The Power of Mindfulness

　　An Inquiry into the Scope of Bare Attention and the Principal Sources of its Strength

　　by

　　Nyanaponika Thera

　　© 1994

　　Contents

　　Introduction

　　Four Sources of Power in Bare Attention

　　1. The Functions of "Tidying" and "Naming"

　　Tidying Up the Mental Household

　　Naming

　　2. The Non-coercive Procedure

　　Obstacles to Meditation

　　Three Countermeasures

　　3. Stopping and Slowing Down

　　Keeping Still

　　Spontaneity

　　Slowing Down

　　Subliminal Influences

　　4. Directness of Vision

　　The Force of Habit

　　Associative Thought

　　The Sense of Urgency

　　The Road to Insight

　　Notes

　　Further Reading

　　Introduction

　　Is mindfulness actually a power in its own right as claimed by the title of this essay

　　 Seen from the viewpoint of the ordinary pursuits of life, it does not seem so. From that angle mindfulness, or attention, has a rather modest place among many other seemingly more important mental faculties serving the purpose of variegated wish-fulfillment. Here, mindfulness means just "to watch one”s steps" so that one may not stumble or miss a chance in the pursuit of one”s aims. Only in the case of specific tasks and skills is mindfulness sometimes cultivated more deliberately, but here too it is still regarded as a subservient function, and its wider scope and possibilities are not recognized.

　　Even if one turns to the Buddha”s doctrine, taking only a surface view of the various classifications and lists of mental factors in which mindfulness appears, one may be inclined to regard this faculty just as "one among many." Again one may get the impression that it has a rather subordinate place and is easily surpassed in significance by other faculties.

　　Mindfulness in fact has, if we may personify it, a rather unassuming character. Compared with it, mental factors such as devotion, energy, imagination, and intelligence, are certainly more colorful personalities, making an immediate and strong impact on people and situations. Their conquests are sometimes rapid and vast, though often insecure. Mindfulness, on the other hand, is of an unobtrusive nature. Its virtues shine inwardly, and in ordinary life most of its merits are passed on to other mental faculties which generally receive all the credit. One must know mindfulness well and cultivate its acquaintance before one can appreciate its value and its silent penetrative influence. Mindfulness walks slowly and deliberately, and its daily task is of a rather humdrum nature. Yet where it places its feet it cannot easily be dislodged, and it acquires and bestows true mastery of the ground it covers.

　　Mental faculties of such a nature, like actual personalities of a similar type, are often overlooked or underrated. In the case of mindfulness, it required a genius like the Buddha to discover the "hidden talent" in the modest garb, and to develop the vast inherent power of that potent seed. It is, indeed, the mark of a genius to perceive and to harness the power of the seemingly small. Here, truly, it happens that "what is little becomes much." A revaluation of values takes place. The standards of greatness and smallness change. Through the master mind of the Buddha, mindfulness is finally revealed as the Archimedean point where the vast revolving mass of world suffering is levered out of its twofold anchorage in ignorance and craving.

　　The Buddha spoke of the power of mindfulness in a very emphatic way:

　　"Mindfulness, I declare, is all-helpful" (Samyutta, 46:59).

　　"All things can be mastered by mindfulness" (Anguttara, 8:83).

　　Further, there is that solemn and weighty utterance opening and concluding the Satipatthana Sutta, the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness:

　　"This is the only way, monks, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the dest…

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