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1992 meditation guide, he says, “‘Mindfulness’ has come to be the accepted translation of sati into English. However, this
word has a kind of passive connotation that can be mislead-
ing. ‘Mindfulness’ must be dynamic and confrontative. . . . I
teach that mindfulness should leap forward onto the object,
covering it completely, penetrating into it, not missing any
part of it. To convey this active sense, I often prefer to use the
words ‘observing power’ to translate sati, rather than ‘mind-
fulness.’”17
This approach may seem extreme, but you can see his
point. Atapi is the capacity for sustained mental effort in
pursuit of a goal. In the example from U Pandita, the goal is
direct knowledge or insight into an object. With atapi, a goal
is always implied, or its energy would be destructive. Atapi
also implies that discrimination ( sampajjana) and ultimate
purpose are integral parts of sati.
Finally, there are four other Pali terms that reflect different
aspects of sati. Vitakka-vicara is a form of sati that literally means “selective, sustained attention.” Vitakka means the circling around, or the orienting of the mind, toward the object.
(Cognitive psychology tells us that this is the first stage of
focusing on anything at all.) Vicara adds the meaning of sus-
taining the attention, or locking on the object and staying with
it uninterruptedly. Vitakka-vicara leads to the undistracted
streaming of attention in one direction, and it is regarded as
the entry into the first of the jhanas, or trance states.
The concept of dhamma-vicaya (the second of the seven
factors of enlightenment) explains why you would do this. Vic-
aya means looking deeply into the mental phenomena that
arise ( dhamma) in meditation. For a monk, dhamma-vicaya
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is the understanding that every single perception is impermanent ( anicca), a potential source of suffering ( dukkha), and devoid of any lasting identity ( anatta), and should therefore be abandoned. We are not monks, so when we examine
any sensation, thought, impulse, or emotion, we are likely to
have different interpretations, but the same principle applies.
When we look into something ( dhamma-vicaya) for long
enough, be it a few seconds or a few minutes, we will accu-
rately know its true value for good or ill in our lives.
When we put all these different aspects of attention
together as a mind-training program, we have vipassana, a
term that literally means “repeated deep seeing.” Vipassana
is sometimes translated as “penetrating insight,” suggesting
the kind of purposeful drive that is reflected in U Pandita’s
comments.
MINDFUL VERSUS MINDLESS
The Buddha understood sati as discriminating self-obser-
vation for the purpose of awakening. The Sutta says, “The
monk lives intently ( atapi) contemplating his body, clearly
understanding ( sampajjana), and mindful ( sati) of it.” Sati is
“attention.” Sampajjana is “evaluation.” Sati-sampajjana is
“the conscious perception and evaluation of something.” The
primary role of sati is to make good decisions in all matters,
big or small. Above all, the satipatthana method trains the
executive functions of a mature adult: attention, judgment,
memory, willpower, and goal-directed effort.
So how did mindfulness come to be viewed as “a state of
nonjudgmental acceptance”? Today’s writers are often likely
to describe it as savoring the present, tasting the raisin, firmly
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resisting the lure of thought and action. As Jon Kabat-Zinn puts it, “You are already everything you may hope to attain,
so no effort of the will is necessary. . . . You are already it.”18
Although this is nothing like satipatthana, we do find it
throughout Buddhism, almost from the beginning. Its most
obvious sources nowadays are Burmese Vipassana, Tibetan
Dzogchen, and Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen. These are the
so-called “tranquility” or “no-thought” practices based almost
entirely on sitting. These practices typically emphasize still-
ness and passivity; an abandonment of thought, analysis, dis-
crimination, or learning; and an uncritical acceptance of the
flow of the moment.
These practices usually aspire to a so-called nondual,
mirrorlike state of pure consciousness. Buddhism has literally
dozens of technical terms and metaphors for this ideal state:
buddhamind ( bodhicitta), luminosity, bare attention, empti-
ness ( sunyata). Despite their intellectual poverty, tranquility
meditations are often regarded by their practitioners as being
the very quintessence of the Buddha’s teaching. As Dogen put
it, “Zazen is the ultimate practice. This is indeed the True Self.
The Buddhadharma is not to be sought outside of this.”19
In contrast, many scholars, monks, and the Buddha him-
self have criticized these practices as being more mindless
than mindful. They are narcotic and potentially addictive.
A no-thought meditator is seen as doing “dead stump” or
“bronze buddha” practice. He has “fallen into emptiness” or
is suffering a “Zen sickness.” Buddhaghosa would probably
regard this kind of complacent tranquility as “the near enemy”
lurking within any meditation practice. According to the Bud-
dhist scholar Robert Sharf, the eighth-century Indian teacher
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Kamalashila said there is a special hell for yogis who believe that the goal of meditation is no-thought: they will face five
hundred eons in the zombie realm of beings without minds.20
Tranquility meditations, as an escape from the world and
its rational reference points, can easily reinforce a kind of
narcissistic self-absorption. As Sharf puts it, the practitioner
“can lose touch with the socially, culturally and historically
construed world in which he or she lives.”21 The “nonjudging”
aspect can also suggest he has abandoned his moral compass
and sense of common humanity. A modern meditator can
easily lapse into a kind of mystical, “be here now” ideology.
This quietistic abnegation of thought and action can be found
in many religions, including Christianity. It is related to vir-
tues such as faith and surrender, but it is a very long way from
the Satipatthana Sutta.
Tranquility meditations are satisfying, healthy, and restful,
and their simplicity makes them easy to market. They are a
good and probably essential first step for any meditator, but
they are also a honey trap for tired and lazy minds. Above all,
they can blind us to the full dynamic potential of mindfulness.
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15
How the Sutta Works
In the last chapter I described sati as sustained, purposeful
attention. I will now explain how this concept is applied
throughout the Sutta. Before I do so, I have to address an
uncomfortable issue. The Buddha’s techniques are exquisitely
practical, but his values are not ours. Above all, he was a monk
with little sympathy for the “householder” life. If you read
the Pali Canon texts, it is obvious that seeking nirvana entails
physical seclusion, emotional detachment, a horror of sensual-
ity, and an indifference toward the world.
Hardly anyone swallows this original Buddhist formula
whole nowadays. It is far too cold and bitter, and the benefits
don’t seem to justify the enormous sacrifices involved. This is
partly why the Sutta and the original texts are so neglected.
Every writer on Buddhism draws lines between what they
accept from the tradition and what they don’t, even though
they hardly ever admit this. Popular writers often water down
the Buddha’s doctrine to homeopathic levels. “Nirvana” gets
reduced to “happiness.” The Buddha’s take-home message
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gets summarized as “friendliness” and “altruism.” His energetic drive for enlightenment is replaced by a kind of passive
“presentism.”
I’m not going to do anything like this. I think that it shows
the Buddha far more respect to state his teaching and values
as faithfully as possible, even if I (and you, my readers) vehe-
mently disagree with him. The Buddha was a keen, system-
atic, and original thinker, and he deserves to be heard in his
own tone of voice. Any human being, even a criminal in a
law court, deserves this simple courtesy. I find it ironic that
I probably explain his views more clearly than many of his
most vocal supporters. I’m not a Buddhist, so I disagree with
him in many respects, but I do admire him as a philosopher.
In this and later chapters I’ll try to draw the demarcation
lines as clearly as possible. It took me several years, but I now
find it fairly easy to separate his mind-training methods from
his beliefs and goals. I will particularly highlight where our
paths and purposes diverge from his.
CONTINUOUS MINDFULNESS
The Satipatthana Sutta is a do-it-yourself training manual.
It is designed to help an itinerant monk develop the habit of
continuous self-observation in the pursuit of enlightenment.
As is obvious in the Sutta, seated meditation was only part of
his practice. The monk may have spent less than half his wak-
ing day sitting down. He didn’t need to be “meditating” to be
mindful. His real discipline was to focus inwardly and to culti-
vate his mind in every situation.
The Buddha divided the objects of attention into four gen-
eral groups: the body, emotions, states of mind, and thought.
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Each of these has subdivisions, and we could always add others if we wanted to, such as “mindfulness of action.” Regard-
less of the object, the act of focusing always has a similar
quality. We “hold the object in mind.” We hold it “distinct”
from related matters and potential distractions. When we
focus well, something clicks into place. We know that we’ve
got it. We sense the object of our attention in sufficient detail
to evaluate it more accurately and confidently than we did at
first.
All this is true whether the object remains in conscious-
ness for a few seconds or an hour; whether it is something as
exact as a thought or it is opaque like a mood; whether it is
simple, such as a sound or an itch; or whether it is complex,
such as a philosophical question or a life choice.
It takes years to become equally proficient across this vast
range of mental objects. We may be skilled at focusing on the
breath, but to accurately sense a mood or a problem is a differ-
ent challenge altogether. Nonetheless, the gut feeling of get-
ting a clear, uncluttered mental representation of something
is much the same in all cases.
NAMING
In earlier chapters, I introduced an exercise called “Naming the
Distraction.” That was just one specific application of the way
that “naming” is used in the Sutta. The Buddha said that we are
mindful if we can hold any object “in mind” and describe it to
ourselves (that is, “name” it). The gold standard of mindfulness
is thus the ability to verbally identify the object. This ensures
that there is nothing vague or approximate about being mind-
ful. This deliberate use of language guarantees metacognitive
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awareness. The prominent use of naming (or labeling, or categorizing, or noting) throughout the Sutta also gives the lie to
those writers who claim that mindfulness is a precognitive and
nonverbal kind of perception.
Like the good teacher that he was, the Buddha gave many
examples of naming. In the Sutta’s section on mindfulness of
the body, for example, the Buddha says that when the monk
is breathing in, he knows, “I am breathing in.” When he is
breathing out, he knows, “I am breathing out.” When his body
is calm, he knows, “This is a calm body.” When he is walking,
he knows, “I am walking.” When he is eating, he knows, “I am
eating.”
In the section on mindfulness of emotion, the Buddha
says that when the monk experiences a pleasant sensation
he knows, “This is pleasant.” When the monk experiences an
unpleasant sensation he knows, “This is unpleasant.” When
he is angry he knows, “This is anger.”
In the section titled “Mindfulness of States of Mind,” the
Buddha says that when the monk is energetic, he knows, “This
is energy.” When his energy is depleted, he knows, “This is
lethargy.” When his mind is tranquil, he knows, “This is tran-
quility.”
The Buddha’s examples of labeling are all short and sim-
ple. Naming something is not an invitation to speculate on
it. Its purpose is to help “hold” the object for appraisal. When
modern meditators name, they typically use just single
words: “calm,” “pleasant,” “anger,” “pain,” “confusion.” This
categorizing captures the object for just long enough to eval-
uate it and choose a response. This is usually but not always
a nonresponse (don’t go there), or an acceptance of what can’t
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be changed (stop fighting it). If the object is particularly useful in the context of your goals and values, you tr
y to boost it.
If it is useless or worse, you try to disengage from it.
Meditators nowadays tend to name an object only when
they feel it is useful to do so. Naming is an excellent device
for managing distractions, for example. However, the almost
physical sense of “holding” an object in mind is more import-
ant than literally naming it. This ability to hold an object in
mind is, paradoxically, reliant on also being firmly grounded
in one’s body. As the Buddha says, the monk “focuses on the
breath in front of himself.” The Buddha regarded body-mind
stillness ( passaddhi) as indispensable for steady attention
and clear evaluation.
We can also hold an object in the form of an image or a
feeling once we know how. Using language doesn’t always
help. For example, we can consciously grasp a musical phrase
so vividly that it lodges in memory for several seconds there-
after, but there is no way to usefully name it.
As a technique, naming has considerable limitations. It
is impossible to label more than a fraction of what arises in
the mind. Many mental phenomena such as moods, intu-
itions, and reflections are far too subtle to be named. Nam-
ing doesn’t help much with tranquility meditation, and some
scholars argue that naming can obstruct other faculties such
as absorption ( samadhi).
However, the basic principle stands up very well. The gold
standard for mindfulness is that you can briefly describe
to yourself what you are doing, thinking, or feeling at any
moment. You are mindful if you can “name” what is domi-
nant in your mind.
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In the Sutta, naming is used to evaluate an object prior to a response. Thus we do respond differently to stimuli according to their importance. We are not trying to freeze them all
indiscriminately. We are looking for an appropriate response
rather than none at all. For example, the sound of background
traffic is easier to handle than a nagging problem with a child.
Conversely we might need to sit with a mood of rising sadness
or regret for several seconds before it “clicks” into place and we
“know” it. Nor is there any need to ruthlessly disengage from
an affectionate thought or a sudden memory that gives us plea-