The article argues that sixteenth-century Iberian contemplative prayer, oración mental, as described by García Jiménez de Cisneros and St. Teresa of Avila, deliberately bypasses mental or cognitive faculties, advocating instead a practice closer to a 'prayer of the heart.' It juxtaposes this with the Buddhist concept of sati, popularized in the West as mindfulness, and contends that oración mental may be more accurately translated as 'mindfulness' rather than the conventional 'mental prayer.'
Christian mystical prayer, as described by St Teresa of Avila, is an intimate sharing between friends, rooted in two major theological traditions. The Neoplatonic tradition, derived from Platonic ideas of divinization (theosis), survived in Dionysian and monastic streams despite early church condemnation. The Augustinian tradition emphasizes the fallen soul's dependence on God's grace. These perspectives shaped later mystics like Teresa of Avila and continued into the twentieth century through Edith Stein and Thomas Merton, who brought key aspects of mystical prayer to modern times.