sati
Mindfulness
[ SUH-tee ]
Seeing it in life
Sati does not float away from the object; it stands close as a gatekeeper. The seventh factor of the noble eightfold path and first factor of enlightenment.
In short
Remembering and presence with the object.
The analysis
Sati doesn't drift from its object the way an untrained mind does — the texts compare it to a gatekeeper who lets nothing pass unnoticed, or a stone that sinks and holds rather than floating. It's one of the twenty-five beautiful (sobhana) cetasikas, arising only in wholesome and certain resultant/functional cittas — never in an unwholesome one. A genuinely mindful moment cannot simultaneously be a moment of unchecked greed or aversion.
Where it sits
Sati is the seventh factor of the noble eightfold path and the first of the seven factors of enlightenment, positioned first because it holds the other six in balance, neither over-energizing nor over-calming the mind. It's the operative factor in satipaṭṭhāna, applied in turn to body, feeling, mind, and mental objects.
The difference between noticing tightness in the chest and being swept immediately into the story about the tightness is, in Abhidhamma terms, the presence or absence of sati at that moment. It doesn't stop the tightness. It changes what happens next.
Commonly mistaken for
Calm or relaxation. Sati can coexist with intensity; it's about presence with the object, not the quality of the feeling-tone.
Memory in the ordinary sense, though the root does mean 'to remember' — here it means not losing track of the present object.
Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10); Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha II.
Related terms