It means as soon as we have tied our mind to the focal object, we immediately mentally hold it without the slightest distraction of mental wandering. “Not forgetting” does not just mean when someone asks us, we can remember what the instructions for the practice are or that our object of focus is like this or like that. Its mental hold on the object is such that we do not forget about the object.Thus its object is something that we have become certain about and may be either constructive, like the visualized image of a Buddha, or unspecified (ethically neutral), like the body. It focuses on an object that we are previously familiar with, not something unfamiliar.dran-pa), in the context of shamatha meditation, has three characteristics:
shamatha), the Tibetan master Tsongkhapa elaborates on Asanga’s definition of mindfulness.
samadhi) and a stilled and settled state of mind (Skt. In Grand Presentation of the Graded Stages of the Path ( Lam-rim chen-mo), in the section on developing absorbed concentration (Skt. Its object must be something constructive with which we are familiar its aspect must be that it is focused on this object and does not forget or lose it and its function is to prevent mental wandering. As one of these five, mindfulness is a mental factor that occurs only in constructive cognitions and only in those constructive cognitions that apprehend their objects, in other words cognitions that cognize their objects accurately and decisively. Abhidharmasamuccaya), presents mindfulness as one of the five ascertaining mental factors. Thus, recollecting an object can be within the context of meditation on the object or simply in everyday occurrences of remembering something.Īsanga, in his Chittamatra text, Anthology of Special Topics of Knowledge (Skt. In his commentary to this text, Sthiramati explains that “familiar object” means something that we have experienced before. Thus he states there that mindfulness is the mental state of not letting go of a familiar object and noting it once more. Panchaskandha-prakarana), Vasubandhu presents mindfulness specifically in the context of recollecting an object. In his Mahayana Chittamatra text, Discussion of the Five Aggregates (Skt. Because of coveting or noting its object, mindfulness allows us to recollect that object later. Abhidharmakosha-bhashya), Vasubandhu defines mindfulness as the mental factor of not letting go of or not forgetting its object, and thus it entails a coveting of its object or a noting of its object. In his Commentary to “Treasure House of Special Topics of Knowledge” (Skt. Thus, mindfulness is present all the time, not only in the context of meditation. It accompanies them whether those cognitions are also accompanied by other constructive, destructive or only unspecified (ethically neutral) mental factors. smrti) as one of the ten mental factors that accompany all moments of cognition. Abhidharmakosha), lists mindfulness (Skt. Vasubandhu, representing the Hinayana Vaibhashika school in his Treasure House of Special Topics of Knowledge (Skt. Once it is established on an object, mindfulness needs to be accompanied by discriminating awareness about some feature of that object, such as its impermanence. In a sense, then, mindfulness is a type of “mental glue” that holds on to its object of focus without letting go. Its function is not to forget and it is manifested as guarding the mind from losing its object. Within meditation, mindfulness has the characteristic feature of remembering or recollection, as in always remembering the breath or the fact of death. There, mindfulness is described as an integral facet of many assorted meditations. The Theravada presentation of mindfulness (Pali: sati) is based on Upatissa’s Path of Liberation (Pali: Vimuttimagga) and Buddhaghosa’s Path of Purification (Pali: Visuddhimagga).
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