The Characteristics of Mindfulness

Adapted from Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana:

1. Mindfulness is very much like a non-distorting mirror. That is, it reflects only what is presently happening and in exactly the way it is happening.

2. It is completely non-judgmental. In observing mindfully, there is absolutely no evaluation of any kind. Whatever is happening in the mind/body in the present moment is accepted just as it is. There is no taking sides. There is no clinging to what is pleasant and no fleeing or avoidance of what is unpleasant. All experiences are regarded as equal: All sensations are equal; all thoughts are equal; all feeling states are equal. Nothing is suppressed. Nothing is repressed. Nothing is emphasized. Mindfulness does not play favorites--it just experiences "what is."

3. It is not thinking. While thoughts can be important objects of mindfulness, they are not identified with in being observed. In mindfulness, moreover, they are not regarded as having any intrinsic validity; rather, they are rcognized as "just thoughts." Mindfulness does not compare, label, analyze, or categorize. It observes every experience as if it were occurring for the first time. This aspect of mindfulness has been called "beginner's mind." All of reality is experienced directly and immediately in mindfulness. Very importantly,it comes before thought in the perceptual process--just as it came before thought in our personal development as well.

4. It occurs totally and continuously in the present. When you are mindful, you are always experiencing what is happening right now. It is like riding perpetually on the crest of the ongoing wave of passing time.

5. It is completely non-egoistic or non-personal; that is, all phenomena being witnessed mindfully are simply experienced as the flow of nature, without any reference to concepts like "me," "my," or "mine." So, for example, a pain in your right foot would simply be observed as sensations changing across time--not as "I have a pain in my right foot." This thought may, indeed, occur; and if it does, it too could be observed mindfully. Mindfulness, however, does not add the concept of a self who is "having" the experience. It does not add anything to, or subtract anything from, what is perceived. It just observes exactly what is there in the moment--without distortion.

6. Mindfulness has no goal. It does not try to achieve or accomplish anything. It does not try to achieve or accomplish anything. It does not try to change anything. It observes just to observe. Although there well may be many expectations or preconceptions in the mind about the effects of practicing mindfulness, these are just ideas--not mindfulness.

7. Mindfulness is awareness of change. It observes the passing flow of experience. It witnesses the ongoing "flow of impermance" in the mind/body--how all phenomena are born, continue for a time, and then die. This process of change is observed precisely and continuously and includes how these phenomena are inter-connected--how, for example, a sound may be followed by a thought, which may be followed by sensations or feelings in the body, which may be followed by aversion or desire, etc.

8. It is non-interfering observation. That is, the practice of mindfulness does not in any way interfere with whatever is being experienced. For example, if you are experiencing intense fear, you may be mindful of it while also experiencing it fully. The same is true for all of your experience. This is a very important point to understand. In practicing mindfulness, one is defnitely not escaping from, or avoiding, feelings or any other aspect of inner experience. Mindfulness is not "numbing out;" in fact, it is a means for being fully present to all that we experience--pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. In effect, it is a means of "escaping into" our experience. It is for this reason that Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn calls the practice of mindfulness "full catastrophe living."