Nyanaponika Thera - Mindfulness Quotes

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Attention or mindfulness is kept to a bare registering of the facts observed, without reacting to them by deed, speech or by mental comment which may be one of self-reference (like, dislike, etc.), judgment or reflection. If during the time, short or long, given to the practice of Bare Attention, any such comments arise in one's mind, they themselves are made objects of Bare Attention, and are neither repudiated nor pursued, but are dismissed, after a brief mental note has been made of them.

Nyanaponika Thera
In the Buddhist scriptures one of the qualities attributed to Right Mindfulness is called 'non-superficiality, and this is, of course, just a negative way of expressing our positive term thoroughness.

Nyanaponika Thera
Mindfulness, though so highly praised and capable of such great achievements, is not at all a mystical state, beyond the ken and reach of the average person. It is, on the contrary, something quite simple and common, and very familiar to us.

Nyanaponika Thera
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 colourful 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.

Nyanaponika Thera