The Pali-language scholar Thomas William Rhys Davids (1843 1922) first translated

sati in 1881 as English mindfulness in samma-sati "Right Mindfulness; the active

, watchful mind".[4] Noting that Daniel John Gogerly (1845) initially rendered s
amma-sati as "Correct meditation",[5] Davids explained,
sati is literally 'memory' but is used with reference to the constantly repeated
phrase 'mindful and thoughtful' (sato sampajno); and means that activity of mind
and constant presence of mind which is one of the duties most frequently inculc
ated on the good Buddhist."[6]
Henry Alabaster, in The Wheel of the Law: Buddhism Illustrated From Siamese Sour
ces by the Modern Buddhist, A Life of Buddha, and an Account of the Phrabat (187
1), had earlier defined "Satipatthan/Smrityupasthana" as "The act of keeping one
's self mindful."[7]
The English term mindfulness already existed before it came to be used in a (wes
tern) Buddhist context. It was first recorded as myndfulness in 1530 (John Palsg
rave translates French pensee), as mindfulnesse in 1561, and mindfulness in 1817
. Morphologically earlier terms include mindful (first recorded in 1340), mindfu
lly (1382), and the obsolete mindiness (ca. 1200).[8]
John D. Dunne, an associate professor at Emory University whose current research
focuses especially on the concept of "mindfulness" in both theoretical and prac
tical contexts, asserts that the translation of sati and sm?ti as mindfulness is
confusing and that a number of Buddhist scholars have started trying to establi
sh "retention" as the preferred alternative.[9]
Bhikkhu Bodhi also points to the meaning of "sati" as "memory":
The word derives from a verb, sarati, meaning to remember, and occasionally in Pal
i sati is still explained in a way that connects it with the idea of memory. But
when it is used in relation to meditation practice, we have no word in English
that precisely captures what it refers to. An early translator cleverly drew upo
n the word mindfulness, which is not even in my dictionary. This has served its
role admirably, but it does not preserve the connection with memory, sometimes n
eeded to make sense of a passage.[10]
Sanskrit[edit]
The Sanskrit word sm?ti ?????? (also transliterated variously as smriti, smRti,
or sm'Rti) literally means "that which is remembered", and refers both to "mindf
ulness" in Buddhism and "a category of metrical texts" in Hinduism, considered s
econd in authority to the Sruti scriptures.
Monier Monier-Williams's Sanskrit-English Dictionary differentiates eight meanin
gs of sm?ti ??????, "remembrance, reminiscence, thinking of or upon, calling to
mind, memory":
memory as one of the Vyabhicari-bhavas [transient feelings];
Memory (personified either as the daughter of Daksha and wife of A?giras or as t
he daughter of Dharma and Medha);
the whole body of sacred tradition or what is remembered by human teachers (in c
ontradistinction to Sruti or what is directly heard or revealed to the Rishis; i
n its widest acceptation this use of the term Sm?ti includes the 6 Vedangas, the
Sutras both Srauta and Grhya, the Manusm?ti, the Itihasas (e.g., the Mahabharat
a and Ramayana), the Puranas and the Nitisastras, "according to such and such a
traditional precept or legal text";
the whole body of codes of law as handed down memoriter or by tradition (esp. th
e codes of Manusm?ti, Yajavalkya Sm?ti and the 16 succeeding inspired lawgivers)
all these lawgivers being held to be inspired and to have based their precepts o
n the Vedas;

symbolical name for the number 18 (from the 18 lawgivers above);

a kind of meter;
name of the letter g- ??;
desire, wish[11]