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Ānāpānasati (Mindfulness of Breathing)

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Ānāpānasati Sutta – Majhimma Nikāya 118

“Ānāpānasati  (mindfulness of breathing) developed and repeatedly practiced, is of great fruit, of great benefit; mindfulness of  breathing developed and  repeatedly practiced, perfects the four foundations of mindfulness; the four foundations of mindfulness, developed and  repeatedly practiced, perfect the seven enlightenment factors; the seven enlightenment factors, developed and  repeatedly practiced, perfect clear vision and deliverance.”

Method of practice

A. Contemplation of body

Breathing in  long, know, “I breathe in long”; or breathing out long, know, “I breathe out long.”

Breathing in  short, know, “I breathe in short”; or breathing out short, know, “I breathe out short.”

“‘Experiencing the whole body I shall breathe  in,” train thus; “‘Experiencing the whole body I shall breathe  out” train thus.

“Calming the body formations I shall breathe  in,” train thus; “Calming the body formations I shall breathe out,” train thus.

B. Contemplation of feeling

“[Experiencing rapture] I shall breathe in,” train thus; “[Experiencing rapture] I shall breathe out,” train thus.
[Experiencing bliss]
[Experiencing the mental formations]
[Calming the mental formations]

C. Contemplation of mind

“[Experiencing the mind] I shall breathe  in,” train thus; “[Experiencing the mind] I shall breathe out,” train thus.
[Gladdening the mind]
[Concentrating the mind]
[Liberating the mind]

D. Contemplation of phenomena

“[Contemplating impermanence] I shall breathe in,” train thus; “[Contemplating impermanence] I shall breathe out.” train thus.
[Contemplating fading away]
[Contemplating cessation]
[Contemplating relinquishment]

Thus Train

A. Abide contemplating body in body, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world.

This is a certain body among bodies, namely, the breath.

On that occasion abide contemplating body in body, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world.

B. Abide contemplating feelings in feelings, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world.

This is a certain feeling among feelings, namely, the complete attention to in-breathing and out-breathing.

C. Abide contemplating mind in mind, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world.

There is no development of mindfulness of breathing in one who is forgetful and does not clearly comprehend.  

D. Abide contemplating phenomena in phenomena, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world.

Having seen with understanding what is the abandoning of covetousness and grief, become one who looks on with complete equanimity. On that occasion abide contemplating phenomena in phenomena, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world.

Seven enlightenment factors

Thus abide contemplating [body in body | feeling in feelings | mind in mind | phenomena in phenomena]; ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world- unremitting mindfulness is established, and established it arouses the mindful enlightenment factors:

  1. Mindfulness enlightenment factor
  2. Investigation- of-states enlightenment factor
  3. Energy enlightenment factor
  4. Rapture enlightenment factor
  5. Tranquility enlightenment factor
  6. Concentration enlightenment factor
  7. Equanimity enlightenment factor

Develop the enlightenment factors [1 to 7]  dependent on seclusion, on fading away, in cessation, resulting in relinquishment.

Thus developed, thus repeatedly practiced, the seven factors of enlightenment perfect clear vision and deliverance.

Thus said the Blessed One.

Bibliography:
Mindfulness of Breathing. 1964. Translated by Bhikkhu Ñānamoli
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Satipatthana (The Way of Mindfulness)

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Satipatthāna Suttas (Dīgha Nikāya 22; Majhimma Nikāya 10)

“[Satipatthana (foundations of mindfulness)] is the direct path for purifying beings, for overcoming sorrow and lamentation, for vanquishing pain and distress, for attaining the right approach, for realizing Nibbāna (Pali. Sanskrit: Nirvana), namely, the four applications of mindfulness.”

“What are the four?”

Contemplating [1. body in body] , ardent, clearly comprehending and mindful, having overcome, in this world, covetousness and grief.
[2. feelings in feelings]
[3. consciousness in consciousness]
[4. phenomena in phenomena]

Full outline to application of mindfulness

  1. Kāyanupassanā – (contemplation of body)
    Mindfulness of:

    • Ānāpāna-sati (in-out-breathing)

    • Iriyāpatha (four postures):

        1. Going

        2. Standing

        3. Sitting

        4. Lying

    • Satisampajañña (clarity of consciousness).
      Clear consciousness:

      • In going, coming; in looking forward, backward; in bending stretching of body; in eating, drinking, chewing, tasting; in discharging excrement and urine; in walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking; in speaking, keeping silent

    • Kayagatāsati/asubha (thirty-two body parts)

        • (1 to 5) hairs of head, hairs of body, nails, teeth, skin (6 to 10) flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidneys, (11 to 15) heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs (16 to 20) intestines, mesentery, stomach, excrement, brains* (21 to 26) bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat (27 to 32) tears, skin-grease, spittle, nasal mucus, oil of the joints, urine

    • Dhātuvavatthāna (four elements)

          1. Pathavī-dhātu (Earth/solid)

          2. Apo-dhātu (Water/fluid)

          3. Tejo-dhātu (Fire/heat)

          4. Vāto-dhātu (Wind/motion)

    • Sivathika (nine cemetery meditations)

  2. Vedanānupassanā (contemplation of feelings)
    Mindfulness of: 

    • Kāyikā sukhā-vedanā = sukhā
      (bodily agreeable feelings = bliss)

    • Kayikā dukkhā -vedanā = dukkhā
      (bodily disagreeable feelings = unfulfilling/suffering)

    • Cetasikā sukhā-vedanā = somanassa
      (mentally agreeable feelings = glad- mindedness)

    • Cetasikā dukkhā-vedanā = domanassa
      (mentally disagreeable feelings = sad-mindedness)

    • Adukkha-m-asukhā vedanā = upekkha
      (indifferent or neutral feelings = equanimity)

  3. Cittānupassanā (contemplation states of consciousness)
    Mindfulness of:

    • Consciousness with lust, without lust, … with hate, without hate, … with ignorance, without ignorance, … cramped or distracted, … developed or undeveloped, … surpassable or unsurpassable, concentrated or not concentrated, liberated or not liberated

  4. Dhammānupassanā (contemplation of phenomena/mind-objects)

    • Nīvarana (five hindrances to Nibbāna)

        1. Kāmacchamda (sensual desire)

        2. Vyāpāda (ill will)

        3. Thīna-middha (slouth, torpor)

        4. Uddhacca-kukkucca (restlessness, scruples)

        5. Vicikcchā (skeptical doubt)

    • Khanda (five aggregates of existence)

        1. Rūpa-kkhandha (corporeality group)

        2. Vedanā-kkhandha (feeling group)

        3. Sañña-kkhandha (perception group)

        4. Sankhāra-kkhandha (mental-formation group)

        5. Viññāna-kkhandha (consciousness group)

    • Āyatana (twelve bases of mental activity)

        • Visual organ, visible object; auditory organ, sound object; olfactory organ, odor object; gustatory organ, taste object; tactile organ, tactile object; consciousness, mind-object

    • Samyojana (ten fetters)

        • Personalty-belief, sceptic doubt, clinging to rule and rituals, sensuous craving, ill will, craving for material existence, craving immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, ignorance

    • Bojjhanga (seven factors of enlightenment)

        1. Sati (mindfulness)

        2. Dhamma vicaya (investigation of nature of reality)

        3. Vīriya (energy)

        4. Pīti (rapture)

        5. Passaddhi (tranquility)

        6. Samadhi (concentration)

        7. Upekkhā (equanimity)

    • Cattāriariya-saccāni (The Four Noble Truths)

        • This is suffering: All forms of existence are unsatisfactory subject to suffering (dukkha)

        • This is the origin of suffering: All suffering and reconceptualization is produced by desire (tanhā)

        • This is the cessation of suffering: Extinction of ignorance and desire (driven by greed and hate). Nibbāna

        • This is the way to attain Nibbāna (cessation of suffering): The Noble Eightfold Path (atthangiks-magga):

          1. Samma-ditthi (Right view)

          2. samma-sankappa (Right intent)

          3. Samma-vācā (Right speech)

          4. Samma-kammanta (Right action)

          5. Samma-ājīva (Right livelihood)

          6. Samma-vāyāma (Right effort)

          7. Samma-sati (Right mindfulness)

          8. Samma-samādhi (Right concentration)

“Thus live contemplating [body in body] internally, or live contemplating [body in body] externally, or contemplating [body in body] internally and externally.” Thus live contemplating:
[feelings in feelings]
[consciousness in consciousness]
[phenomena in phenomena]

“Live contemplating origination things in the [body] , or contemplating dissolution things in the [body] or contemplating origination and dissolution things in the [body]. Or establish mindfulness with the thought ‘[body] exists’ to the extent necessary for just knowledge and remembrance, and live independent and cling to naught in the world. Thus live contemplating [body] in [body]” Thus live contemplating: 
[feelings]
[consciousness]
[phenomena]

“This is the only way for the purification of beings, for overcoming sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of Nibbāna, namely the Four Arousings of Mindfulness.”

“Thus spoke the blessed one”.

 

Bibliography: 
The Way of Mindfulness, The Satipatthana  Sutta 1949. Bhikku Soma and Cassius A. Pereira

The Buddha’s Path to Deliverance. 2002. Nyanatiloka Thera

Buddhist Dictionary, Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines. 2019. Nyanatiloka Thera
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Blue Creek

I have no identity
But what you would have of me. 
A friend I would be, 
Or son, brother or father, 
To your mother, sister, daughter. 
But If you ask me,
Nothing here to see. 

Guitar on the knee,
Twangy variations of Bluesy E
With a found blue A.T.C. 
Somewhere south of Tennessee.
Where the Creek would  roam,
When they were free,
Before losing their homes and way
For the sake of foreign liberty.
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Delights of the Arcane in the Garden

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From The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
“All that is born, all that is created all the elements of nature are interwoven and united with each other. 
All that is composed shall be decomposed;
Everything returns to its roots;
Matter returns to the origins of matter. 
Those who have ears, let them hear.”
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Heaven’s Door

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Bardo of Becoming: 
Now when the bardo of becoming dawns upon me,
I will concentrate my mind one- pointedly,
And strive to prolong the results of good karma, 
Close the womb-entrance and think of resistance;
This is the time when perseverance and pure thought are needed,
Abandon jealousy and meditate on the Guru with his consort.      
-Bardo Thodol

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Colliding Particles in a Bubble Chamber

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Bardo of dharmatā
Now when the bardo of dharmatā draws upon me
I will abandon all thoughts of fear and terror,
I will recognize whatever appears as my projection
And know it to be vision of the bardo;
Now that I have reached this crucial point,
I will not fear the peaceful and wrathful ones,
My own projections.
-Bardo Thodol
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Cosmic Background Rose

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Bardo of the moment before death:
Now when the bardo of the moment before death draws upon me,
I will abandon all grasping, yearning and attachment,
Enter undistracted into clear awareness of the teaching,
And eject my consciousness into the space of unborn mind;
As I leave this compound body of flesh and blood
I will know it to be transitory illusion. 
-Bardo Thodol
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Dream of a Sun Dance

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BarDo of Dreams
Now when the bardo of dreams  is drawing upon me,
I will abandon the corpse-like sleep of careless ignorance, and let my thoughts enter their natural state without distraction;
Controlling and transforming dreams in luminosity. 
I will not sleep like an animal 
But unify completely sleep and practice. 
-Bardo Thodol