Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese?

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - Printable Version

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Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - goldieabroad - 2012-04-16

Hi all. I am a meditation teacher and i came across a clip that said that mindfulness in japanese was a mix of the characters for Awareness and heart/ mind. producing a single symbol. is this true in any way and what would the symbol look like?
I looked around and kanji seems to be pretty confusing!!
Thanks for your help

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - imabi - 2012-04-16

When I think of mindfulness I think of 留意　or 注意深い.

There's the term 正念. It means to be mindful of Buddha's teachings.

To be mindful could also be よく気を配る、心に留める.

I can't think of one single character.

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - Amset - 2012-04-16

念 as in 念を入れる has to do with mindfulness, and there's 心/heart in there so that's close... I can't think of something exactly like what you described.

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - HonyakuJoshua - 2012-04-17

You may be thinking of無?

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - Javizy - 2012-04-17

Amset Wrote:念

I think this is the closest. A combination of 'now' and 'mind' makes a lot of sense in describing mindfulness. Wikipedia seems to agree. Alternatives are サティ from パーリ語 and 気づき.

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - goldieabroad - 2012-04-17

Thanks for all your suggestions. I managed to get a screenshot of it off a youtube video. If you are interested check out

at 12:26 and let me know if it makes any sense
thanks again Smile

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - Amset - 2012-04-17

Well that video does show 念, as we guessed. 今 (the top part) doesn't mean awareness in modern Japanese though. Maybe it did historically?

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - KanjiDevourer - 2012-04-18

It seems like people are projecting the 'Awareness' meaning on the upper part of the kanji, it just seems to be an ideogrammatic compound of 'now' and 'heart'/'mind': 念, which is somewhat diffferent, but in my opinion, still nice.

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - ファブリス - 2012-04-18

"Now" and awareness/consciousness are the same thing in nondual teachings.

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - ファブリス - 2012-04-18

goldieabroad Wrote:Thanks for all your suggestions. I managed to get a screenshot of it off a youtube video. If you are interested check out

at 12:26 and let me know if it makes any sense
thanks again

Btw, I found something pretty cool on YouTube if anyone wants to share a specific moment in a video you can add a query string like so:

&t=746s

The time is in seconds.

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - astendra - 2012-04-18

ファブリス Wrote:Btw, I found something pretty cool on YouTube if anyone wants to share a specific moment in a video you can add a query string like so:

&t=746s

The time is in seconds.

You can do this in minutes too; makes it easier to count.

Mindfulness - how is it written in Japanese? - ファブリス - 2012-04-18

Doh Smile

Thank you.