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The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Script 250
Sunday 10 November 2002

This script is entitled:
Living in present time

Glossary:


Mindful: taking thought or care, having remembrance, minded, inclined to do something (synonyms: alert, alive to, attentive, aware, careful, chary, cognisant, conscious, heedful, regardful, respectful, sensible, thoughtful, wary, watchful).

Saddha (Pali language word): confidence, trust, and non-fogginess.

Sati (Pali language word): memory, recognition, consciousness, intentness of mind, wakefulness of mind, mindfulness, alertness, lucidity of mind, self-possession, conscience, self-consciousness, attentiveness, focused, not moving away from).


In Buddhist understanding there are four types of time: future time, past time, present time and timeless time.

Sati is being aware of the time we are in as it is taking place. Hopefully, you spend most of your time in present time.

This means that when you are driving in your car, you know you are driving, second by second, in your car.

When you are washing the dishes you are really washing the dishes second by second.

If we lose memory of the present time, we tend to go into fantasy about what is not happening in the present time.

Sati is defined in The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary as memory, recognition, consciousness, intentness of mind, wakefulness of mind, mindfulness, alertness, lucidity of mind, self-possession, conscience, self-consciousness. We also relate to sati as attentiveness, focused, not moving away from.

American humorist Will Rogers wrote in ‘The Autobiography of Will Rogers’ 1949, “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”

It may sound easy to be mindful of the memory of the present time but for most persons it is unlikely to happen without much training.

What usually happens is that we think about washing the dishes to get them clean so we can go and do something else, we go to future time, not the real future, this would be clairvoyance, but a fantasy of future events. And so when we wash the dishes we may be trying to get it over with as quickly as possible to meet our unreal future.

At other times, while we wash the dishes we think of something someone said yesterday, we have gone to past time.

Because of lack of attention, what ever we are doing we are not thinking about present time – the present real happenings.

For example, we might care to have a cup of tea and a sweet biscuit. We begin drinking the tea and eating the biscuit after just one sip we begin thinking about something else, “I have to do this, then I have to do that.” And it goes on and on. We have the tyranny of future thinking disturbing us.

We become tired by the gyrations of our butterfly mind fluttering here and there.

The mind is the forerunner of all things. The mind is chief; mind-made we are.

The importance of mindfulness, in all our dealings is clearly indicated by the words of the Buddha: “Mindfulness, ...... I declare is essential in all things everywhere. It is as salt is to the curry.”

We practice mindfulness to be clear about what we are doing. It sharpens and focuses our perceptions and senses.

By keeping a clear mind (with one pointedness) means to stay in the present moment and develop confidence in our ability to pay attention to events as they happen.

Edward Albee, American Playwright said “People would rather sleep their way through life than stay awake for it.”

We must stop this poor view of how to live.

To practice sati as part of Buddha Dhamma saddha (confidence, faith, and non-fogginess) has to be established first. Saddha is the leader of the 25 sobhana cetasika.

Sati is the second of the sobhana cetasika to appear when we practice.

Development along the Path is characterised by a progressive display of successive wholesome cetasika or mental states and systematically moves the person through the four foundations of mindfulness which comprise:

1. The effort to strengthen the wholesome states already arisen.

2. The effort to bring forth the wholesome states which are yet to arise.

3. The effort to stop the unwholesome states of mind already risen.

4. The effort to prevent from arising the unwholesome states of mind yet to arise.

The Venerable ancient writer called “Buddhaghosa” in “The Path of Purification” writes:

“In the section dealing with that of the two kinds: fulfilling a training precept announced by the Blessed One thus ‘This should be done’ is keeping ; not doing what is prohibited by his thus ‘This should not be done’ is avoiding.

Herein, the word-meaning is this ; they keep (caranti) within that, they proceed as people who fulfil virtues, thus it is keeping (caritta); they preserve, they protect, avoidance, thus it is avoiding. Herein, keeping is accomplished by faith and energy; avoiding by faith and mindfulness. This is how it is of two kinds as keeping and avoiding.”

Our Members take advantage of the many opportunities we give them to practice saddha and sati.

We stress that these must arise in every action they take at our Centre.

The chief characteristic of sati is ‘not floating away’, not to let things go unnoticed. Sati can also be thought of as ‘not moving away from’. To practice sati there has to be awareness of a subject of attention.

When a person is not mindful enough, he or she does not remember what he or she sees or hears; it is like empty pots and pumpkins floating away on the water current.

Buddha reminded his disciples every day not to forget wholesome deeds and to be always mindful to fulfil one’s pledge to strive for liberation from all miseries.

We are not practicing if we complain.

The Discourse on the Application of Mindfulness is called the Satipatthanasutta in the Pali language. We have gratitude to the translator I. B. Horner and The Pali Text Society for making available the Satipatthanasutta in English in the Middle Length Sayings I, 1987.

In this sutta, the Buddha says:

“There is this one way, monks, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrows and grief, for the going down of sufferings and miseries, for winning the right path, for realising nibbana, that is to say, the four applications of mindfulness.”

If one is mindful at the six-sense doors to note what one observes just as ‘seeing, seeing’ or ‘hearing, hearing,’ one can stop defilements from entering the mind.

In this sense, sati is compared to a gatekeeper who stops thieves and robbers from entering the city.

Vippassana meditation practice is designed to increase one pointedness and concentration to subdue discursiveness.

Students are able to know that present time events are inherited from past actions and familiarise their minds with the possibility for development of more appropriate life styles within the Buddha rules, worthy of their present attention.

Mindfulness (sati) is fourfold: mindfulness consisting in contemplation of the body; feeling; mind; and mental objects.

Sati is the seventh link of the noble Eightfold Path.

One-pointedness when you talk, when you think - when you do something - do it mindfully. When this is second nature and your mind does not flutter you have - Right Mindfulness.

Mindfulness in your action ... You read Satipatthana
Sutta, the way of mindfulness ... You must be mindful when you walk, when you sit down, when you lie down; when you go to toilet, always you must be mindful.

As you eat, as you sleep, mindfulness ought be there.

Having Right Mindfulness, as motivation, writers aspiring to chronicle Buddha Dhamma and give such chronicles as Dhamma Dana (the highest gift), need to tread Lord Buddha's path by holding a pledge, to commit others to development of their sati as their standard for cultivation of a civilised life style.

For a writer to keep his or her pledge in performance, day after day, not even stopping for imminent death, is one face of the meaning of our lemma "Lifetimes of Learning".

A writer ought not to list too many obstacles to practice.

He or she must accumulate what is learnt and hold it for future reference for keen investigators of Buddha Dhamma.

He or she must raise energy and put ardour on top.

The writings must display force and energy good enough to remove garbage that may arise.

Sati (or mindfulness) is one of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (Satta Bojjhanga).

The Seven Factors of Enlightenment are:

1. Satisambojjhango, Mindfulness,
2. Dhammavicaya, Keen investigation of the Dhamma,
3. Viriya, Energy,
4. Piti, Rapture or happiness,
5. Passaddhi, Calm,
6. Samadhi, Concentration,
7. Uppekkha, Equanimity.

Sati is also a member of the five spiritual faculties as well as a member of the five spiritual powers.

The final goal is to grow up into full maturity and leave childish notions behind us.

Seen from the viewpoint of the ordinary trivial pursuits of life, it does look as if few persons are about to be successful in Dhamma. Their childish behaviour is too much.

If we translate sati as mindfulness meaning "to watch one's steps" then you and I may not stumble or miss a chance in the pursuit of our aims.

If we live like this, at death knowledgable persons will say “ well played sir, jolly well played”.” This is the best epithet. We live blameless.

Sati (mindfulness) is different from other mental factors, such as devotion, energy, imagination and intelligence.

Mindfulness is not brash or loud, not apologising for its presence, not delivered with hate or greed and is a quality which has to be cultivated regularly, to be appreciated.

Mindfulness is slow, deliberate attention to the present time and is not boring. It is invigorating.

When you have mindfulness and a person tells you four things, you hear the four things and remember them. Actually, you may cognate more than you are told, as a higher order logic.

With little mindfulness, when a person told you four things, he or she may actually only register two or three of these things, because his or her mind wanders and only received first order logic statements.

Then he or she can only barely remember what was heard.

Practicing Sati develops higher orders of logic – up to 12th order logic can be attained in Buddhist practice. This is a higher order than is attainable by any other means.

Sati makes life interesting and fun as you learn to remember to cognate what is happening in the present and explore many levels of logic. Even washing a cup or mowing a lawn can bring joy when done with Sati.

Obviously, to study anything well into higher orders of understanding, mindfulness is all helpful.

Putting this in another way, knowable things can be mastered by mindfulness.

In Buddha's teachings, sati is linked with clear comprehension of the right purpose or suitability of what you want to do or how you want to act.

In the end stage, you know what is Path and what is not Path without doubt.

You start to understand the worldly problems such as, poor financial management, poor job management, poor human relations management, poor family relations management, poor study management, poor taste in furnishings, poor architecture, poor art and poor culture, arise from lack of sati by those doing these things without it.

If you had a house and you let a little dirt into the interior everyday and this went on for several years, your house would look like a vast heap of rubbish.

It is the same with taking rubbish into your mind everyday.

The dark untidy corners of your mind, are the hideouts of our worst enemies that take the form of all sorts of unwise actions you have done this life.

There is a price to pay when rubbish acts out.

The way to stop this rubbish is to determine to increase our mindfulness, which is the same as removing dirt from our house. We clean through practice, on body, speech and mind.

Mental clarity comes to be by the way of mindfulness that is called in Pali, satipatthana magga.

The word magga means path.

Bare attention tidies up and regulates the mind by sorting out and identifying the various confused strands of mental process.

When you can accurately label your fears you find lurking in your mind, the correct label generally sets the mind up to find an intelligent solution to overcome your real or imagined problems.

After many victories have been won by using mindfulness on a problem, and fears are identified, then your self-esteem becomes very much better.

Over time, by the repeated use of the power of mindfulness you can discover your personal shortcomings and you will start to improve remarkably because you will weaken the effects of your own akusala (unwholesome) minds.

According to a recent survey (2002) by Melbourne University’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education, 40 per cent of full-time working students found work got in the way of their study.

Your mindfulness for students is vital to cultivate. It is one of the enlightenment or awakening factors.

Then as events develop, you become aware if the enlightenment factor of mindfulness is absent, and if so, make merit and quickly generate causes to bring the factor of mindfulness to the present mind you are wishing to use.

Your student’s mind is then fit for work.

Whilst you are living, it is important you set as a minimum set of conditions, to create the causes to be born as human next life into a Buddhist family, with the external conditions favourable for Buddha Dhamma practice.

These conditions ought to comprise the basis of your minimum work plan. Then you are on the path that leaves your childish minds behind.

May you as a student meet with sati in the present moments.

May you gain confidence that your sati develops of maturity.

Thank you very much for your practice.

The author's and editors of this script are John D. Hughes, Anita M. Hughes, RN Div1., Pennie White B.A. Dip. Ed.


References

Adams, David. 7 My Career article titled: ‘School daze lost to working weeks’ in ‘The Age” newspaper Saturday 9 November 2002.

Albee, Edward quoted in ‘Behind the Scenes’ cited in A Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1982) compiled by Jonathon Green, Davids and Charles, Newton Abbot, London, p 40.

Buddhaghosa, Venerable (nd) The Path of Purification, Bhikkhu Nanamoli (trans), Singapore Buddhist Meditation Centre, I 26, p 11.

Davids and Stede (Editors) (1979) The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary, The Pali Text Society, London, p 672, 675.

Dhammananda, Venerable K. Sri (1992) The Dhammapada, Sasana Abhiwurdhi Society, Malaysia, p 41.

Horner, I. B. (translator) (1987) ‘Discourse on the applications of Mindfulness (Satipatthanasutta)’ in Middle Length Sayings (Majjhima Nikaya), Pali Text Society, Vol I, pp 70-84.

Little, William (Editor) (1973) The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p 1327.

McLeod, William T, (Editor) (1984) The New Collins Thesaurus, Collins, London and Glasgow, p. 428.

Mon, Dr. T. M. (1995) The Essence of Buddha Abhidhamma, Publisher: Mehm Tay Zar Mon, Yadanar Min Literature, Yangon, pp 86-87.

Piyadassi, Venerable (1998) The Seven Factors of Enlightenment (Satta Bojjhanga), Inward Path Publisher, Penang, Malaysia, p 2, 8.

Rogers, Will (1949) ‘The Autobiography of Will Rogers’ cited in A Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1982) compiled by Jonathon Green, Davids and Charles, Newton Abbot, London, p120.


Document Statistics

Words: 2513
Sentences: 125
Paragraphs:127
Characters: 12,484

Averages
Sentences per paragraph: 1.2
Words per Sentence: 17.9
Characters per word:4.7

Readability Statistics
Passive Sentences: 12%
Flesch Reading Ease score: 55.4
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score: 9.6


Readability scores

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Flesch Reading Ease score

Rates text on a 100-point scale; the higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. For most standard documents, aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score

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