The Nature of Right-Mindfulness: a Theravadin Perspective
I thought I might post this since we have been discussing the nature of mindfulness. Here is one possible Theravada perspective. Mindfulness itself cannot be defined because it belongs to the realm of ultimate realities: actualities that cannot be broken down into finer subjective experiences. However, the classical Theravada way of discussing absolute realities is to discuss them in terms of their functions and characteristics. "The function of mindfulness is to keep the object in view by neither forgetting it nor allowing it to disappear." (U Pandita: In This Very Life). This explains the literal meaning of the word sati (Pali) or smrti (Sanskrit) as remembering. Sati is the remembering of what needs to be remembered in any situation. It remembers the object, objects or processes of contemplation (mentality/materiality) and also what we are doing. When you have the experience of going off to do something in your home, and then forget what it was you had set out to do, or when you begin to say something and then forget what it was that you were going to say, you have lost your sati/smrti. It is often confused with concentration. A meditator can have very strong concentration, and still have a lapse of mindfulness. This is what happens when we have been on retreat for some time and our mind loses the breath, and we go off fantasies, lust or anger. Have you noticed how powerful those moments of anger or lust can be on retreat, or how vivid the fantasies? That is because the mind goes into them with all the power of the samadhi that has been generated in the prior days. It is like a heavy fast moving train jumping the track. The mass or weight of the train is the samadhi. The momentum is the energy in the mind, and the jumping off the track is the lapse of mindfulness. Mindfulness also has the function of protecting the mind. Somewhere in the Dhammapada (sorry I don't have time to source it), the Buddha said something like: "Just as rain cannot enter a well thatched roof, defilement cannot enter the mind one who is fully mindful." Continuity in the state of mindfulness therefore brings with it a great purity. Non-superficiality is an important characteristic of mindfulness. As mindfulness deepens, the objects of contemplation, in this case the flow of mentality and materiality, are increasingly penetrated. At first the breath is coarse and not clearly felt, but over time mindfulness reveals the finer currents of sensation that make up the breath, just so with every other aspect of both five aggregates. Just as a stone sinks to the bottom of a river, mindfulness leads consciousness and understanding to gradually penetrate and eventually completely permeate our experience. The Buddha said, "Mindfulness is everywhere useful." It is the one mental factor that will develop all of the necessary wholesome mental factors that support awakening. For example, the continuous application of mindfulness rouses energy in consciousness. The continuous setting up face to face with the objects of contemplation develops samadhi, and as the mind penetrates its present experience more and more deeply with the maturing of mindfulness, more and more is seen and understood. In this way mindfulness develops understanding and insight. As experience deepens and wisdom reveals the four noble truths, the mind gains trust, sadha/sradh, and begins to rest in its experience. The settling of the mind under the influence of samadhi and trust brings tranquility. These last three together bring intense lucidity and purity to the mind, which in turn enable more wisdom. In this way all of the 37 requisites of enlightenment are developed. I would say therefore that mindfulness, if supported by sila, (virtue, morality) is the womb of bodhi.
