User:Dorje108/Mindfulness

Overview v2

Mindfulness (Pali: sati, Sanskrit: smṛti) is a Buddhist term also translated as "awareness", "attention", "recollection", etc. It can be defined as being attentive to the present moment and it functions as an antidote to distraction. Within the Buddhist teachings, mindfulness is identified in the following contexts:

• One of the eight branches of the noble eightfold path ("right mindfulness")
• One of the five spiritual faculties
• One of the five stengths
• One of the seven factors of enlightenment
• One of the twenty-five beautiful mental factors in the Theravada abhidharma tradition
• One of the five object-determining mental factors in the Mahayana abhidharma tradition

The development of mindfulness (typically through the practice of meditation) is considered to be an essential aspect of the Buddhist path. In the Buddhist tradition, a practitioner typically "trains" in mindfulness through the practice of meditation. The benefits of mindfulness practice are twofold. The practice of mindfulness in everyday life enables one to be present and aware of one's actions of body, speech, and mind throughout the day; this practice of "right mindfulness" helps one to maintain a wholesome or virtuous attitude of body, speech and mind, and to avoid unwholesome thoughts or actions.

The practice of mindfulness is also used to support analytical mediation used in the development of wisdom (Pali: paññā, Sanskrit: prajñā). A key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative stabilisation must be combined with liberating discernment.

Mindfulness practice, influenced by the Buddhist tradition, is increasingly being employed in Western psychology to alleviate a variety of mental and physical conditions, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and in the prevention of relapse in depression and drug addiction. See also Mindfulness (psychology).

Overview

Mindfulness (Pali: sati, Sanskrit: smṛti) is a Buddhist term also translated as "awareness", "attention", "recollection", etc. It can be defined as being attentive to the present moment and it functions as an antidote to distraction. The development of mindfulness (typically through the practice of meditation) is considered to be an essential aspect of the Buddhist path. Within the Buddhist teachings, mindfulness is identified in the following contexts:

• One of the eight branches of the noble eightfold path ("right mindfulness")
• One of the five spiritual faculties
• One of the five stengths
• One of the seven factors of enlightenment
• One of the twenty-five beautiful mental factors in the Theravada abhidharma tradition
• One of the five object-determining mental factors in the Mahayana abhidharma tradition

In the Buddhist tradition, a practitioner typically "trains" in mindfulness through the practice of meditation; but goal of this practice is develop mindfulness in everyday life. This means being present and aware of one's actions of body, speech, and mind throughout the day. It is believed that "right mindfulness" helps one to maintain a wholesome or virtuous attitude of body, speech and mind, and to avoid unwholesome thoughts or actions.

On a deeper level, the practice of mindfulness can be used to support analytical mediation used in the development of wisdom (Pali: paññā, Sanskrit: prajñā). A key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative stabilisation must be combined with liberating discernment.

Mindfulness practice, influenced by the Buddhist tradition, is increasingly being employed in Western psychology to alleviate a variety of mental and physical conditions, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and in the prevention of relapse in depression and drug addiction. See also Mindfulness (psychology).

Overview bk01

While mindfulness is typically developed through meditation practice, the Buddhist teachings emphasis maintaining mindfulness throughout one's daily activities; this means being present and aware of one's actions of body, speech, and mind throughout the day.

The Buddha advocated that one should establish mindfulness (satipatthana) in one's day-to-day life maintaining as much as possible a calm awareness of one's body functions, sensations (feelings), objects of consciousness (thoughts and perceptions), and consciousness itself.

Within texts

Mindfulness is emphasized in the following Buddhist texts:

• Satipatthana Sutta (Sanskrit: Smṛtyupasthāna Sūtra; English: The Discourse on the Establishing of Mindfulness) is an early text dealing with mindfulness.
• Bodhicaryavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva) - Chapter 5 emphasizes mindfulness

Mindfulness meditation can be traced back to the Upanishads, part of Hindu scriptures and a treatise on the Vedas.

Miscellaneous

Enlightenment (bodhi) is a state of being in which greed, hatred and delusion (Pali: moha) have been overcome, abandoned and are absent from the mind. Mindfulness, which, among other things, is an attentive awareness of the reality of things (especially of the present moment) is an antidote to delusion and is considered as such a 'power' (Pali: bala). This faculty becomes a power in particular when it is coupled with clear comprehension of whatever is taking place.

Definitions

(sati), i.e., to be aware and mindful in all activities and movements both physical and mental, as we discussed above.

Rahula, Walpola; Demieville, Paul (2007-12-01). What the Buddha Taught: Revised and Expanded Edition with Texts from Suttas and Dhammapada (Kindle Locations 1753-1754). Grove Press. Kindle Edition.

In this regard what is most important to know is the essence of mindfulness, which is not to forget the points of what should be done and what should be avoided, and the essence of introspection, which is—regardless of whether one stays alone or among many, that is to say, in each and every situation—to repeatedly examine the conduct of one’s three gates8 and to engage with introspection in what should be done and what should be avoided.

Kenpo Kunpal, Chapter 5, page 37

When you first become aware of something, there is a fleeting instant of pure awareness just before you conceptualize the thing, before you identify it. That is a stage of Mindfulness. Ordinarily, this stage is very short. It is that flashing split second just as you focus your eyes on the thing, just as you focus your mind on the thing, just before you objectify it, clamp down on it mentally and segregate it from the rest of existence. It takes place just before you start thinking about it--before your mind says, "Oh, it's a dog." That flowing, soft-focused moment of pure awareness is Mindfulness. In that brief flashing mind-moment you experience a thing as an un-thing. You experience a softly flowing moment of pure experience that is interlocked with the rest of reality, not separate from it. Mindfulness is very much like what you see with your peripheral vision as opposed to the hard focus of normal or central vision. Yet this moment of soft, unfocused, awareness contains a very deep sort of knowing that is lost as soon as you focus your mind and objectify the object into a thing. In the process of ordinary perception, the Mindfulness step is so fleeting as to be unobservable.

http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/mfneng/mind13.htm

External links

• Oxford University Mindfulness Research Centre
• Using Mindfulness in a frantic world
• Mindfulnet.org: The Independent Mindfulness Information website
• Mindfulness in Plain English
• Mindfulness Defined by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
• Muho Noelke: "Stop being mindful"
• The neuroscience of Mindfulness
• Mindfulness in a nutshell
• The modern visual symbol of Mindfulness
• Mindfulness Meditation in Adaptation Practice
• Mindfulness Research Guide
• What is Mindfulness? From the Buddha to Contemporary Western Teachers