Page 150 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

going to approach the question of the meaning of the word

smrti or mindfulness rather indirectly, by taking an example
from everyday life. This will be — to begin with —an example

not of mindfulness but of unmindfulness, because we are more
familiar with unmindfulness than with mindfulness, and by
analysing unmindfulness we shall perhaps be more easily able to

arrive at some conception of mindfulness.

Suppose, then, that you are writing a letter, an urgent letter that
it is imperative should go off by the next post. But, as so often
happens in modern life, the telephone rings and it is some friend

of yours wanting a little chat. Before you know where you are,
you are involved in quite a lengthy conversation. You go on

chatting, maybe for half an hour, and eventually, the
conversation completed, you put down the phone. You have
talked about so many things with your friend that you have

quite forgotten about the letter, and you have talked for such a
long while that you suddenly feel quite thirsty. So you wander

into the kitchen and put the kettle on for a cup of tea. Waiting
for the kettle to boil, you hear a pleasant sound coming through
the wall from next door and realizing it is the radio you think you

might as well listen to it. You therefore nip into the next room,
switch on the radio and start listening to the tune. After that

tune is finished there comes another, and you listen to that too.
In this way more time passes, and of course you've forgotten all
about your boiling kettle. While you are in the midst of this daze,

or trance-like state, there is a knock at the door. A friend has
called to see you. Since you are glad to see him you make him

welcome, the two of you sit down together for a chat

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