{{Buddhist term | fontsize=100% | title=Apramāda | pi= appamāda | sa= अप्रमाद - apramāda | en= carefulness,<br/>concern,<br/> conscientiousness,<br/> conscious awareness | bo= བག་ཡོད་པ། | bo-Latn=Wylie: bag yod pa; <br />THL: bakyö pa | ko = 불방일 | ko-Latn = bulbangil | zh=不放逸(T) / 不放逸(S) |vi=bất phóng dật <br /> không dễ duôi}} {{Mindfulness|Buddhism}} '''Apramāda''' (Sanskrit; Pali: ''appamāda''; Tibetan Wylie: ''bag yod pa'') is a Buddhist term translated as 'conscientious' or 'concern'. It is defined as taking great care concerning what should be adopted and what should be avoided.<ref name=g1>Guenther (1975), Kindle Locations 634-635.</ref><ref name=eric1>Kunsang (2004), p. 24.</ref> In the Pāli Canon, a collection of the Buddha's earliest teachings, the term ''appamāda'' is quite significant; the essence of its meaning cannot be captured with a single English word. 'Heedfulness', 'diligence', and 'conscientiousness' all capture certain aspects of ''appamāda''. It is identified as one of the eleven virtuous mental factors in the Mahayana Abhidharma teachings.
==Etymology== ''Appamāda'' is a negation of ''pamāda'', which means 'negligent' or 'lax'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/42.22-Chakka-Appamada-S-a6.53-piya.pdf|title=(Chakka) Appamāda Sutta|last=Tan|first=Piya|date=2013|website=The Dharmafarers|pages=118–119|access-date=22 March 2017}}</ref> Therefore, ''Appamāda'' means 'non-negligence', 'non-laxity', 'non-intoxication', 'non-deluded', correctly translated as 'heedfulness', or whichever word fully captures the sense of the term. 'Heedfulness', 'diligence', and 'conscientiousness' all capture certain aspects of ''appamāda''.
==Explanation== The Buddhist text Abhidharma-samuccaya states the following:<ref name="g1"/>{{Example needed|date=August 2025}}
:What is concern? From taking its stand on non-attachment (alobha), non-hatred (adveṣa), and non-deludedness (amoha) coupled with diligence (vīrya), it considers whatever is positive and protects the mind against things which cannot satisfy. Its function is to make complete and to realize all worldly and transworldly excellences.
The scholar Alexander Berzin comments on carefulness:<ref name=b1>Berzin (2006)</ref>{{Example needed|date=August 2025}} : A caring attitude (bag-yod, carefulness) is a subsidiary awareness that, while remaining in a state of detachment, imperturbability, lack of naivety, and joyful perseverance, causes us to meditate on constructive things and safeguards against leaning toward tainted (negative) things. In other words, being disgusted with and not longing for compulsive existence, not wanting to cause harm in response to its suffering, not being naive about the effects of our behavior, and taking joy in acting constructively, a caring attitude brings us to act constructively and to refrain from destructive behavior. This is because we care about the situations of others and ourselves and about the effects of our actions on both; we take them seriously.
The scholar Robert Thurman emphasizes the high degree of ''apramāda'' of a person who has realized ''emptiness'' (a.k.a. ''voidness''):<ref>Thurman (2008), p. 158.</ref>{{Example needed|date=August 2025}} : This denotes a type of awareness of the most seemingly insignificant aspects of daily life, an awareness derived as a consequence of the highest realization of the ultimate nature of reality. As it is stated in the ''Anavataptaparipṛcchasutra'': "He who realizes voidness, that person is consciously aware." "Ultimate realization," far from obliterating the relative world, brings it into highly specific, albeit dreamlike, focus.
The term is described at length in the fourth chapter of the Buddhist text Bodhicharyavatara.
==Alternate translations== * A caring attitude (Alexander Berzin) * Carefulness (Alexander Berzin) * Conscious awareness (Robert Thurman) * Conscientiousness * Concern (Herbert Guenther) * Prudent * Heedfulness (often used in Theravāda sources)
== See also == * Buddhist meditation * Mental factors (Buddhism) * Mindfulness
==References== {{Reflist}}
== Sources == * Berzin, Alexander (2006), [http://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/science-of-mind/mind-mental-factors/primary-minds-and-the-51-mental-factors ''Primary Minds and the 51 Mental Factors''] * Guenther, Herbert V. & Leslie S. Kawamura (1975), ''Mind in Buddhist Psychology: A Translation of Ye-shes rgyal-mtshan's "The Necklace of Clear Understanding"''. Dharma Publishing. Kindle Edition. * Kunsang, Erik Pema (translator) (2004). ''Gateway to Knowledge, Vol. 1''. North Atlantic Books. * Thurman, Robert (2008), ''The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti'', Pennsylvania State University
==External links== * [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.02.than.html dhammapada appamada chapter] English * [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sltp/Dhp_utf8.html#v.21 dhammapada appamada chapter] Pali * [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn06/sn06.015.than.html parinibbana sutta]
Category:Wholesome factors in Buddhism Category:Mindfulness (Buddhism) Category:Sanskrit words and phrases