AT THE BEGINNING of the Mindfulness Sutra the Buddha makes a strong claim: mindfulness, he says, is the only way to purify the mind, overcome suffering and pain, attain the way, and realize nirvana, perfect peace.
But what exactly is mindfulness? The sutra does not offer a definition, but we think we know: mindfulness is awareness, consciousness. To be mindful of something is to be conscious of it.
But if we think about this further, we see that mindfulness is even more: mindfulness is life. Because being alive is being conscious; even if we’re sleeping and, as we say, unconscious, consciousness is functioning in some way. So being alive is being conscious, being consciousness—being mindful.
Of course, consciousnesses is subject to all sorts of conditioning. My consciousness, let’s say, conditioned by my being a male, an English speaker, and a white person, is different from yours, if you are, say, a female and a Black person and a French speaker, and
