SATI
Awareness
The term mindfulness was a translation of the original Pali term sati.
The Buddha stated that sati is:
And what is the faculty of sati? Here, monks, the noble disciple is recollective, possessing utmost recollection and discernment, recalling and bearing in mind even things that were done and said long ago. This is called the faculty of sati. (SN 48.9, similarly at MN 53 i 356, etc.)
Sati was translated as mindfulness to reflect memory or to recollect. However, these definitions may not have reflected the true intent of the Buddhist understanding of sati. Sati was predominantly about being aware of the experience in the present moment. Importantly it was also about having the capacity to recognize when one has wandered off the object of interest and bring one's attention back to it. The capacity to gather the scattered mind. The capacity to keep in mind what is on your mind.
It was about having focused and sustained attention in order to be able to examine and learn from what was present. One was recollecting certain wholesome ideas such as the Buddha, the teachings of the Buddha, the community of practitioners and ethical behaviour. One was discerning whether what was present was in keeping with the Buddha's teachings and what action was necessary to be skillful.
George Dreyfus described sati as:
The central feature of mindfulness, which is to hold its object and thus allow for sustained attention regardless of whether the object of attention is present or not.
Is Mindfulness Present-Centered and Nonjudgmental Williams College Summer 2010.
Discernment
Bhikkhu Cintita interpreted the Buddha's description of sati as:
This entails being recollective, that is having the teaching at our fingertips that is revelant to the current situation, and having discernment, that is evaluating the current situation in terms of that teaching to guide behaviour or understanding.
How did mindfulness become "bare, non-judgmental, present moment awareness"? Bhikkhu Cintita 2018.
This is a comment from Alan Wallace on Nagasena's response to King Milinda's questions about the distinguishing marks of mindfulness.
Consider the following description of sati: "Sati, when it arises, calls to mind wholesome and unwholesome tendencies, with faults and faultless, inferior and refined, dark and pure, together with their counterparts.... Sati, when it arises, follows the courses of beneficial and unbeneficial tendencies: these tendencies are beneficial, these unbeneficial; these tendencies are helpful, these unhelpful." [Milindapañha 37–38]
The Nature of Mindfulness and its Role in Buddhist Meditation. A Correspondence between B. Alan Wallace and the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi. Winter, 2006. Page 5
There are multiple aspects of sati. What seems to be consistent is the components of focus and sustained awareness, discernment and skillful behaviour. Historic mindfulness was not interpreted as a non-judgmental process!
Four Foundations of Mindfulness
The origin of vipassana mindfulness was introduced by the Buddha in his teaching of the FOUR FOUNDATIONS OF MINDFULNESS or the Satippathana Suta. These were ways of establishing mindfulness. The four foundations included contemplation of the body (mindfulness of breathing, postures of the body, mindfulness with clear comprehension, reflections on the material elements, reflections on the repulsiveness of the body, nine cemetary contemplations), vedana or the feeling tone of what was present (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral), mind (mood of the mind such as greed, hatred or delusion) and dhammas or phenomena (four nobles truths, five hindrances, five aggregates, six senses, seven factors of awakenings) that were the teachings of the Buddha.
Eight Fold Path
Mindfulness was an integral part of the EIGHT FOLD PATH that described how we should live our life. It included right view, right intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. The eightfold path reflected the three important components of wisdom, morality and meditation.
Bhikkhu Bodhi makes this comment on the relationship between mindfulness and the eight fold path.
I doubt very much that there is such a thing as "bare attention" in the
sense of mindfulness completely devoid of ethical evaluation and purposive
direction. In the actual development of right mindfulness, as I understand it,
sammā sati must always be guided in right view, steered by right intention,
grounded in the three ethical factors, and cultivated in conjunction with sammā
vāyāma, right effort; right effort necessarily presupposes the distinction of mental
states into the unwholesome and the wholesome
The Nature of Mindfulness and its Role in Buddhist Meditation. A Correspondence between B. Alan Wallace and the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi. Winter, 2006. Page 7
Mindfulness was always associated with wholesome action.
Refrain
There was a REFRAIN after each of the four foundations of mindfulness that reinforced important aspects of it.
One contemplates the body (feelings, mind and dhammas):
* Contemplating experience both INTERNALLY and EXTERNALLY. One contemplates one's own and then another's experience. Awareness is relational.
* Observing the IMPERMANENCE of existence.
* Consciousness of what is present to the extent needed for BARE KNOWLEDGE with SUSTAINED MINDFULNESS such that one is aware of what is present
as it is without mental proliferation and selfing.
* ABIDE INDEPENDENT or with NO CLINGING to anything.
One can see from these refrains how complex mindfulness is beyond just being aware. It included aspects of discernment of impermanence that leads critically to non-clinging that is the segue to freedom.
Right Mindfulness
The Buddha also described RIGHT MINDFULNESS.
"And what, monks, is right mindfulness? Here, a monk dwells contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed covetousness and displeasure in regard to the world. He dwells contemplating feelings in feelings . . . contemplating mind in mind . . . contemplating phenomena in phenomena, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed covetousness and displeasure in regard to the world. This is called right mindfulness."
One dwells contemplating body in the body, feelings in feelings, mind in mind and phenomena in phenomena. One brings awareness to what is being experienced without story making.
One is ardent or committed, passionate, curious and energized in the process.
What is critical is the element of clearly comprehending that addresses the understanding of the essence of existence. Impermanence, dissatisfaction and not-self. The sense of self is an impermanent structure that is fabricated. This allows one to see things as they really are rather than what we make them to be. It supports non-identification with the sense of self.
There is an initial sustained observation of the designated sense object in order to allow one to bring to mind the teachings of the Buddha. It allowed for discernment. Is what is present skillful or not and how does one respond in a skillful way?
Mindful or the ability to have sustained awareness of the present moment.
One wants to act to remove covetousness and displeasure ie. inhibit clinging. To eliminate a preference for our preferences of desire and aversion is the segue to awakening.
The Buddha also stated that mindfulness served an important function.
"Monks, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of dukkha and discontent."
The ultimate intent of historic mindfulness was a contemplative path to end dukkha or dissatisfaction and reach awakening that is a state free of greed, hatred and delusion.
Gatekeeper Sutta
Just as a royal frontier fortress has a gatekeeper, wise, experienced, intelligent to keep out those he doesn't know and to let in those he does know, for the protection of those within and to ward off those without, in the same way a disciple of the noble ones is mindful, endowed with excellent proficiency in mindfulness, remembering and recollecting what was done and said a long time ago. With mindfulness as his gatekeeper, the disciple of the noble ones abandons what is unskillful, develops what is skillful, abandons what is blameworthy, develops what is blameless, and looks after himself with purity. AN 7:63
Thenissaro Bhikkhu in dhammatalks.org Foundations for Mindfulness May 18, 2015 comments on the Gatekeeper suta:
So these are the basic functions of right mindfulness: to remind you to act skillfully and to abandon unskillful behavior; to remind you of what's skillful and what's unskillful; and to remind you of what works and what doesn't work in developing what is skillful and abandoning what's not.
Skillful behaviour was a critical aspect of mindfulness.
Bahiya suta
Consider the historic Bahiya suta. Bahiya was a wondering monk who approached the Buddha and asked how to achieve enlightenment. The Buddha responded in the following way.
"Then, Bāhiya, you should train yourself thus: In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how you should train yourself. When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, Bāhiya, there is no you in connection with that. When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor yonder nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of stress."
[Udāna 1.10 Bāhiyasuttaṁ 10]
The original statement of "in the seen there will be only the seen..." is a perfect description of bare attention. Awareness without conceptualization. However the second component of "there is no you in connection with that" states clearly that insight into creation of a sense of self and identification with it is the root cause of one's suffering! Mindfulness integrates awareness and discernment.
Summary
In summary historic mindfulness encompassed the important elements of present moment focused and sustained awareness, discernment if what is present is skillful, how to respond skillfully and let go of clinging to achieve awakening.
by Dr. Phil Blustein
August 21, 2026