Sampajañña


Sampajañña .
Sampajañña has been variously translated into English as "clear comprehension", "clear knowing," "constant thorough understanding of impermanence", "fully alert" or "full awareness", "attention, consideration, discrimination, comprehension, circumspection", and “introspection.”

Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism entry

The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism entry says;

From the Pali Canon

Clear comprehension is most famously invoked by the Buddha in tandem with mindfulness practice in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta:
Clear comprehension develops out of mindfulness of breathing and is subsequently present in tandem with mindfulness for all four satipaṭṭhāna-s.

Canonical commentary

While the nikayas do not elaborate on what the Buddha meant by sampajañña, the Pali commentaries analyze it further in terms of four contexts for one's comprehension:

Critical to Right Mindfulness' purpose (Nyanaponika)

In a correspondence between Bhikkhu Bodhi and B. Alan Wallace, Bhikkhu Bodhi described Ven. Nyanaponika Thera's views on "right mindfulness" and as follows,

Use day and night (Thầy Thich Nhat Hanh)

Vietnamese Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh, has written with regards to the aforementioned verse in the Satipatthana Sutra, on the topic of sampajañña, the following,