For the past several months you’ve been in dialogue with many Buddhist teachers on the topic of mindfulness. What prompted you to focus on this topic? For years I’ve been puzzled by the discrepancies between the descriptions of mindfulness given by many modern Vipassana teachers and psychologists who rely on them, on the one hand, and the definitions of mindfulness we find in traditional Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist literature on the other. When I first noticed this disparity about thirty years ago, I thought perhaps it was due to differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. But the more I looked into this, the more it appeared to me that traditional Theravada and Mahayana sources are largely in accord with each other, and it was the modern accounts of mindfulness that departed from both traditions.

In what ways do the modern accounts differ? While mindfulness (sati) is often equated with bare attention, my conversations with - and recent studies of works by - the learned monks Bhikkhu Bodhi and Bhikkhu Analayo, and Rupert Gethin, president of the Pali Text Society, led me to conclude that bare attention corresponds much more closely to the Pali term manasikara, which is commonly translated as “attention” or “mental engagement.” This word refers to the initial split seconds of the bare cognizing of an object, before one begins to recognize, identify, and conceptualize, and in Buddhist accounts it is not regarded as a wholesome mental factor. It is ethically neutral. The primary meaning of sati, on the other hand, is recollection, non-forgetfulness. This includes retrospective memory of things in the past, prospectively remembering to do something in the future, and present-centered recollection in the sense of maintaining unwavering attention to a present reality. The opposite of mindfulness is forgetfulness, so mindfulness applied to the breath, for instance, involves continuous, unwavering attention to the respiration. Mindfulness may be used to sustain bare attention (manasikara), but nowhere do traditional Buddhist sources equate mindfulness with such attention.

Does the Buddha ever mention the term manasikara in his mindfulness instructions? Not that I know of. The term figures most prominently in Abhidhamma-based treatises on Buddhist psychology. In the Buddha’s practical instructions on both samatha (tranquility meditation) and vipassana (insight meditation), the terms sati and sampajanna appear most often. Sampajanna is usually translated from the Pali as “clear comprehension,” but this type of awareness always has a reflexive quality: It invariably entails a monitoring of the state of one’s body or mind, sometimes in relation to one’s environment. For this reason, I prefer to translate sampajanna as “introspection,” which here entails discerning observation not only of one’s mind but of one’s physical and verbal activities as well.

What are some of the pitfalls of viewing meditation simply as a process of bare attention? When mindfulness is equated with bare attention, it can easily lead to the misconception that the cultivation of mindfulness has nothing to do with ethics or with the cultivation of wholesome states of mind and the attenuation of unwholesome states. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the Pali Abhidhamma, where mindfulness is listed as a wholesome mental factor, it is not depicted as bare attention, but as a mental factor that clearly distinguishes wholesome from unwholesome mental states and behavior. And it is used to support wholesome states and counteract unwholesome states.

What, then, is the role of bare attention? The cultivation of bare attention is valuable in many ways, and there’s a rapidly growing body of research on its benefits for both psychological and physiological disorders. But it’s incorrect to equate that with mindfulness, and an even greater error to think that’s all there is to vipassana. If that were the case, all the Buddha’s teachings on ethics, samadhi (highly focused attention), and wisdom would be irrelevant. All too often, people who assume that bare attention is all there is to meditation reject the rest of Buddhism as clap-trap and mumbo-jumbo. The essential teachings are dismissed rather than one’s own preconceptions.

A frequent claim is that bare awareness will automatically prevent unwholesome thoughts from arising. Is there any basis for this notion in the texts? Bare awareness as calm, nonreactive awareness of one’s meditative object plays a crucial role in samatha practice, which alleviates such afflictive mental states as craving, aversion, dullness, agitation, and doubt. There are also many accounts in Buddhist texts of people gaining profound, liberating insights through what appears to be bare attention. Perhaps the most well-known case is that of the wandering ascetic Bahiya. After becoming a highly accomplished contemplative, he recognized that he still hadn’t achieved liberation, so he sought out the guidance of the Buddha, who told him, “In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how you should train yourself.” And Bahiya immediately achieved liberation.

We could easily conclude from this that bare attention is all that is needed in insight meditation. But we must remember that Bahiya’s case was exceptional. He had already achieved a very high level of spiritual maturation before he met the Buddha, so these quintessential instructions were all he needed to completely purify his mind of all mental afflictions. For the rest of us, the rich diversity of theories and practices in Buddhism can be a great aid. Bare awareness can play an important role in this, and on occasion it may indeed prevent unwholesome thoughts from arising. But if we stick to bare attention alone, it can also prevent wholesome thoughts from arising! For example, meditations for the cultivation of the four sublime virtues of lovingkindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity are all practiced with mindfulness but not bare attention. Bare attention is not a complete practice, and by itself it can be helpful and yet very limiting.

Do the differing definitions of mindfulness have any practical bearing? Or is this just a semantic issue? It’s far more than a semantic issue. In common usage the English term mindfulness simply means to be aware, or heedful. Sati has a much richer connotation, so those wishing to practice Buddhist meditation are well advised to gain as clear an understanding of this and other related terms as they can, based on the most authoritative sources they can find. Otherwise, Buddhist meditation quickly devolves into a vague kind of “be here now” mentality, in which the extraordinary depth and richness of Buddhist meditative traditions are lost.

Would it help to standardize the meaning of mindfulness? Out of respect for the integrity of each tradition, it would be a mistake to force them all into the same mold. It’s important to be sensitive to differences among different schools. But insofar as the discourses attributed to the Buddha and the major commentaries agree on the meaning of mindfulness, this should be recognized by Buddhists of all schools.

In his classic fifth-century work The Path of Purification, Buddhaghosa, the most authoritative commentator in the Theravada tradition, begins his explanation of this topic by stating that it is by means of mindfulness that we are able to recall things or events in the past, which echoes the Buddha’s definition of this term. Its characteristic, Buddhaghosa writes, is “not floating,” in that the mind is closely engaged with the chosen object of attention. Its property is “not losing,” indicating that mindfulness enables us to maintain our attention without forgetfulness. Its manifestation is “guarding” or being “face to face with the object,” implying that “the rope of mindfulness” holds the attention firmly to its chosen object, whether it is a relatively stable, single object or a continuum of interrelated events. Its basis is “strong noting,” suggesting its discerning quality, which is crucial when closely practicing satipatthana (the Four Applications of Mindfulness) - mindfulness of the body, feelings, thoughts, and other phenomena. As Buddhaghosa comments that mindfulness should be seen as a post set in its object, and as a gatekeeper guarding the doors of perception. On the basis of this classic, authoritative account, we can easily see why mindfulness is essential for samatha and vipassana in particular and for spiritual practice in general. Traditionally, samatha is the primary method for cultivating mindfulness, while in the practice of vipassana one applies mindfulness and wisdom (panna) to body, mind, feelings, and other phenomena.

In its psychological role as recollection, sati is an ordinary mental faculty we use in daily life. Some of the exercises in satipatthana, such as contemplating the anatomical parts of the body, can’t possibly be done with bare attention - for example, as satipatthana is used in the practice of mentally scanning bodily sensations. In all cases, mindfulness as it is cultivated in spiritual practice is applied with discerning intelligence, often viewing phenomena within the contexts of Buddhist categories such as the five aggregates. This is evident in the Buddha’s primary discourse on satipatthana, which goes far beyond bare attention.