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Overview v2

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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:

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).[1] A key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative stabilisation must be combined with liberating discernment.[2]

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.[3] See also Mindfulness (psychology).


Overview

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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:

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).[4] A key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative stabilisation must be combined with liberating discernment.[5]

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.[6] See also Mindfulness (psychology).

Overview bk01

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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

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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. [7]

Miscellaneous

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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

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(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

Notes

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References

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  1. ^ "In short, the contemplative training known as “shamatha” (meditative quiescence) deals with the development and refinement of attention; and this is the basis for “vipashyana” (contemplative insight), which entails methods for experientially exploring the nature of the mind and its relation to the world at large." from a description of the 18th Mind and Life Dialogues meeting, official webpage, http://www.mindandlife.org/dialogues/past-conferences/ml18/
  2. ^ Alexander Wynne, The origin of Buddhist meditation. Routledge, 2007, page 73.
  3. ^ http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/4/259.full
  4. ^ "In short, the contemplative training known as “shamatha” (meditative quiescence) deals with the development and refinement of attention; and this is the basis for “vipashyana” (contemplative insight), which entails methods for experientially exploring the nature of the mind and its relation to the world at large." from a description of the 18th Mind and Life Dialogues meeting, official webpage, http://www.mindandlife.org/dialogues/past-conferences/ml18/
  5. ^ Alexander Wynne, The origin of Buddhist meditation. Routledge, 2007, page 73.
  6. ^ http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/4/259.full
  7. ^ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016383439500025M

Web references

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