I’ve been going back and forth (for years) trying to decide how to translate sati into Estonian according to my understanding developed by listening to monks and reading the suttas. Since I’m no expert in Pali, all of it has been fitered through English.
The dictionary definition of the english word mindfulness seems to be something like “the quality or state of being concious or aware of something” or “the ability to pay attention to something” and in some cases a separate spiritual definition is added by bringing in stuff like “the present moment”, “acknowledging and accepting”, “heightened and complete” etc.
While I know the original meaning of sati has roots in “memory” and “remembering” and it’s said in many suttas that mindfulness makes it easy to remember things heard long ago, I think the primary focus of sati is on (the continuity of) awareness, not remembering. Perhaps a bridge between the two could be built with the definition “remembering to be aware” (sounds too active) or “not neglegting awareness” (a bit more passive, but still has connotations of constantly doing something).
So long story short (as I’ve discovered again and again, I’m not too good at expressing complex thoughts in a foreign language…and sometimes even in my native language ) I would define sati as “steadiness of awareness” or “continuity of awareness” or “the ability to maintain awareness”.
How do you define it and why?