In the Buddhist tradition, mindfulness (Pali: sati, Sanskrit: smṛti) is the cultivated capacity to keep clear, steady awareness of body, feelings, mind, and mental phenomena in the present moment. It is not mere passive noticing, but an ethically informed, non‑reactive observation that remembers and sustains attention on its chosen object. This quality includes clear comprehension of what is occurring, why it is occurring, and what its effects may be, while refraining from judgment or clinging. Experiences such as thoughts, emotions, and sensations are recognized as “this is anger” or “this is pain,” rather than appropriated as a fixed self. In the framework of the Noble Eightfold Path, this is Right Mindfulness, a disciplined awareness used to understand suffering, its causes, and the way beyond it.

Classical Buddhist texts describe mindfulness through the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna). The first is mindfulness of the body: awareness of breathing, posture, and movements, as well as contemplation of the body’s elements to see it as impermanent and impersonal. The second is mindfulness of feelings, observing pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feeling‑tones and how they condition craving or aversion. The third is mindfulness of mind, noticing whether the mind is greedy or free from greed, angry or calm, distracted or collected, deluded or clear. The fourth is mindfulness of mental objects or phenomena, including the hindrances, the aggregates, the sense bases, the factors of awakening, and the Four Noble Truths, all observed in terms of their arising and passing away.

This quality is cultivated both in formal meditation and throughout daily life. In sitting meditation, attention is often placed on the breath or another simple object; when distraction arises, it is acknowledged and the attention is gently returned, gradually widening to include body, feelings, mind states, and mental processes. Walking meditation similarly trains awareness by attending closely to the sensations of each step. Practices such as vipassanā (insight meditation) and samatha (calming meditation) use mindfulness to reveal the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and selfless nature of all conditioned phenomena. In everyday activities—eating, speaking, listening, working—mindfulness means bringing full presence to each action, watching intentions and reactions as they arise, and aligning conduct with ethical understanding.

The purpose of this sustained, lucid awareness is to make the workings of the mind and the patterns of experience fully visible. As mindfulness stabilizes, reactivity softens, attachment and aversion lose some of their force, and wisdom can discern how craving and ignorance give rise to suffering. By supporting concentration (samādhi) and insight (paññā), mindfulness becomes a central means by which the path unfolds toward liberation from suffering.