Sati is a good entity. Its true meaning is to recall the knowledge, which may be futher elaborated as to recall the good and evil deeds of ourselves and others. I think we all know what is meant by recalling the good and evil deeds. These deeds as well as saying of the others are considered external deeds. We should also recall our own action and saying. Recalling means remambering what we did and the requital which followed. For example, we should not only recall our good deeds and good saying but should also recall the peace of mind, the satisfaction, and the contentment and gratifcation which followed. Recalling the bad deeds and the bad results which followed will keep us away from committing bad deeds for we don't want those things to happen to us again. On the oter hand, recalling the good deeds and the plesant results which followed will encourage us to keep on making merit when we are overwhelmed with discouragement.

          Sati is thus the recollection of knowledge of good and evil deeds. We recall the good deeds to give us spirital support when we are about to conduct good deeds but lack the will to do. We recall the evil deeds to prevent us from misconduct. There is no end to recollection ability and will be able to go farthest into the past. It may take some time at the beginning, but you will certainly achieve the "javana" level if you try hard. Javana is a phase or stage of the process at which there is full perception.

           It is devisable that we should practice recollection of our deeds and their repercussion. We should recall both the good deeds and the gad deeds, which would offer us a wider perspective and encouragen\ment in case we are making merit and discouragement if we happen to fall into prey of temptation and behave unbecomingly. We should, moreover, beable to use the expeerience in either the good or the evil path in whatever happen to us. For example, when we are being criticized or faced with something which makes us unhappy. We should be in a position to quicjly recall the appropriate experience which has helped us or others to effectively cope with the situation.

           In the first phase of sati induction excercise, we start ith recalling the past experience, either good or bad, of our own or of others. The objective is to prevent the past misdeed to occour again. Evidently, we will suffer if we allow it to remerage. After constant practice, such reaollection becomes automatic and does not demand any effort on our part. It's the first few times that we have to force ourseves to do it. It helps, us to be in distress, advertisity and suffering, not to mention the physical discomfort incurred while carrying out the adventurous though, to go very deep in finding faults against misdeeds. Gambling, for example, has so many defects and often causes act. In recalling gambling experience, we may expound hardship in prolonged seating, worry over the police raid, irritation against warning from well wishes, surpicion of being cheated, fright of big loss and its dreadful consequences, ect. in spite of its shortcomings, gambling exerts much influence on the gambler who really wants to play and does not need to be enticed at all. It is he who is always on the look out for fellow gamblers and for the first opportunity to stat the game.

           Looking at the other angle; when our mind wants to pursue a good deed there will be a force to help push the deed to the finish. We should find a way to increase that force, and this could beachieced though practice, which, as earlier said, would soon make it easy and become automatic. It is only in the early stage that wwe need effort and patience and use our sati to help recall our past experience. With ample practice we will be adept in recollection and have no difficultly in recalling what we wnat to . The most reverent disciples of Buddha have also been through such practice. They succeeded in maintaining their sati and did not let it go off its course. You should follow their footsteps and keep your activities under the dictation of your sati. It is only at the begining that we need guidance. Our good behavior would soon become automatic. In ourroutine activities such as picking up something, putting it back, standing up, sitting down etc., we should be mindly of our sex, age and status, of how poorly some people have done these, and of how elegantly other people have done carried out these respective activities. Even an utterance of a word, we should recall how we did it, to whom, for what etc., and try to make the best out of the experience.

           After the said pracitce what is needed is to see to it that our sati completely acknowledge the deed. At this stage we might not need any effort, as things will happen automatically. There is nothing left for interference. If any, there may be need only for acknowledgement. Now we know what is good, what is bad, who has committed wrongdoing, what is it, and when and where it took place. All these are grouped under the first part of the recollection exercise.

           The second part of the recollection exercise is to recall "vibakkamma" or the consequent deeds in the previous lives. These deeds are the causal factors determining what an animal or a human being should be in the present life, for example, a happy man, an unhappy man or account of poverty, and unhappy man on account of bodily impairment. As we see the happiness and suffering of other people, we realize that these are caused by none other than the deeds committed by the respective person in the previous life. This vibakkamma keeps our destiny under its power. It charts our lives in accordance to what we have done. Recolloection of vibakkama exercise has the good purpose of making us wary of evil deeds and attracting us to the good deeds. This is a about what we have seen from the activities of pther people and their respective requitals.

           Comming back to ourselves, we see that we are not a perfect object. Good and bad aspects exist side by side in each of us. This is because we do not always and only perfect good deeds but intermittently commit evil deeds as well. Besides, we are also closely followed by our own innumerable vibakkama of diverse nature exerting their influence in different directions. Under the merited influence we appear to be smooth sailing, and everything goes well. Under the demerited influence, obstacles abound, and even our body appears to be deteriorating. We should always think of this cause and effect chain, which helps keep us from bad deeds and bad utterance. The chain is an effective fence against evil deeds and a good inducement for good deeds. Buddha himself often taught us to maintain our sati and recall vibakkama. This brings us to an end of the second external part of the first phase of sati induction exercise. We may now move to the means to induce and increase the power of our sati, which can be used to promote the things that should be promoted and to prevent the things that should be promoted and to prevented. With increased sati, we may aptly be called a person with complete sati and an advanced mind. Our movement is full of alertness, and we never relapse into absent-mindedness. We know what we are doing. When we catch something which belongs to us or to other people, we always know exactly what it i. We now know not only how good it is, but also how attractive it appeals to the other people. As for our manner of handling things, we should objectively appraise it. We should observe also how other people do it, how they pick up things, how then put them down, the way they sit and talk, etc. If their manners are unacceptable, we should know whetger that is due to their absentmindedness or their conscious weaknesses. The purpose of recolloection is, I repeat, to instill in us the dread for evil deeds and vicious utterance.

           Our sati will also keep our mind in order. When our mind stars wandering away, sati would hold it aback and caution us not to pursue the path of worldly weanesses but rether to choose the path of dhamma leading to purity and happiness. All of us exist in "kamavacara", or the wave of senceshere. For our own good, we should block the suffering wave and flow with the merrited wave. When we succed in this, we will be accepted as those attaining "ekaggata dhamma". Or mental one-point-edness shamma or those who are in a position to continually grow, and are ready in both mind and body to move to a higher level of refined smathi.

           Let us go back time being to our earlier discussion on recollection. The physical aspect of this recollection is called "kayanupassanasatipatthana", ir comtemplation of the body. In other words, we recall or are reminded of our bodily movement and of the words we have spoken. All of our activities, sitting, standing walking eating,etc., are deliberately performed and none in unconsciously carried out. Yet the conscious tracing of the activities is not enogh, we should also realize their requitals accrued to us. When a good thing is done or said, the accued requtals is happiness on the part of the doer. On the other hand, when a bad thing is done or said, the corresponding requital is suffering. Requitals of deeds thus exist in pairs of feelings or "vedana". "Vedananupassanasatipatthana" (co ntemplation of the feelings) is the evidenceof "kayanupassana-satipatthana" (contemplation of the body). The former consists of only two aiternatives, happiness or suffering. It is plain and simple that we all want to be happy and do not want to sufer. As the cause of happiness is a good deed and the cause of suffering is a bad deed, it is clear that in order to attain our goal of being happy and avioding unhappiness we should perform good deeds and aviod all the bad deeds.

           We move next to "cittanupassanasatiptthana" (contemplation of the mond) and "dhammanupassatipatthana" (contemplation of the mond-objects). The mind signifies the realization of the good and the evil. "Cit" (mind) and soul are synonymous. We see, hear, teste and smaell through our senses which pass the respective messages on the our mind, which in turn rregisters the feeling of either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The mind-objects consisting of sin, merit and neutral is no different form what we have been disscussion as the theme in along the same line of love or hate and want or reject. It is very clear that sin and merit exist side by side. When we hate someone, we don't want want him, we want to curse, beat and kill him. This results in distress, and we become sinful. On the the other hand, if we pity the man and want to give him something to help him out, we become meritorious and deserve commendation. Or, when we see respectable monks and novices and want topresent alm and pay respect to them, that "dhammarom" which causes merited activities.

           As we all exist in the wave of sence-sphere (kamavacara), we are prone to love strongly, hate strongly, moderately love, moderately hate, and to be indifferent to some people. This love-hate feeling has many repercussions, and there fore connot be taken lightly. In the first place, we should call upon "satipatthana" (the four bases of mindfulness) to serve as the foundation of our attentiveness. When we are about to love, for example, we should use our sati as a brake to the tendancy. When we are about to hate, we should also use the sati to calm down the ill feeling. Wisom will sonn dawn upon us. To cite a concrete example, we hared him becausehe cursed us. We wanted to rap him in return, but were able to swallow our words and insatance. We became fearful, and our feeling took a sudden change. Our sati was now in complete control of our mind, which re-emerged after having been knovked down to the floor only to surrender completely. We seemed to be wiser. Our words became more polite.

           When the mind is incited by love or harted, it tend to be overly sensitive to the incination, and as earlier mentioned we need to apply our sati ti temper down the incited feeling we may have to use the full thrust of the emotional ourburst and keeping our eyes on te development. Usually, wisdom will emerge with a suggestion of an appropriate course of action. It is seen, then, the mind is merely a repository of reaction to stimuli whcih may either be positive or negative.

           Thus, the mind has two conflicting manifestations towad merit as well as sin, and our duty is to apply our sati to promote the positive tendency and to thwart the negative tendency. When something happens to us, our mind tends to push it further ahead and may also push it in the other direction to link with the past, which may be the immediate past (yesterday, the day before, or last year) or the long past into the previous lives. Our duty as seekers of "lokuttaradhamms" (supramundane stares, or the Four Paths to Nibbana) is to use sati to sever the link. After we have succeeded in doing this our mind will be comletely controlled by "Tapadhamma" and we will know more and more until will arrive at the state of complete enlightenment. We will know how things have come into existence. What brought them here? What dictates our mind? Who is behind all this? Finally, after we have removed all the influences we will a mind that is harmless. Although friendless, it will be a most peaceful mind which could provide us with superb and inexhaustible knowledge of the past, present and future.

           It is clearly seen, then, that we, the practitioners, who are seeking magnificent knowledge from our own mind study "satipatthana" including the three branches of "kayanupassanasatipatthana", "vedananupassanasatipatthana", and "dhammanupassanasatipatthana", which are the paths taken by us today. With constant practice, you will be able to destroy all the allurrements. After the existence has been extinguished, we will be able to reder all the intoxication harmless. Our mind will now be under the control of "tapadhamma" and rises to the level of "mahasati" or peaceful mind. It may now be called "prabassara" (purified) and may enter "nibbana".