by Tang Huyen

In order to be in mindlessness one uses mindfulness — one pays rapt attention, in full devotion, to what happens, from moment to moment, so that one is not diverted to the past with memories and the future with expectations.

Mindfulness and awareness are English translations
of smṛti in Sanskrit and sati in Pali. The Indic word
usually means memory, but in Buddhism it means
paying attention to what one is experiencing,
whether one is doing something actively or merely
experiencing something passively. And paying
attention to something, like what one is
experiencing, presupposes that one is reasonably
gathered in, recollected, and not scattered. So there
are three elements to Buddhist mindfulness: one is
reasonably gathered in, recollected, and not
scattered; one uses one's recollectedness to pay
attention to something; and that something is what
one is experiencing, whether one is doing
something actively (like breathing, walking) or
merely experiencing something passively (like
feeling one's feeling).

The Chinese translation for mindfulness or
awareness is nian, which normally means to think.
Thus the four stations of mindfulness (the four
classes of objects for mindfulness: body, feeling,
thought, objects-of-mind) are in Chinese the
four places of thinking (sì niàn-chù).

Buddhism from the Buddha on down distinguishes
between delusion and awakening, mentation and
non-mentation. In mentation or thought, it
distinguishes between the smaller and simpler
chunks that are bagged (ideas, notions, concepts)
and the bigger and more complex conglomerations
that involve some desire to do something (the
compositions or volitions). If you see a table, that
is a notion or idea or concept (of course, you see
an instance of the concept, a particular of the
universal), and if you want to lift the table and
move it somewhere else, that is a composition or
volition.

Raw sensation is whole and fully differentiated,
but it is not cut up into chunks. It takes thought
or mentation to cut it into chunks and give names
to the chunks (chunking and bagging). The
empirical units of our daily life (tables, chairs,
people, cats, dogs) are products of thought
operating on raw sensation, but do not exist in
raw sensation.

The awakened state merely cognises what
happens in the raw, but does not start an
intellective stream to cut it up, chunk it, bag it
and act on it. That is non-mentation (wú-niàn).
The instant thought arises (qǐ-niàn, qǐ-xīn
dòng-niàn), it distinguishes (fēn-bié) and selects
some things it likes and rejects things it dislikes.
That is delusion.

Now you are familiar with wú-wéi "non-doing".
Buddhism has the exact equivalent in
an-abhisaṃskāra "not doing", which is based
on the stem kṛ- "to do, to make" from which
the famous karman "deed, act" (yè) comes. The
Buddha calls Nirvāṇa "not doing"
(an-abhisaṃskāra) and "not willing"
(an-abhisañcetayita). The compositions
(saṃskāra, based on the same stem) or volitions
(cetanā) are quiesced, put into abeyance during
awakening (of course the notions, ideas,
concepts have been quiesced too, and mentation
as a whole has ceased). He defines Nirvāṇa as the
complete calming of the compositions
(sabba-saṅkhāra-samatho), which literally can be
understood as the complete calming of all doing.

The Chinese translation for an-abhisaṃskāra "not
doing" is standardly wú-wéi, but also bù-zuò "not
doing", wú-xíng "not doing", all of which are
exact translations. This is clear, but non-mentation
is standardly wú-niàn "not thinking". This is
confusing, for mindfulness is translated as nian.

Xīn "mind, thought, heart" can also be a verb, and
wú-xīn in Chinese Buddhism and Chan is a verbal
binome meaning "not working one's mind over
something", therefore a synonym of wú-niàn
"non-mentation, not thinking". In Buddhism, when
one's mind is at rest and not doing anything (whilst
one is fully aware of what happens), that is
awakening (jué).

The Buddha tells the layman Poṭṭhapāda about the
"conscious entry into the gradually obtained
complete cessation of notion (abhisaññā-nirodha,
where the emphatic prefix abhi- qualifies nirodha)."
The monk enters the four form meditations, then
the first three formless places, and in each of the
latter he ceases the notion of the previous stage. In
the third formless place, which the Buddha calls
the "summit of notions" (saññāgga), he thinks:
"To mentate at all is bad (cetayamānassa me
pāpiyo), it would be better not to mentate
(acetayamāyum), but other gross ones would
arise (aññā ca olārikā saññā uppajjeyyum). So I
will not mentate and compose (na ceteyyam na
abhisaṅkhareyyam)." So he no longer mentates
and composes, and to him no longer mentating
and composing, the notions cease, and other gross
ones do not arise. So he touches cessation
(so nirodhaṃ phusati). This is how the "conscious
entry into the gradually obtained complete cessation
of notion" (anupubbābhisaññā-nirodha-sampajāna-
samāpatti) comes about. DN, I, 184 (9), Chinese
Dīrgha-Āgama, 28, 110b.

In the Scripture on the Analysis of the Six
Modalities, at the fourth form meditation, after
concentrating on equanimity, the meditator can
reflect: "If I move this equanimity, purified thus,
into the place of infinite space [and so on for
each of the other three formless attainments] and
should develop my thought in accordance with it,
leaning on it, supported by it, standing on it,
taking it as object, attached to it, this equanimity,
purified thus, leaning on the place of infinite space,
is therefore composed (saṅkhataṃ etaṃ). What is
composed is impermanent, what is impermanent is
suffering; if it is suffering, I know suffering; after
knowing suffering, from the equanimity I do not
move into the place of infinite space." If the monk
with regard to the four places contemplates them
with wisdom as they are, he does not accomplish
them, does not move into them. He therefore
neither composes nor wills-mentates (neva
abhisaṅkharoti nābhisañcetayati) for becoming
(bhava) or un-becoming (vibhava). "'Am' (asmiti)
is a thought (maññita), 'I am this' is a thought, 'I
will be' is a thought" — the monk thinks: "If there
is none of these thoughts, agitations, etc., the mind
is quiesced." The Pali says: "when he is gone
beyond all thoughts, the sage is said to be at peace"
(sabba-maññitānañ tveva samatikkamā muni santo
ti vuccati). Chinese Madhyama-Āgama, 162, 692a,
MN, III, 246 (140).

At AN, IV, 58–59 (7, 48) the Buddha speaks of
the woman who has transcended her womanhood
(itthi itthattaṃ ativattati) and the man who has
transcended his manhood (puriso purisattaṃ
ativattati), in both cases by not thinking it
(na manasi-karoti), not attaching to it and not
delighting in it (na rajjati nābhiramati).

Manaskāra (where manas is mind and kāra is
from the stem kṛ-, as above) means "working
one's mind over something", and is standardly
translated zuò-yì "to work the mind" (zuò here is
the same as in bù-zuò "not doing", which
translates an-abhisaṃskāra). Thus the absence
of mental work (bù-zuò, wú-xíng, wú-niàn,
wú-wéi) denotes awakening. Only raw sensation
and consciousness of raw sensation proceed then.

However in order to keep mind from working up
an intellective stream, one has to exercise very
high alertness, otherwise one easily drifts away in
thought, memories, expectations, daydreams, etc.
— and that alertness is mindfulness. So in order to
be in mindlessness (wú-xīn) or thoughtlessness
(wú-niàn) one uses mindfulness, or in less esoteric
terms, one pays rapt attention, in full devotion, to
what happens, from moment to moment, so that
one is not diverted to the past with memories and
the future with expectations.

In Chinese only, there is the curious fact that
in order to have no thought (wú-niàn) one uses
nian (which standardly means thought, but in
Buddhism means mindfulness). Another curiosity
is the famous expression niàn-niàn jiě-tuō "one is
liberated from thought to thought". Here nian
translates Sanskrit kṣaṇa "instant", which is the
time atom, discrete from other time atoms. It
means "one is liberated from instant to instant",
and one is liberated from instant to instant because
one does not give rise to thought (bù qǐ-niàn) in
any instant. By not giving rise to thought, one
leaves one's mind empty and uncluttered, and
one's mind is liberated because it is not bound to
anything, though what happens still is cognised in
it, and cognised all the more vividly as there is no
thought to cloud it up. Mind (xīn) does not stop at
anything, does not stand in anything, does not
attach to anything. It is highly alert to what
happens, but simply does not settle down to
anything. It does not even chunk and bag
(chunking and bagging is the prelude to settling
down).

On the side of Daoism, many famous sayings of
the Old Man are quite apposite. "Doing away with
learning, one does not worry" (20). "When one
studies, one's learning benefits daily; but when
one practices the Way, one drops learning and
knowledge daily, and after dropping, one drops
some more, until one gets to not-doing" (48).
"Eradicate saintliness, forsake knowing" (19). The
anti-knowledge, anti-intellect trend of the Old Man
cannot but end up with an empty, uncluttered
mind, vast like the sky. No-mind (wú-xīn) and
no-thought (wú-niàn) are practically there, all but
in letter.

Tang Huyen

Colophon

Originally posted to the Daoist newsgroup and cross-posted to talk.religion.buddhism on October 17, 2005, as a letter to Bao Pu on the relationship between mindfulness and mindlessness. Author: Tang Huyen. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

The most systematic technical account in the Tang Huyen corpus. The post covers three interconnected problems: (1) the terminological puzzle of how Buddhist "mindfulness" (sati/nian) is the instrument for achieving its opposite, "no-thought" (wú-niàn/wú-xīn); (2) the mechanics of delusion — chunking and bagging as the operations by which raw sensation is carved into empirical objects; and (3) the canonical evidence for non-mentation as the telos of Buddhist practice, drawn from DN 9 (Poṭṭhapāda Sutta, the graduated cessation of notion), MN 140 (the Scripture on the Analysis of the Six Modalities, on neither composing nor willing), and AN 7.48 (transcending womanhood and manhood by not-thinking them). The Chinese-Sanskrit comparative lexicon — an-abhisaṃskāra = bù-zuò = wú-wéi = wú-niàn — is Tang Huyen's signature contribution: he shows that the Daoist "non-doing" and the Buddhist "non-mentation" are not merely parallel but formally equivalent. The closing analysis of niàn-niàn jiě-tuō, "liberated from instant to instant", is the most precise account of moment-to-moment liberation in the corpus. To be read alongside "Chunking and Bagging" (Oct 9, 2005) and "Not Business as Usual" (Jul 3, 2005).

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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