is being engaged. When you are on your object of meditation you continue to remember to be here with the object. When the mind wanders off, you remember where you are and you come back to what you are doing.

In the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta it says, ...a monks knows when he is walking, when he is looking at something, sitting down and so on. If his mind has wandered he remembers to come back to the object. Now the next step of Right effort is to Release the distraction and then RELAX the craving desire to stay with the distraction; then bring up a wholesome object or a smile, and then return to your previous object of meditation and continue. The 6R's.

So when you see the word mindfulness don't use the Rhys Davids definition, use the newly developed translation by Venerable Bhante Vimalaramsi,

"Meditation is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one thing to another... and seeing that everything that arises is part of an impersonal process."

~Bhante Vimalaramsi