404//MEANINGSSYS.ONLINE

:: COMPARE ::

MindfulnessvsSati

The short answer

Sati is remembering — holding the teaching in mind while observing, with a discriminating, ethically loaded function. Clinical mindfulness is bare present-moment attention, deliberately stripped of doctrine so it can be prescribed. They share a translation, not a definition.

Side by side

AspectMindfulnessSati
Core sensePresent attentionRemembering
Ethical frameRemovedCentral
GoalSymptom reliefLiberation
JudgingSuspendedDiscriminating

What each one means

Mindfulness

Deliberate, non-judgemental attention to present experience — a contemplative practice long before it was the clinical construct whose definition, measurement and evidence base are all actively contested.

Full definition of Mindfulness

Sati

The contrast above sets out how Sati differs from Mindfulness on the points that actually matter.