Hello, welcome to Mindfulness Plus.

I'm your host, Thomas McConkey.

Thanks for downloading us today.

The topic I want to cover today is the word mindfulness.

I talked in a previous show about what the plus in mindfulness plus means.

Today I want to say a little bit about what the mindfulness and mindfulness plus is.

And to do that, I want to just talk a little bit about the history of the word mindfulness,

or rather the origin.

Many listeners already know this.

If you do, it's good review.

Originally, what we call mindfulness today in the modern English language was referred to in the Pali language, an early Buddhist language related to Sanskrit.

This practice was called Vipassana.

This is a two-part word.

There's the prefix V, and there's the suffix PASNA.

The V has different meanings. We're going to focus on one of the meanings today, which means a part.

Right? And the PASNA in the word literally means to see. And so the compound word means to see apart or to see separately.

So what does seeing separately have to do with our mindfulness practice?

How can understanding this word Vipasna give us insight into how we can practice and how we can reap all

of the considerable benefits of the practice? Well, let me give you an example. When you

taste a piece of chocolate with a connoisseur,

and they have a very discerning, a mature palate,

and as they're tasting it,

...