Mindfulness

Mindfulness (Pali sati; Skt. smṛti; Tib. དྲན་པ་, drenpa; Wyl. dran pa)

• In terms of shamatha meditation, you could say that mindfulness protects and maintains the 'remaining' or stillness (Tib. གནས་པ་, népa) of mind, so you do not become distracted from it.
• Mindfulness is the fifth antidote of the eight antidotes to the five faults in meditation practice. It’s the antidote to the second fault, forgetting the instructions or the object of focus.
• In the practice of maintaining discipline, mindfulness is defined as "not forgetting what should be adopted and abandoned."

Subdivisions

In the Mahamudra teachings, there are said to be four kinds of mindfulness:

This section contains Tibetan script. Without proper Tibetan rendering support configured, you may see other symbols instead of Tibetan script.

• deliberate mindfulness (Tib. རྩོལ་བཅས་ཀྱི་དྲན་པ་, tsol ché kyi drenpa)
• effortless mindfulness (Tib. རྩོལ་མེད་ཀྱི་དྲན་པ་, tsol mé kyi drenpa)
• genuine mindfulness (Tib. ཡང་དག་པའི་དྲན་པ་, yangdakpé drenpa)
• supreme king-like mindfulness (Tib. དྲན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་པོ་, dren chok gyalpo)

Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha

• Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Paris, Rigpa centre, Levallois, 23-24 May 2001, 'Mindfulness In Everyday Life'

Internal Links

• Four applications of mindfulness
• Vigilance

External Links

• Mindfulness: The Mirror of the Mind by Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche