Item 7 in Noble Eightfold Path
Right Mindfulness
Cultivate sustained and discerning awareness of body, feeling, mind and experience.
- Position
- 7
- Form
- Step in a path
- Obligation
- Recommended
- Wording status
- Editorial paraphrase
- Intended audience
- Buddhist practitioners, with interpretations adapted to monastic and lay life
- Last reviewed
- 28 June 2026
Names and terminology
Canonical name: Right Mindfulness
Original term: Sammā-sati
Source wording
Editorial paraphrase: Cultivate sustained and discerning awareness of body, feeling, mind and experience.
Literal meaning
Cultivate sustained and discerning awareness of body, feeling, mind and experience.
Broader interpretation
Traditional mindfulness includes ethical and interpretive context, not attention alone.
Ethical purpose
To shape conduct or character in a way consistent with the wider ethical framework.
Modern application
Modern application requires attention to consent, rights, evidence, foreseeable harm and changing social conditions.
Criticism and difficult cases
Application can become difficult when this principle conflicts with another duty, when harm is indirect, or when ancient social assumptions do not fit modern conditions.
Truth By Reason analysis
Truth By Reason assesses this principle according to evidence, rights, intentions, foreseeable consequences and consistency with the treatment of all affected beings.
Ethical themes
Sources
- Magga-vibhanga Sutta: An Analysis of the Path Primary source