The Anapanasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing

Written by Richard Bukowski

The Anapanasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing

Buddhist Monk Ajaan Geoff giving a Dhamma Talk

Today I’m comparing different English translations of The Anapanasati sutta, the discourse on the mindfulness of breathing. There are a couple of versions I would like to share. One translation is from Gil Fronsdal, from the Insight Meditation Center in California, and Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translation from the Majjhima Nikaya. Thanissaro has taught in many locations, including the Insight Meditation Center. The following instructions will be broken down into tetrads for ease of practice.

1st tetrad

The instructions begin with: “Always mindful, she breathes in; mindful she breathes out. Ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.”

Ardent is translated as a form of passion or wholehearted commitment. Alert means you are not sleeping, or lost in thoughts. Mindfulness, according to Thanissaro, is being able to bring your mind back to the breath when it wanders. The mind will wander, but there is no need for self-recrimination. We just keep bringing the mind back to the breath. If we keep thinking about how to meditate, we are just stuck in thinking. The best way is to put in a little effort, and just start.

As we begin the 1st tetrad we have a few word options for following the breath. Gil uses knowing. We know that the breath is long or short. Thanissaro uses discerning a long or short breath. The word discern can also be translated as recognize. If your mind is wandering you cannot recognize the details of the breath. If you can recognize a long or short breath, or any of the following details, then you are concentrated enough.

The instructions move from the breath to the body. Thanissaro’s translation uses the term sensitive. “I will breathe sensitive to the entire body.” Gil uses experiencing the whole body. At first we are narrow with the breath in the belly or the nose, depending on whichever you prefer. Either way we must expand our attention span to include the breath and the sensations of the body. When we do this we can notice tension in different areas of the body. These are called in Buddhism, bodily formations or bodily fabrications.

A fabrication is like a building. The tension builds. We relax the bodily formations, or calm the bodily fabrications. Essentially, relax your body. Whatever tensions we have in our mind we can see are manifesting with tightness in our body. That’s what this is about. See if these tensions are necessary, and if not, train the brain to tighten less.

Summary:

  1. Try to recognize long breaths, while being interested, aware, and always coming back to the breath.
  2. Recognize short breaths in the same way.
  3. Expand your attention to include the body.
  4. Relax tightness in the body.

2nd tetrad

When the body is relaxed, we are in the 2nd tetrad. The instructions start with being sensitive to rapture or, depending on the translation, you experience enjoyment. We enjoy the in and out breath with this reduced bodily tightness. Then we are sensitive to pleasure or we experience the pleasure.

This is a calming feeling which is a more peaceful form of pleasure we started with. With this calm relaxation, it is much easier to look at what the mind is doing. We become sensitive to mental fabrication, or experience our mental formations. A form of mental tightness.

At this point we are moving into a form of thought stopping, but the difference here is that we relax the mental formations, or calm the mental fabrications. Another way to put it, we relax our mental tightness, and the tightness of those thoughts that interrupt the meditation.

Summary:

  1. Pay attention to the enjoyment or rapture.
  2. As time passes pay attention to the more refined pleasure that appears.
  3. Experience or be sensitive to our tight thinking.
  4. Relax the strained thinking that interrupts the meditation.

3rd tetrad

Here is where it can get vague in the translations. Gil want us to breathe in and out experiencing the mind, satisfying the mind, composing the mind, and liberating the mind. Thanissaro wants us to be sensitive to the mind, satisfy the mind, steady the mind, and release the mind.

In this tetrad, we are experiencing the quality of our mind. In this experiencing, Gil describes paying attention to whether the mind is being preoccupied, or not preoccupied. Preoccupations are what deeply disturb our concentration. They are our deepest concerns about our place in life.

When we are free of preoccupation and we become satisfied with the results of the prior meditative work, the mind becomes more composed or concentrated on the breath. There is less effort to keep the mind from wandering. Liberation is now possible with this clear mind so we can move onto the 4th tetrad.

With Thanissaro, the 3rd tetrad is about measuring the state of our mind. If we are depressed, we then gladden the mind by focusing on what is enjoyable about the breath. Another choice is thinking about inspirational thoughts and uplifting memories to return to a better state of mind. If the mind is overly excited, we are to breathe in a way that steadies the mind.

A useful guide that Thanissaro recommends is surveying how much effort and pain there is in trying to maintain concentration. A lot of insight in meditation is learning to think, and allow mental movements to happen without so much stress. This is a form of mental stream-lining.

In Buddhism, much of our stress is habitual. With a strong meditation practice the stress can become more of a choice, as the brain starts rewiring.

Summary:

  1. As your strained thinking starts subsiding, notice the quality of the mind.
  2. Gladden the mind if the state of mind is down.
  3. Steady the mind if it is too excited.
  4. Release the deep preoccupations of the mind by looking at the drawbacks of the stress. Notice how small our problems are compared to the hugeness of the universe and time. Be creative and use what contemplation works with trial and error. Just like in the sutta, we must put aside greed and distress in reference to the world. The outside world that the preoccupations are aimed at.

3rd tetrad links:

http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/CrossIndexed/Published/Meditations7/151128BreathMeditation-TheThirdTetrad.pdf

http://audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/6688.html

4th tetrad

The mind naturally attempts to control what is swept away. This is alienating because intentions to control have so few payoffs, and no payoffs, no matter how intelligent, are eternal. We let go of ownership of what is disenchanting because many intentions to control weaken us. While conscious, we aim intentions on long-term results and ultimately we prepare to let go of intentions to control over anything so we can accept death with more ease.

Gil’s instructions:

First contemplate impermanence of your experience.

Then contemplate the fading away of clinging.

Then contemplate the cessation of clinging and then relinquishment of it all.

Thanissaro looks at this tetrad with a lot of detail. Inconstancy is a tool to see all experiences, including powerful impulses as ultimately not lasting. We must wait until the impulses evaporate on their own. One can notice how the impulses get stronger as you concentrate on them. As we get more skilled at this, we can look at the dispassion we have for what is impermanent. As the mind finds what’s impermanent dissatisfying, it naturally lets go of clinging stress.

Thanissaro emphasizes moving up the Jhanas, as one uses less stress to stay in concentration. There is a link below on how to develop Jhanas, or concentration states. When we can’t stay, or we can’t move in these concentration states without stress, the escape appears. We can then turn the insight at the concentration itself. The concentration has taken a lot of effort thus far. Any movement of the attention span has some stress. The mind naturally lets both the staying and the moving drop away. This is the real relinquishment or nirvana. One must go through this non-experience. Nirvana cannot be perceived or willed into manifestation.

Summary:

  1. Look at the impermanence of our senses and thoughts.
  2. Notice how trying to control experiences with stressful intentions, is a waste of energy.
  3. As dissatisfaction increases, the mind has less obsession and clinging.
  4. Focus on the concentration itself, and notice the work that is necessary to maintain it. Keep cultivating until the mind cannot find a better place. When stuck between staying or moving the mind naturally, relinquishes both staying and moving.

Links:

Gil Fronsdal’s translation and audio files of the 16 steps:

http://media.audiodharma.org/documents/16_steps_of_Anapanasati.pdf

http://audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/5979/

Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translation of the Majjhima Nikaya:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.118.than.html

Thanissaro has an index of talks. You can search under “Tetrad” for the specific talks on the discourse:

https://www.dhammatalks.org/

Thanissaro’s description of stream entry via the concentration path at 1:19:00:

http://audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/3022.html

Gil’s description of stream entry:

http://audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/975.html

Right Concentration:

http://rc.leighb.com/

Contemplative practice posts: https://psychreviews.org/category/contemplativepractice/

Photos:

Buddhist Monk Ajaan Geoff giving a Dhamma Talk By Ajaan_Goeff_Dhamma_Talk.jpg: Sakula (Mary Reinard).The original uploader was Narcissus at English Wikipediaderivative work: Sudozero (talk) – Ajaan_Goeff_Dhamma_Talk.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11290301