What is the [original] form of mindfulness?

As the concept of mindfulness is understood from multiple perspectives, many practitioners of it are still attempting to clearly define it. The word “mindfulness” is originated from a Pali-English dictionary published in 1882 by Rhys Davids, a British scholar, as the translation of the Pali word satipatthāna. Davids studied the Buddha’s teachings in Sri Lanka while it was a British colony, and its primary language was not English. Rhys Davids can be commended for his excellent efforts in introducing the Buddha’s teachings to the Western world. However, the word “mindfulness” has been erroneously assigned to mean satipatthāna, and the necessity for clarifying its actual meaning and adopting a more suitable term for it has risen.

In stress management courses, learners are taught that tension remains if it is not released. Unreleased tension is stress. In the modern world, people cannot release tension the way they wish. To get rid of tension, one needs to be conscious of oneself and experience conscious relaxation. Becoming conscious of oneself is the satipatthāna, which is commonly translated as “mindfulness,” but as per the Pali meaning, it is the introversion of attention. It is necessary for one to train oneself to gain control over emotions. The technique for gaining this control is the satipatthāna (introspection) and the mechanism is the Supernormal Eightfold Way.