The mandala visually describes the ways these mental factors link and the way the mind works when mindfulness is fully operational when coupled with virtue. The outer circle lists the five mental factors that are the necessary components for mindfulness to become operational. The inner circle sila is at the center and at the heart for the entire system, and without all combined, the work towards liberation cannot truly begin. The mandala is a visual way to learn how this wholesome combination of mental factors can train a meditator’s mind/heart towards liberation.
Mindfulness meditation, when practiced alone and not linked to virtue and clear comprehension, will simply teach the mind to focus and to become calm. In current times, mindfulness meditation is commonly used as a psychological therapy for the treatment of various mental conditions, used in the medical profession for the treatment of pain, used in sports for enhanced performance, and now it’s even being used by the American military to train snipers in order to become more accurate in their aim. Clearly, despite being used successfully in these arenas, mindfulness training is not a spiritual or even always a wholesome practice in and of itself. In these cases cited, mindfulness training is a health modality or a productivity technique and is not intended or being used for the cultivation of wholesomeness of the mind/heart.
Sayadaw U Pandita.
