​WRONG SATI

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Sati, often translated as "mindfulness", is one of the core teachings of the Buddha. However, "mindfulness" is a grossly incorrect and inaccurate translation.

The description of Sati in the Sutta is nothing about being mindful. It is more about remembering. However, Sati is not merely "remembrance".

 

There are 3 components to Sati:

• Undertanding the subject

• Remembering the subject

• "Catching" the mind and bringing the mind back to the subject when caught deviating from the subject

The most accurate translation for Sati is "Reference". As stated in the Satipatthana Sutta, also known as Four Foundations of Reference, the practice is about the constant reference to the (1) Body, (2) Feeling, (3) Mind & (4) Dhamma topics such as the 4 Noble Truths, the 5 aggregates, the 6 sense bases etc in whatever you think, say or do.

Mindfulness meditation, now taught by later teachers, new-age gurus and secular self-help psychologists & "experts", is anything but "Buddhist meditation".

That is why even Mahasi Sayadaw calls his meditation technique the Mahasi Method (also known as the New Burmese Method), because it is based on the teachings of U Narada, and NOT what the Buddha actually taught in the Sutta. This method involved the constant "noting" of your actions which is nothing like what had been taught in the Sutta.

This "Vipassana" meditation started a movement of highjacking Buddhist meditation, with the masses believing that Jhana is useless, and Vipassana alone is the way to Nibbana.

So, what is the Sati as taught by the Buddha?

 

*Next: Samma-Sati

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