Scribd Upload ON SOME DEFINITIONS OF MINDFULNESS By Rupert Gethin Contemporary Buddhism, Vol. 12, No.

1, May 2011 ISSN 1463-9947 print/1476-7953 online/11/010263-279 q 2011 RoutledgeTaylor & Francis The Buddhist technical term was rst translated as mindfulness by T.W. Rhys Davids in 1881. Since then various authors, including Rhys Davids, have attempted denitions of what precisely is meant by mindfulness. Initially these were based on readings and interpretations of ancient Buddhist texts. Beginning in the 1950s some denitions of mindfulness became more informed by the actual practice of meditation. In particular, Nyanaponikas denition appears to have had signicant inuence on the denition of mindfulness adopted by those who developed MBSR and MBCT. Turning to the various aspects of mindfulness brought out in traditional Theravada denitions, several of those highlighted are not initially apparent in the denitions current in the context of MBSRand MBCT. Moreover, the MBSR and MBCT notion of mindfulness as non-judgmental needs careful consideration from a traditional Buddhist perspective. Nevertheless, the difference in emphasis apparent in the theoretical denitions of mindfulness may not be so signicant in the actual clinical application of mindfulness techniques. I t a p p e a r s t o h a v e b e e n T. W. R h y s D a v i d s w h o r s t t r a n s l a t e d t h e B u d d h i s t Technical term sati ( i n itsPali form)or smarati ( i n i t s S a n s k r i t f o r m ) b y t h e E n g l i s h w o r d mindfulness. We cannot be sure quite what considerations led Rhys Davids tochoose this word, since so far as I know he nowhere reveals them. The dictionaries he would have had before him Monier Williams 1872, Childers 1875, Bohtlingk a n d R o t h 18551875 would have suggested such translations as remembrance, memory, reminiscence, recollection, thinking of or upon (any person ort h i n g ) , c a l l i n g t o m i n d ( f r o m M o n i e r W i l l i a m s 1 8 7 2 ) , s i n c e t h i s w a s t h e u s u a l everyday meaning of the then more familiar Sanskrit term smarati . I t i s t r u e t h a t f o r t h e v e r b smarati Monier Williams gives the following as the initial range of meanings: to remember. . .to recollect, call to mind, bear in mind, think of, think upon, be mindful of, and this may have suggested the translation mindfulness.

Ye t C h i l d e r s 1 8 7 5 P a l i d i c t i o n a r y g i v e s m e r e l y r e c o l l e c t i o n , a d d i n g , p e r h a p s mindful that he was here dealing with a Buddhist technical term, active state of m i n d , x i n g t h e m i n d s t r o n g l y u p o n a n y subject,attention,attentiveness,thought, reection, consciousness; for the expression pathitasati he gives presence of mind and for satipathana he gives xing the attention, earnest meditation. Of course, there is no reason to assume that mindfulness is necessarily a particularly Contemporary Buddhism, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2011 ISSN 1463-9947 print/1476-7953 online/11/010263-279 q 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2011.564843

surprising translation of sati ; the OED records the use of the English mindfulness in the sense of the state or quality of being mindful; attention; memory ( obs. ); intention, purpose ( obs. ) from 1530 ( www.oed.com ). It is clear, however, that the early translators of Buddhist texts were uncertain quite how to render sati as a Buddhist technical term, since words like remembrance and memory did not seem quite to t what was required by its Buddhist usage. The earliest rendering I have been able to nd is Gogerlys 1845 correct meditation for samma -sati in the context of the eightfold path. 2 In 1850, Spence Hardy explained smirti as the faculty that reasons on

moral subjects, the conscience (1850, 442). Three years later in his Manual of Buddhism , in several places he leaves the term untranslated (1853, 412, 413), but explains satipa _ t _ t _ ha na as four subjects of thought upon which the attention must be xed, and that must be rightly understood (1853, 497) and sati as a constituent of awakening ( sambojjhan ga ) as the ascertainment of truth by mental application (1853, 498) and, in his index, as simply conscience (1853, 531). It is easy to be dismissive of these early missionary explanations and translations as inadequate and based on misunderstanding, yet both Gogerly and Spence Hardy spent many years in Ceylon, were procient in Sinhala and had close dealings with both lay and monastic Buddhists; thus their renderings and explanations are likely to reect at least impressions derived from those interactions. I n 1 8 8 1 , T. W. R h y s D a v i d s p u b l i s h e d t r a n s l a t i o n s o f seven suttas from the D gha and Majjhima Nika yas. His translation of the Maha parinibba na Sutta suggests some uncertainty about the correct rendering of sati . We nd sati

as mental activity (Rhys Davids 1881, 9, 14, 63), as simply thought (1881, 63); while the satipa _ t _ tha nas are also theearnest meditations (1881, 62, 63). 3 Yet itis perhaps already clear that mindfulness had become Rhys Davids preferred translation. In his introduction to the translation of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta he comments of samma -sati in the context of the eightfold path: sati is literally memory, but is used with reference to the constantly repeated phrase mindful and thoughtful ( sato sampaja no ); and means that activity of mind and constant presence of mind which is one of the duties most frequently inculcated on the good Buddhist. (Rhys David 1881, 145) I n h i s 1 8 9 9 t r a n s l a t i o n o f t h e r s t v o l u m e o f t h e D gha Nika y a h e u s e s mindful(ness) more or less consistently, 4 but it is only with his 1910 translation o f t h e Maha satipa _ t _ tha na Sutta

5 that Rhys Davids offers more developed consideration of the term. In the introduction to his translation he makes several points. He suggests that the doctrine expounded in the sutta is perhaps the most i m p o r t a n t , a ft e r t h a t o f t h e Ar y a n Pa t h , i n e a r l y Buddhism and that the sutta remains in frequent and popular use among those Buddhists who have adhered to the ancient faith. On the issue of what mindfulness is, he comments simply that [t]his Suttanta will show, but goes on to offer certain observations about the term. He suggests that while sati is etymologically memory, in the Buddhist context this is a most inadequate and misleading translation since sati has here 264 RUPERT GETHIN

become the memory, recollection, calling-to-mind, being-aware-of, certain specied facts: Of these the most important was the impermanence (the coming to be as the result of a cause, and the passing away again) of all phenomena, bodily and mental. And it included the repeated application of this awareness, to each experience of life, from the ethical point of view. (Rhys David 1910, 322) Here Rhys Davids seems to be highlighting one of the repeated refrains of the Maha satipa _ t _

tha na Sutta that stresses how the practice of satipa _ t _ tha na involves watching how things come to be and how they pass away. Rhys Davids next offers some comparative reections on Buddhist and Christian spirituality: When Christians are told: Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God, a way is shown by which any act, however lowly, can, by the addition of a remembrance (a Sati), be surrounded by the halo of a high moral enthusiasm; and how,by the continual practice of this remembrance, a permanent improvement in character can be obtained. The Buddhist idea is similar. But the remembrance is of what we should now call natural law, not of a deity. This has been made a cornerstone of the system of ethical self-training. The corresponding cornerstone in the West is conscience; and indeed, so close is the resemblance in their effects that one scholar has chosen conscience as a rendering of Sati;wrongly, we think, as this introduces a Western idea into Buddhism. (Rhys David 1910, 323) Whether Rhys Davids has correctly characterized either Buddhist of Christian practice here is no doubt a matter for debate. Nonetheless, from the perspective ofearly Buddhist texts itis nothardtosee whatprompted Rhys Davids todrawthe comparison he did: the message of Maha satipa _ t _ tha na Sutta might be summed up

as if you consistently remember what it is you are doing in any given moment, you will truly see what it is you are doing; and in truly seeing what it is you are doing, those of your deeds, words and thoughts that are motivated by greed, hatred and delusion will become impossible for you. The association of mindfulness with conscience, however, and its characterization as a kind of ethical intuition is not what has been emphasized or brought out in the denitions that have been current more recently in the context of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, for example, which tend to stress that mindfulness is a nonjudgemental kind of observation. Leaving this issue aside for the moment, it seems clear at least that with Rhys Davids translation of the Maha satipa _ t _ tha na Sutta , mindfulness soon became established as the only possible English translation of sati . To n a m e b u t a few signicant works, it is the translation used by Chalmers in his partial translation of the Majjhima Nika y a ( 1 9 2 6 ) , b y M r s C . A . F. R h y s D a v i d s a n d F. L . Woodward in their translation of the Sa _ myutta Nika ya (19171930); by E. M. Hare a n d F. L . W o o d w a r d i n t h e i r t r a n s l a t i o n o f t h e A n guttara Nika ya (19321936); and perhaps most signicantly by Bhikkhu N a _ namolis in his highly inuential ON SOME DEFINITIONS OF MINDFULNESS

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Buddhism may be characterized as subjective, as opposed to the Western tradition, in both science and religion, of objective justification. Bluntly, in the West, "truth" is almost always defined of what's out there, objectively. In Hinduism, truth is essentially defined & justified by "in here," subjectively. Buddhism reacted radically against the Hindu tradition, but arrived at a type of Existentialism or Presentism. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Whats the difference between mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)? How do mindfulness and CBT complement each other? CBT is built on the understanding that the roots of psychopathology are found in thoughts and behaviors and utilizes techniques to modify or replace thoughts and condition behavior to treat mental and emotional problems. Mindfulness in medicine and psychotherapy also recognizes the power of thoughts and behaviors to create a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven, but, unlike CBT, mindfulness doesnt go to work to modify or replace those thoughts. In practice, mindfulness is that pure awareness that doesnt push anything away or cling to anything. Mindfulness is not a technique that can be shaped into a means to treat psychological or physiological illness, although, it certainly can liberate you from the habits of mind and ideas of self that contribute to and create suffering. In practice, you can recognize mind-traps and those thoughts that inflame suffering and can learn to stare back or acknowledge and let be those thoughts. Stripped of the life energy that identification or even avoidance of those thoughts can demand, thoughts lose their power to undermine and control your life. When we bring these two disciplines together in a mindfulnessbased therapeutic process to help people who feel social anxiety, we draw from the insights of CBT, particularly as used in group formats, to provide opportunities for participants to better recognize the kinds of thoughts they entertain as they meet and interact with other people. Participants learn to better regulate their emotions when they are no longer identified with them and can thereby be more centered and real when they are with others. http://www.newharbinger.com/InterviewPathThroughShyness/tabid/443/Def ault.aspx How can habits be connected to We have habits of mind that involve automatic thought processes that create emotional reactions, distorted perceptions, projected judgments, and reactive behaviors that comprise our individual shyness pattern. Mindfulness is a practice and a state of consciousness that is described as fully present without judging or striving. Recognizing when you are somewhere other than the present moment and acknowledging the activity of mind that took you elsewhere. You may note with such an acknowledgment, for example, that you are rehashing the past of rehearsing the future. You may then investigate that mental activity for a few moments and notice that this is a state you habitually get caught in. A physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress and can be accessed through meditation practices like mindfulness. The practice of mindfulness involves being present with attention that is curious and investigative. We can find in this practice a state of awareness that is sometimes called the internal witness a place

in our consciousness that we often overlook because we are so involved with habitual mental states like worry. Just resting in this kind of awareness can help us access the bodys relaxation response. Rollman BL, CBT improves worry severity in older adults with GAD in primary care. Evidence Based Mental Health. Vol.13. Issue 1. 2010-02-01. Pp 20-20.