Mindfulness in Early Buddhism: Characteristics and Functions

Mindfulness in Early Buddhism is a timely and thoroughgoing examination of the significance, meaning and development of mindfulness in early Buddhism. Buddhist meditator and scholar Bhikkhu Anālayo here provides answers to questions such as: To what extent is mindfulness an originally Buddhist concept? Is there a place for bare awareness and what are its results? What is the significance of mindfulness of the body and what are its benefits? How does mindfulness relate to memory and to the practice of recollection? What are the different benefits associated with mindfulness in the early discourses? and How does mindfulness relate to other aspects of the early Buddhist path of practice? In Part I Anālayo examines topics including mindful eating, ethics and compassion, central aspects of mindfulness practice, and a history of mindfulness, showing how from early Buddhism mindfulness evolved into the modern vipassana and dzogchen traditions' understandings. At the end of each chapter in Part I there are instructions for meditation practice. In part II Anālayo provides annotated translations from the Chinese Agamas and a comparative study of their Pali parallels.