© 2014 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Mindfulness (sometimes also called right attention, samma sati in Sanskrit) is a term derived from the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama and designating vigilant awareness of one’s own thoughts, actions and motivations. It plays a central role in Buddhism where it is affirmed that mindfulness is an essential factor for liberation (bodhi or spiritual awakening). It is the seventh limb of the noble eightfold path.
The principles of mindfulness
Right attention or mindfulness consists of bringing one’s attention back to the present moment and examining the sensations that present themselves to the mind, how they appear, how they last for a while, and how they disappear. This practice allows one to realize directly whether a sensation is sometimes permanent or always impermanent. Subsequently, the practitioner will also examine matter, perceptions, positive or negative mental habits, consciousness, how all things appear, how they last and how they disappear. The observer remains neutral and silent (the “mental silence”) while examining the appearance and disappearance of pleasant, neutral or unpleasant sensations, without judging, without seeking to retain the pleasant sensation or to reject the unpleasant sensation. The observer learns detachment and gradually frees himself from matter, sensation, perception, mental conditioning, consciousness, and therefore from dukkha. If he chooses to abandon dukkha, it is because he is convinced that this phenomenon always has a dual manifestation, joy and sadness, therefore “no definitive satisfaction”.
This mindfulness is not limited to a meditation practice but simply consists of observing the physical and mental objects that present themselves to the mind. When an object disappears, mindfulness does not cease, it is turned by the observer towards a “default” object: breathing or walking. When a new object appears to the mind, attention leaves the “default” object and applies itself to attentively observing the new object according to the two aspects of its nature, as conventional truth (sammuti sacca) and as ultimate truth (paramattha sacca). This is how attention to natural breathing (anapana sati): inhale, short pause, exhale, short pause, is not an end in itself but it effectively supports the vitality of mindfulness.
The Buddha advises to observe the sensation internally (in the mind) and externally (in the body). For example, if the observer sees in the mind: “hot”, he can also see in the body: dilation of blood vessels, sweating, etc. Then, if the observer sees in the mind: “cold”, he can also see in the body: contraction of blood vessels, shivering, etc. This step is important because the practitioner learns to see directly that the mind quickly exchanges a lot of information with the body through the unconscious. Mindfulness experiences the body and mind in its two components, conscious and unconscious, with the aim of cleaning everything, purifying everything.
Mindfulness lies beyond the first form of wisdom: devotion, and beyond the second form: the logic of the intellect. It is the third form of wisdom, called bhavana-maya panna, the direct vision of the ultimate reality in all things.