In my last post I looked at the relationship between mindfulness and memory, and in particular long term memory, for it is here that we find the development of “experience” in the sense of learning a skill over time. In other words, the link between mindfulness and wisdom. Today I would like to swing across to the relationship between mindfulness and short term memory, an association suggested by Ken’s comments. This relationship is found in the action of getting mindfulness started. How does the Buddha speak of the activity of beginning to be mindful? And what does this tell us about the nature of mindfulness? Read More...

Dear Folks

Taking up your questions and comments, I’d like to begin by reflecting on what we are doing here - or, at least, what I think I’m doing. Which is, reading Buddha. Ken, I liked your comment about chaos reflecting a state of affairs in which we perceive diversity without order, and wish to bring order. This pretty much sums up much of my relationship with the Buddha’s teaching. I find myself wishing to find order in it, to extract some kind of coherent meaning which would, in turn, enable me to read my own experience. And the other way round. In meditation, I seek to find some kind of order in experience, to “read” it, and thus extract meaning from it. For it seems to me that only by finding meaning can I find transformation.

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Ken, its good to hear from you. And to be reassured that someone out there is reading this.

Your description of life in an urban train station during an international journey raises the classic question of how meditation - generally thought of in terms of silence and withdrawal - relates to our routine experiences of chaotic situations. So let’s use that as the context of our discussion.

I’d like to start by raising a question: Why did the Buddha create a new technical term for meditation - “sati,” which we generally translate as “mindfulness” - if mindfulness means the same as awareness? For I notice that most people use the terms “mindfulness” and “awareness” synonymously. But are they the same? After all, the Buddha had a perfectly good word for “awareness” - vinnana, usually translated “consciousness.” So why invent another technical term? Read More...

Welcome to the first entry in Dharma Salon blog. This blog is experimental and I am learning web publishing as I go, so please be patient with any technical problems that may arise in these early days. The idea here is to provide a space where I can share my study of the Buddha’s teaching with others who have the same or similar interests. My main focus is the application of the Buddha’s teaching to the area of “insight meditation,” or “satipatthana vipassana,” to give the Pali name. Currently I am examining the concept of “mindfulness” (sati). This is a term often used by contemporary practitioners and lately taken up by the healing professions. However, it is poorly understood, and some clarification of its meaning and implications would be beneficial. Doubtlessly other issues will arise over time.

You, the readers of this blog, are invited to make comments and so join in this discussion. If a discussion community of some kind emerges over time, then the direction of our discussions will not simply be determined by me, but by all of us. In this way, it is possible that this website will live up to its name as a true “dharma salon.”

And I regret to confirm your suspicion that in this salon, haircuts are not available.