The Importance of Mindfulness

The Importance of Mindfulness

Ven. Piyadassi  in The Seven Factors of Enlightenment (1980),  begins by stressing the importance of mindfulness.

“Buddha-dhamma is the teaching of enlightenment. One who is keen on attaining enlightenment, should first know clearly the impediments that block the path to enlightenment.

                                                          (Piyadassi 2-9, 1980)

“Life, according to the right understanding of a Buddha, is suffering; and that suffering is based on ignorance or avijjá. Ignorance is the experiencing of that which is unworthy of experiencing ... 

“Further, it is the non-perception of the conglomerate nature of the aggregates; non-perception of sense-organ and object in their respective and objective natures; non-perception of the emptiness or the relativity of the elements; non-perception of the dominant nature of the sense controlling faculties; non-perception of the thus-ness — the infallibility of the four Truths and the five hindrances (pañca nìvaraóáni) are the nutriment of (or condition for) this ignorance. 

“They are called hindrances because they completely close-in, cut- off, and obstruct. They hinder the understanding of the way to release from suffering. 

“These five hindrances are: sensuality (kámacchanda), ill-will (vyápáda), obduracy ... and mental factors (thìnamiddha), restlessness and flurry (uddhaccakukkucca), and doubt (vicikicchá).

“And what is the nutriment of these hindrances? The three evil modes of life (tìni duccaritáni), bodily, vocal, and mental wrong-doing.

“This threefold nutriment is in turn nourished by non-restraint of the senses (indriya asaívaro), which is explained by the commentator as the admittance of lust and hate into the six sense-organs of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

“The nutriment of non-restraint is shown to be lack of mindfulness and of complete awareness (asati asampajañña). In the context of nutriment, the drifting away of the object (dhamma) — the lapsing, from the mind, of the knowledge of the lakkhaóas or characteristics of existence  (impermanence, suffering and voidness of self), and forgetfulness of the true nature of things — is the reason for non-restraint. It is when one does not bear in mind the transience and the other characteristics of things that one allows oneself all kinds of liberties in speech and deed, and gives rein to full thought imagery of an unskillful kind.

“Lack of complete awareness is lack of these four: 

(i) complete awareness of purpose (sáttha sampajañña), improvement; 

(ii) when one forgets the dhamma, which is the true resort of one who strives; 

(iii) when one deludedly lays hold of things, believing them to be pleasant, beautiful, permanent, and substantial — 

(iv) when one behaves thus, then too non-restraint is nourished.

“And below this lack of mindfulness and complete awareness lies unsystematic reflection (ayoniso manasikára). The books say unsystematic reflection is reflection that is off the right course; that is, taking the impermanent as permanent, the painful as pleasure, the soulless as a soul, the bad as good. The constant rolling-on that is saísára, is rooted in unsystematic thinking. 

“When unsystematic thinking increases, it fulfills two things: nescience and lust for becoming. 

Ignorance being present, the origination of the entire mass of suffering comes to be. Thus a person who is a shallow thinker, like a ship drifting at the wind’s will, like a herd of cattle swept into the whirl pools of a river, like an ox yoked to a wheel-contraption, goes on revolving in the cycle of existence, saísára.

“And it is said that imperfect confidence (assaddhiyaí) in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha is the condition that develops unsystematic reflection; and imperfect confidence is due to non hearing of the True Law, the dhamma (asaddhamma savanaí). 

“Finally, one does not hear the dhamma through lack of contact with the wise, through not consorting with the good (asappurisa sansevo).

Thus, want of kalyáóamittatá, good friendship, appears to be the basic reason for the ills of the world. 

“And conversely, the basis and nutriment of all good is shown to be good friendship. That furnishes one with the food of the sublime dhamma, which in turn produces confidence in the Triple Gem,  the Buddha, Dhamma, and the Sangha. 

“When one has confidence in the Triple Gem there come into existence profound or systematic thinking, mindfulness and complete awareness, restraint of the senses, the three good modes of life, the four arousings of mindfulness, the seven factors of enlightenment and deliverance through wisdom, one after another, in due order ...    

“Mindfulness … is the instrument most efficacious in self-mastery, and whosoever practices it has found the path to deliverance. It is fourfold: mindfulness consisting in contemplation of the body (káyánupassaná), feeling (vedanánupassaná), mind (cittánupassaná), and mental objects (dhammánupassaná).

“The man lacking in this all-important quality of mindfulness cannot achieve anything worthwhile. The Buddha’s final admonition to his disciples on his death bed is this: 'Transient are all component things. Work out your deliverance with heedfulness!' (vaya-dhammá sankhárá, appamádena sampádetha). 

“Man cannot be heedful unless he is aware of his actions — whether they are mental, verbal, or physical — at every moment of his waking life. Only when a man is fully awake to and mindful of his activities can he distinguish good from bad and right from wrong. It is in the light of mindfulness that he will see the beauty or the ugliness of his deeds.

“The word appamáda, throughout the tipitaka, is used to denote sati, mindfulness; pamáda is defined as absence of mindfulness. Says thBuddha in the Anguttara Nikáya:

'Monks, I know not of any other single thing of such power to cause the arising of good thoughts if not yet arisen, or to cause the waning of evil thoughts if already arisen, as heedfulness.'

“In him who is heedful, good thoughts not yet arisen, do arise, and evil thoughts, if arisen, do wane.

“Constant mindfulness and vigilance are necessary to avoid ill and perform good. The man with presence of mind, who surrounds himself with watchfulness of mind (satimá), the man of courage and earnestness, gets ahead of the lethargic, the heedless (pamatto), as a racehorse outstrips a decrepit hack. 

“The importance of mindfulness in all our dealings is clearly indicated by the following striking words of the Buddha:

 'Mindfulness, O disciples, I declare is essential in all things everywhere. It is as salt is to the curry.'  

                                              MA, satipaþþhána commentary.

“The Buddha’s life is one integral picture of mindfulness. He is the sadá sato, the ever-mindful, the ever-vigilant. He is the very embodiment of mindfulness. There was never an occasion when the Buddha manifested signs of sluggish inactivity or thoughtlessness.

“Mindfulness is the chief characteristic of all wholesome actions tending to one’s own and others’ profit. Appamádo mahato attháya sanvattati –- “mindfulness is conducive to great profit” — that is, highest mental development — and it is through such attainment that deliverance from the sufferings of saísára is possible. 

                                                             SN. Sagáthaka Vagga

'The man who delights in mindfulness and regards heedlessness with dread, is not liable to fall away. He is in the vicinity of  Nibbána.'”

                                                                                    Dhp 32

Reference:

Piyadassi Maha Thera. 1980. The Seven Factors of Enlightenment. Kandy Buddhist Publication Society Online Edition.

Edited and formatted by Ajahn David Dale Holmes