Buddhist Inspiration .. Calm Abiding

Both mindfulness and discriminative alertness are needed in responding to sensory input of the three types--attractive, unattractive and neutral. Once again, in this tradition mindfulness does not mean simply to witness. It is a more discriminative kind of thing. You are asking yourself, "What is my response?" and then actively responding by applying the antidotes to attachment and hostility. The word mindfulness is a little bit different in different contexts. Here, Mindfulness refers to the mental faculty of being able to maintain continuity of awareness of an object. Vigilance is concerned with the quality of mind, watching to see, for example, if the mind is veering off to other objects. --- Gen Lamrimpa (Ven. Jampal Tenzin), Calming the Mind: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on Cultivating Meditative Quiescence