Sati, Memory, and Wisdom. Response to Ven. Anālayo’s “Mindfulness Constructs in Early Buddhism and Theravāda: Another Contribution to the Memory Debate”

From the beginning of this dialog with Ven. Anālayo, my contention has been that the word sati, usually translated as “mindfulness” in English, is constrained in meaning by its etymological heritage, that is, the Vedic word smṛti meaning “memory” or “remembrance.” There is only one definition of sati in the canon attributable to the Buddha, and there it is defined in terms of memory with wisdom (sati-nepakkena). The Niddesa, which is a very old commentary on various early discourses and itself dates from the beginning of the third century BCE (Norman 1983, p. 86), also unambiguously defines sati in terms of memory, recollection, and calling to mind (Sv 3, 760^5–8. Nidd I, 10^9–14 ad Sn 768; Levman 2017, p. 133). …