Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org

nature as something worth clinging to or not.
“sati” would therefore be better translated as “recognition”,
and this is how it has been referred to throughout this
chapter. “sati”, in the context of the bojjhaṅgas is the
deliberate and sustained recognition that allows one to see
the objects of experience as they truly are.
This explanation, which may seem a bit dry to the casual
reader, is necessary to help us understand what the Buddha
really meant in the Satipaṭṭḥāna Sutta, when he said, as
quoted earlier, “when walking, one fully comprehends: ‘I am
walking’.” It is clear that he did not mean that we should be
aware that we are walking, since awareness is common to
animals and ordinary humans alike. Simply recognizing that
we are walking requires no meditative training whatsoever.
To “fully comprehend” (pajānāti), one must cultivate the
mental quality of “sati” or fortified recognition (thīra-saññā)
by reminding oneself of the essential nature of the
experience, as in “walking”. Reminding oneself in this way
of what one already recognizes is equivalent to arresting the
mind’s natural progression into projection, judgement,
clinging, seeking, building up, and finally suffering.
Another way of understanding this activity of fortifying one’s
recognition is as a mantra, a traditional meditative tool that
has been used for millennia by meditators both Buddhist and
non. A mantra is used to focus the mind on an object,
arresting the mind’s natural inclination to jump from object
to object. It is traditionally used to focus on a conceptual
object, something a meditator conjures up in the mind – a
picture or a spiritual object like a god or angel.
A mantra can, however, be used in much the same way in
order to fix the mind on a real object as well, be it a physical
sensation, a feeling, a thought, or an emotion. This is one
way of understanding the word “sati” in the context of the
Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta; it is the use of a mantra to stabilize and
fortify one’s bare recognition of an experience for what it is,
allowing one to see clearly without prejudice or projection
and thus remove any misapprehensions based on delusion or
ignorance.
Once we cultivate sati, our minds will naturally incline
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