[Buddha-l] mindful/mindfulness

[L.S. Cousins]

  I would define sati as that mental activity which enables us to 
remember i.e. not the remembering itself but something which facilitates 
memory. It is certainly associated with attentiveness, but you can be 
attentive and remember nothing of it afterwards. So it is a kind of 
general awareness that arises from the ability to clearly recognize what 
is going on, but doesn't of itself necessarily understand the 
implications of whatever is happening. I would think that alertness is 
closer to appamāda.

Lance