Have you ever imagined mindfulness as your best friend?
An interesting perspective on this issue comes from the book Satipatthana: A Practice Guide by a scholar-monk Bhikkhu Analayo.
In the chapter titled “Cultivating Mindfulness,” he makes the following comparison:
Although mindfulness requires cultivation, being a quality that needs to be established, such cultivation is not a forceful matter. Here it can be useful to take into consideration that the word sati [mindfulness] in the Pali language is feminine. My suggestion would be to relate to sati, to mindfulness, as a feminine quality. In this way, sati can be understood as a receptively assimilating with the potential of giving birth to new perspectives.
Right away from the moment of waking up in the morning, our good friend sati can already be there, as if waiting for us. She is ready to accompany us throughout the rest of the day, encouraging us to stay receptive and open, soft and understanding. She never gets upset when we happen to forget about her. As soon as we remember her, she is right there to be with us again.
Visualizing the practice in terms of a coming back to the presence of a good friend helps to avoid mistaking sati for a forceful type of hyper-attentiveness that requires strained effort in order to be maintained. Instead, being in her presence carries the flavours of an open receptivity and a soft alertness to whatever is taking place.
However, one reviewer found this comparison inappropriate. In their opinion, describing sati as “feminine” can be limiting, and any references to it should be free of feminine or masculine qualities.
What do you think about this comparison? Would you like to imagine Sati as a man or a woman?
About the book’s author: Ven. Bhikkhu Analayo was born in 1962 in Germany, was ordained in 1995 in Sri Lanka, and completed his PhD on satipatthana at the University of Peradeniya in 2000. At present, he is mainly engaged in the practice of meditation, and among other things contributes to the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism. He has authored several books on Buddhist practice, including Satipatthana and Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation.
Complement with our article about the best book on Buddhist mindfulness meditation.
