What is mindfulness?

DairyLama

We often refer to "mindfulness", but what is it, and how is it described and practised in the different traditions?
In simple terms I usually describe it as "paying attention", but are there other ways of thinking about it?

In Theravada the core text is the Satipatthana Sutta: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.than.html

fivebells

From Mindfulness Defined:

"And what is the faculty of mindfulness? There is the case where a monk, a disciple of the noble ones, is mindful, highly meticulous, remembering & able to call to mind even things that were done & said long ago. He remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. He remains focused on feelings in & of themselves... the mind in & of itself... mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. This is called the faculty of mindfulness. — SN 48.10

[Ardency, alertness and mindfulness] get their focus from what the Buddha called yoniso manasikara, appropriate attention. ...there is a big problem smack dab in the middle of everything you do: the suffering that comes from acting in ignorance. This is why the Buddha doesn't tell you to view each moment with a beginner's eyes. You've got to keep the issue of suffering and its end always in mind.

Otherwise inappropriate attention will get in the way, focusing on questions like “Who am I?” “Do I have a self?”—questions that deal in terms of being and identity. Those questions, the Buddha said, lead you into a thicket of views and leave you stuck on the thorns. The questions that lead to freedom focus on comprehending suffering, letting go of the cause of suffering, and developing the path to the end of suffering. Your desire for answers to these questions is what makes you alert to your actions—your thoughts, words, and deeds—and ardent to perform them skillfully.

Mindfulness is what keeps the perspective of appropriate attention in mind. Modern psychological research has shown that attention comes in discrete moments. You can be attentive to something for only a very short period of time and then you have to remind yourself, moment after moment, to return to it if you want to keep on being attentive. In other words, continuous attention—the type that can observe things over time—has to be stitched together from short intervals. This is what mindfulness is for. It keeps the object of your attention and the purpose of your attention in mind.

droogiefret

I heard it is being aware of what you are doing right now this moment. Not thinking about it - just observing it without comment.

droogiefret

.. oh, and that it's really easy to do ...... for about a second or so.

misecmisc1

you will not believe that today afternoon - nearly 3 hours back - i was thinking of raising a thread to ask the question - what is right mindfulness? - meaning what is that thing which makes mindfulness right or wrong - then i googled it and wikipedia link came up with some information and some understanding came to my mind, so i did not raised that thread - but that can be a wrong understanding also, but somehow seems a little bit ok to me.

seeker242

This is my all time favorite video on the topic.

misecmisc1

my theoretical understanding says: mindfulness or sati means to remember something in mind - so mindfulness of breathing means to keep breath in mind. so in anapanasati sutta, it says ardent, alert and mindful - so ardent is persevering or being zealous about the goal, alert is being alert as to what is happening in present moment and mindful is to keep the breath in mind (to bring back the attention back to breath, as breath is the object of meditation). in right mindfulness, the right part is if it aligns to right view. now in right view, the right part is if it does not cause harm to others or to oneself, does not indulge in greed, aversion and delusion - in a way it removes unskillful qualities and increases skillful qualities.

if my above understanding is not ok, then request you all to please correct it. thanks in advance.

fivebells

droogiefret said:

I heard it is being aware of what you are doing right now this moment. Not thinking about it - just observing it without comment.

In many circumstances, thinking and commentary about what you're doing at the moment is actually essential to progress on the path. From "Mindfulness Defined":

Some teachers define mindfulness as “non-reactivity” or “radical acceptance.” If you look for these words in the Buddha's vocabulary, the closest you'll find are equanimity and patience. Equanimity means learning to put aside your preferences so that you can watch what's actually there. Patience is the ability not to get worked up over the things you don't like, to stick with difficult situations even when they don't resolve as quickly as you want them to. But in establishing mindfulness you stay with unpleasant things not just to accept them but to watch and understand them. Once you've clearly seen that a particular quality like aversion or lust is harmful for the mind, you can't stay patient or equanimous about it. You have to make whatever effort is needed to get rid of it and to nourish skillful qualities in its place by bringing in other factors of the path: right resolve and right effort.

Zero

SpinyNorman said:

In simple terms I usually describe it as "paying attention", but are there other ways of thinking about it?

One way I think about it is akin to visiting a new place - it is at first unfamiliar but after a few visits it takes on a known quality.
The state of the 'first unfamiliar' (as opposed to to say the known quality) is I think perhaps akin to a facet of my identification with mindfulness.

betaboy

Mindfulness is new-age stuff and highly overrated. It has no place in Buddhism. Buddhism is about insight into the three truths, that's all. That insight is often mistaken for mindfulness. But mindfulness is dangerous for one's mental health; it leads to vexation of spirit and eventually madness. Try at your own risk.

Chaz

@betaboy - it's not nice to troll.

betaboy

Chaz said:

@betaboy - it's not nice to troll.

But I am doing it mindfully.

DairyLama

misecmisc1 said:

in right mindfulness, the right part is if it aligns to right view. now in right view, the right part is if it does not cause harm to others or to oneself, does not indulge in greed, aversion and delusion - in a way it removes unskillful qualities and increases skillful qualities.

Broadly yes, though I think you're referring to Right Intention above, rather than Right View? Certainly mindfulness is pivotal when working with other factors of the 8-fold path.
So you could say that mindfulness has both passive and active aspects, ie being mindfully aware and acting mindfully.

vinlyn

An attempt to be totally focused on ___________.

Jeffrey

Knowing what is good for you from what is not good for you (and others).

wangchuey

Unknowingly leading yourself towards unecessary suffering is not mindfulness.

upekka

wangchuey said:

Unknowingly leading yourself towards unecessary suffering is not mindfulness.

this is 'sankhara dukka'

how

@SpinyNorman
Mindfulness = Mind-full-ness, is the un obstructed acceptance of all incoming sense gate data.

Differentiated from various meditative forms of focus & concentration which are directively selective about the sense gate data input.

fivebells

From "Mindfulness Defined"

When the breath gets really full and refreshing throughout the body, you can drop the evaluation and simply be one with the breath. This sense of oneness is also sometimes called mindfulness, in a literal sense: mind-fullness, a sense of oneness pervading the entire range of your awareness. You're at one with whatever you focus on, at one with whatever you do. There's no separate “you” at all. ...in the Buddha's vocabulary it's [not] mindfulness.... It's cetaso ekodibhava, unification of awareness—a factor of concentration, present in every level from the second jhana up through the infinitude of consciousness.

Mindfulness reminds you that no matter how wonderful this sense of oneness, you still haven't solved the problem of suffering.

lobster

betaboy said:

Chaz said:

@betaboy - it's not nice to troll.

But I am doing it mindfully.

Indeed.
. . . or mindlessly?

You can do 'better' or more skilfully as you are aware . . .

:om:

DairyLama

how said:

@SpinyNorman
Mindfulness = Mind-full-ness, is the un obstructed acceptance of all incoming sense gate data.
Differentiated from various meditative forms of focus & concentration which are directively selective about the sense gate data input.

I think mindfullness covers both, ie it can be either focussed one on object like the breath, or it can be expansive and inclusive of whatever one if experiencing.

how

@SpinyNorman
Hmmm
Next time I'm having tea with the Buddha, I'll ask him why he duplicated one of the 8FP spokes.

DairyLama

how said:

@SpinyNorman
Hmmm
Next time I'm having tea with the Buddha, I'll ask him why he duplicated one of the 8FP spokes.

Mindfulness is multi-faceted. There is mindfulness on a single object to develop concentration, but there is also more expansive mindfulness eg to develop insight and apply other path factors effectively.