འཕགས་པ་ཆས་ཡང་དག་པར་སྡད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 4.4

4.4

“Child of good family, what is the application of mindfulness? What is mindfulness? What are the modes of mindfulness?”

The bodhisattva great being Nirārambha answered the bodhisattva great being Mativikrama, “Child of good family, for bodhisattvas, mindfulness is knowing that no phenomena arise. Bodhisattvas aspire to know the lack of arising. Their mindfulness is made pure by knowing the lack of arising. It is, in all situations, unwavering, direct, unmoving, and recognizes neither the depths nor the shore. It is difficult for worldly beings, śrāvakas, and pratyekabuddhas to know. The mindfulness of a bodhisattva—which is the mindfulness that fully comprehends the words of all the buddhas—is the immediate experience of the thus-gone, worthy, completely perfect Buddha. This is what the mindfulness of a bodhisattva is like.

“A bodhisattva’s mindfulness has ten modes: (1) the application of mindfulness of the body, (2) the application of mindfulness of sensations, (3) the application of mindfulness of mind, (4) the application of mindfulness of phenomena, (5) the application of mindfulness of recollecting the Buddha, (6) the application of mindfulness of recollecting the Dharma, (7) the application of mindfulness of recollecting the Saṅgha, (8) the application of mindfulness of recollecting discipline, (9) the application of mindfulness of recollecting giving, and (10) the application of mindfulness of recollecting divinities. These are the ten applications of mindfulness.

“What is the bodhisattvas’ application of mindfulness of the body? Bodhisattvas apply mindfulness to the body by thinking as follows: ‘This body did not come from a previous life, it does not migrate to the next life; it was not present in the previous life, and it will not be present in the next life. Otherwise, it would be false, and would arise from error. It would be devoid of one who acts and one who feels, and it would have no beginning, no end, and no middle.