What is Mindfulness
Mindfulness comes from the Pali term 'Sati'. It is central to Vipassana practice.
The Satipatthana Sutta, called the "Direct Path to Realisation" by the Buddha was a discourse the Buddha often gave and referred back to over his lifetime. It is this text that forms the foundation of Vipassana meditation as we know it today.
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When first translated, 'Sati' was translated into the English term 'Mindfulness'. The English word does not fully capture the depth of the meaning of Sati and as our experience in the practice deepens, we continuously refine our understanding of Sati.
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We can be mindful of not bumping our head on the door, mindful of our speech, our actions, our intentions. We can be mindful of our internal world, attitude towards experience and how our attention moves.
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Mindfulness is the key ingredient for developing wisdom, concentration and confidence through meditation practice. It is also what helps us to make every moment of our waking lives a meditation.
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I share here my current understanding of Mindfulness based on my experience with Vipassana meditation, from researching the Buddha's original words (the Pali Canon) and the experience of other teachers and their words.
Components of Mindfulness
There are many definitions of Mindfulness and they all have its uses. Sometimes, we need a more specific definition to help us understand how to practice. Sometimes a more loose, broader definition is helpful to let go and let out practice be more inclusive. At different times, different definitions will make more sense to us depending on how structured, ordered, or open, unknowing our state of mind is.
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Here are a few existing definitions that I have come across:
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Mindfulness is the practice of being present, being fully awake, all the time, in every situation.
(Dipa Ma)
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Mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment
(Jon-Kabat Zinn)
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Mindfulness is Awareness of Body & Mind at the present moment
(Ajahn Puttar of Wat Sopharam, Thailand)
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Mindfulness is the systematic development of Concentration, Sensory Clarity & Equanimity
(Shinzen Young)
Mindfulness is the optimal balance between attention and awareness
(John Yates, Culadasa)
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Mindfulness is watching the movement of mind's attention from one thing to another
(Bhante Vimalaramsi)
We have many different perspectives with a lot of overlap. I will attempt here to write something that may give more understanding to these perspectives.
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At the most simple level, Mindfulness is the mere awareness of whats happening. This definition applies all the way from the most basic to the deepest levels of meditation.
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We can also see this Awareness as being supported by three key ingredients. Ingredients which are not mindfulness itself but must in some measure be present for there to be Mindfulness.
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1. Aware in the Present-Moment. The Immediacy of NOW.
Mindfulness happens in the present moment. It is the Mind's ability to perceive, in real time, whats happening. Mindfulness, as it gets refined, gets closer and closer to the immediacy. The razor-sharp edge of NOW. A "now" that is ever-changing, unstable, not graspable, indescribable. The more present we are, the more wakeful, clear, effortless we see what's happening now, now, now.
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2. Collectedness. Stability of Mind
Mindfulness is aided by a certain stability of mind. A mind that is collected around and in the present moment. The opposite being a scattered and busy mind that is pulling us into multiple different directions, and full of content. The more collected the mind becomes on the present moment, the more space there is to be aware of the present moment. When the mind is less collected, the mind is filled up with other priorities, intentions and is scattered or distracted, unable to rest in 'now'. This is also called Collectedness 'Samadhi'.
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3. Non-Tensing / Non-Interference
The final ingredient is a mind that is not grasping or resisting what it's aware of. When grasping is present - perhaps for something we would rather have or how reality should be, then perception is clouded and cannot clearly perceive. There might also be a resistance to whats happening. Resistance in the form of tensing to change or control something. When there is this tensing, there is interfering. And the mind is not truly open and clearly perceiving whats happening. Of course, we can also be aware of tension that is present, which then becomes mindfulness. So it is not the absence of tension in experience but the non-tensing towards whats happening. We can also call it being open to what is, being chill with what is. This is also called equanimity 'upekkha'.​
What are we mindful of?
So we know that we are mindful when we are aware, collected and non-tensing in the present moment. But what can we be mindful of?
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Outside and Inside, Body & Mind
We can be mindful of what's happening outside of us. This is something that someone next to us could also perceive. This includes being mindful of our physical reality. The space, objects, movement. Our bodies and the posture or activity of the Body. We can also be mindful of the situation, its context and purpose.
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The Buddha asks us also be aware of Inside. This is experience that only we can perceive. The experience of our 5 senses of the Body (hearing/seeing/feeling/touching/tasting) and what Buddhism calls the 6th sense door - the Mind (thinking/planning/remembering/imagining etc).
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A simple framework for being mindful of inside and outside is the "see-hear-feel internal/external" by Shinzen Young. What do I see/hear/feel outside of me? And inside of me (mental images/self-talk/emotional body)?.
Interaction
An important point here also is that we are aware of the interrelation between inside & outside and body & mind. What appears inside when something happens outside? What happens outside when something happens inside? What happens in Body when something happens in Mind? What happens in Mind when something happens in Body?
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A quote by Sayadaw U Tejaniya illustrating this inside-outside awareness. ​
When a car passes by, what differentiates the meditator from the non-meditator? The meditator knows both that the car passed by and knows the experience of seeing, feeling, hearing, and interpreting the experience, thoughts, or thinking mind, and so forth (some or all, as the case may be). The non-meditator just knows a car passing by.
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Metacognitive Awareness
A very important aspect of Mindfulness in the way that Buddha asked us to practice is the cultivation of meta-cognitive awareness. This is the awareness of not only WHAT is happening in Body and Mind but also HOW the mind is perceiving it. The definition of metacognitive awareness by Culadasa:
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metacognitive introspective awareness means being aware of the ongoing activities and current state of the mind. This is different from just being aware of mental objects, such as particular thoughts and memories, which are merely the constructs of the mind.
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We can be metacognitively aware of two types of mental activity. First, we can be aware of what attention is doing. This includes where attention’s being directed, the sensory category of the particular object, how attention moves, and its vividness and clarity.
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The second aspect of metacognitive awareness is being cognizant of the state of your mind. This refers to its clarity and alertness, the predominant emotion, hedonic feelings, and the intentions driving your mental activity.
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Metacognitive awareness is what allows insight to develop. Insight into how we usually perceive things and whether that is based on assumptions rather than experience. Insight is the continuous deepening of understanding into our metacognitive process that allows us to see reality more clearly.
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Where to start?
This can all be very overwhelming to know. There are many layers and components. In traditional contexts where the technique is taught, they don't tell you much. They tell you to be mindful and you gradually figure it out through your experience.
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Traditionally, most techniques start with being mindful of the Body. This is the easiest place to start as the real experience of the senses and activity & posture of the Body is always happening in the present moment.
So we pay attention to breathing and the feeling of breathing. We attend to the body walking and the feeling of walking. We can attend to the Body sitting and the feeling of Sitting & touching. We recognise when we get lost in thought, distracted and come back to the Body at the present-moment. We sit still or stay in a very simple repetitive motion (like walking meditation, or prostrations) to first learn how to be mindful in this simple mundane experience. We can also use mental noting with the aid of labelling to establish mindfulness moment-by-moment.
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As we develop the faculty of mindfulness of this simple experience, we automatically start to notice other experience. With the right understanding of how to practice, we start noticing the mind thinking, grasping.
Stages of Mindfulness
Although I hesitate to put it here, there are different stages or depths of mindfulness. These unfold naturally as experience and practice deepens. There are many different traditional maps or models that used to describe this unfolding. A common one in the Vipassana world is the map of the 16 Yanas, or 'Stages of Insight'. I will describe a more simple model which I get inspiration for from Michael Taft, a meditation teacher.
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A word of warning: Knowing what's ahead may create expectations and looking for something special in your practice. This will cause you to not move deeper as the mind is clinging and not clearly aware. Be mindful of these attitudes and thoughts appearing in your practice. ​
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I lay these stages out in 5 Stages. These are not discrete or even stable.
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No Mindfulness
There is no awareness of what's happening in Body & Mind at the present moment. We are completely and utterly absorbed in a story. Entangled in its picture of Self and World it paints. There is no awareness of physical surroundings or subjective experience at the present moment.
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Conceptual Awareness
There is awareness of experience at a conceptual level. Through a conceptual lens. We are 'thinking about' what is happening. There is a strong sense of duality, of subject and object, of Self and World. We are conceptually aware of the breath and our Bodies. You know there is an inhale and an exhale but you do not really feel the inhale/exhale as a sensation. We know a bird chirped but did not feel the feeling of hearing in real time. Mindfulness tends to be after the sensory event or thought has occured and you remember or think about what happened.
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Aware of Phenomena
We contact the actual experience of Phenomena. These are Phenomena at the 6 sense doors of Seeing/Hearing/Feeling/Tasting/Touching/Cognising. Mindfulness starts to perceive sensory events happening in real time. There is may be a sense of freshness with every experience because the Mind is actually perceiving the senses rather than pre-processing, categorising, bundling and thinking about them.
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Aware of Change
Mindfulness becomes more and more in real time. There is a immediacy and now-ness to mindfulness. The perspective of time start to shift from past-present-future to 'just this'. Mindfulness stops caring too much about what the experience is and starts to notice more its nature. The nature of arising, of passing and of arising & passing. With this, there is more letting go and less clinging on to individual things, thoughts, sensations. In this deeper stage there can be difficulties that we face. Difficult emotions, thoughts sensations as these are released and brought to the conscious mind to process. This stage is where Vipassana really starts.
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Aware as Emptiness, Emptiness as Awareness
Experience is perceived more and more clearly, with less and less effort, in a broader, more inclusive way. Duality between subject-object appears and collapses over and over. We could call this non-dual, effortless mindfulness. Mindfulness is something that is 'being done' less and less, it becomes automatic. Clinging is noticed and released instantaneously even if we do not know the object of the clinging. Barely anything appears. There may also be a sense of lightness, ordinariness, perfection, wakefulness, vastness, emptiness. Some also call this rigpa or quiet mind. As Mindfulness here matures, there may also be complete 'black-out' or cessation moments where there is no experience to be perceived at all.
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The most important thing to remember with these stages is that a deeper stage is not necessarily the best. We need to use different levels of mindfulness for different activities and situations. Being in a very deep meditative state is not practical when we are driving a car or having a conversation with the cashier at the grocery store. Being at a deeper stage of Mindfulness is not permanent and depends on the level of awareness of the immediacy in the present moment, the collectedness of mind and the non-tensing against experience.
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When we develop more experience traversing and going deeper, it becomes easier to access the deeper stages, even in just a moment. The Buddha's path is to be free from suffering. As we go deeper, suffering becomes lighter and lighter, more subtle and we learn how it arises.
Working at a conceptual level with the conditions of our life is also beneficial to our happiness. We need conceptual mindfulness to become better parents, partners or friends and this helps us to be happier also!
A Still Forest Pool
“When the mind is still, it is like a still forest pool. It reflects everything clearly without distortion.”
A metaphor for mindfulness given by Ajahn Chah, a meditation master in the Thai forest tradition.
When we practice mindfulness, we practice to be like the still forest pool. The open, collected mind, dwelling in the present moment.
We see what kind of creatures come by and drink from the pool. The thoughts, sensations, emotions, perceptions that arise in conscious experience.
As we observe, without tensing, without interfering, we start to learn. We learn about the nature and behaviour of all the animals, plants, insects and weather and their interaction.
Mindfulness is the key for insight
Mindfulness is the most important ingredient in the Buddha's teachings.
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Mindfulness can be cultivated through systematic training. I see this training as having two different dimensions, the depth and breadth of mindfulness training.
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We can train our 'depth' of mindfulness. This is practicing to go deeper, to see more subtlety, to open the layers of perception. To become quieter and quieter and see more. We can train depth through formal practice and through meditation retreats. Depth is created through prioritising awareness of experience over tasks or missions that we might have. This is what we do in the formal practice through simple frames like walking and sitting.
Depth of Mindfulness allows us to move to deeper "stages" of the practice and sets the ground for insights into the nature of experience to arise. These deeper insights allow us to experience less and less suffering as the assumptions underlying how we experience every moment start to shift.
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We can also train our 'breadth' of mindfulness. This is practicing to maintain a light continuity of mindfulness in more and more activities throughout our daily lives. From the most simple, physical tasks like getting out of bed in the morning, making a tea, washing dishes to the more complex mentally engaging tasks like learning, computer work, conversations through to the more emotionally heated situations such as difficult conversations. Training in breadth helps mindfulness become more stable, more continuous and sheds light on our unconscious patterns. It allows that are unhelpful to our and other's lives.
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Breadth and depth reinforce each other. The deeper your practice, the more clear and intentionally you can bring it into your life. The broader your practice, the more easy it is to maintain a minimum level of mindfulness which allows you to deepen more quick.
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If we train in only one of depth & breadth, our practice will likely get stuck as we either go deep but fail to apply these insights into our way of living and continue to suffer or we stay at surface level mindfulness which keeps us from understanding subtler aspects of the Dharma.
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The training need not be serious, contrived or forced. It takes a long time and a lot of patience to develop the effortless continuity and mere awareness of experience the Buddha proposed. However, when we are practicing in the right way, the benefit is immediate as we start to release the avoiding (delusion) and the clenching and grasping habit of mind (clinging & aversion) right here, right now.
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In the Buddha's words:
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Svakhato Bhagavata Dhammo,
Sanditthiko, Akaliko, Ehipassiko, Opanayiko,
Paccattam Veditabbo Vinnuhi ti
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The Dhamma explained well,
realised by oneself, here & now, by experiential investigation, leading inward,
to be realised by the Wise
Written 13 December, 2024
Reimar Wen Shen @Vipassana at Home
References
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Ajahn Phra Puttar of Wat Sopharam
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Esteemed Thai Buddhist monk.
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Culadasa (John Yates)
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Author of "The Mind Illuminated."
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Daniel Ingram
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Author of "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha."
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David Johnson
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Author of "The Path to Nibbana."
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Delson Armstrong
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Contemporary meditation teacher and author.
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Dipa Ma
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Renowned meditation teacher in the lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw.
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Michael Taft
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Host of the "Deconstructing Yourself" podcast.
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Rob Burbea
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Author of "Seeing That Frees."
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SN Goenka
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A prominent teacher of Vipassana meditation.
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Satipatthana Sutta
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Known as "The Direct Path to Realisation."
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Sayadaw U Tejaniya
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Renowned Burmese meditation teacher.
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Shinzen Young
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Author of "The Science of Enlightenment."
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Author of "What is Mindfulness PDF"
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