Anapanasati Sutta

The Ānāpānasati Sutta (Pāli) or Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra (Sanskrit), "Breath-Mindfulness Discourse," is a discourse that details the Buddha's instruction on using awareness of the breath (anapana) as an initial focus for meditation.

Versions of the text

In Theravada Buddhism

The Theravadin version of the Anapanasati Sutta lists sixteen steps to relax and compose the mind. According to Ajahn Sujato, the ultimate goal of Anapanasati is to bear insight and understanding into the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna), the Seven Factors of Awakening (Bojjhangas), and ultimately Nibbana.[1]

The Anapanasati Sutta is a celebrated text among Theravada Buddhists.[2] In the Theravada Pali Canon, this discourse is the 118th discourse in the Majjhima Nikaya (MN) and is thus frequently represented as "MN 118".[3] In addition, in the Pali Text Society edition of the Pali Canon, this discourse is in the Majjhima Nikaya (M)'s third volume, starting on the 78th page and is thus sometimes referenced as "M iii 78".

In East Asian Buddhism

The Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra, as the text was known to Sanskritic early Buddhist schools in India, exists in several forms. There is a version of the Ānāpānasmṛti Sutra in the Ekottara Āgama preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon. This version also teaches about the Four Dhyānas, recalling past lives, and the Divine Eye. The earliest translation of Ānāpānasmṛti instructions, however, was by An Shigao as a separate sutra (T602) in the 2nd century CE.[4] It is not part of the Sarvastivada Madhyama Āgama, but is instead an isolated text, although the sixteen steps are found elsewhere in the Madhyama and Samyukta Āgamas.[5] The versions preserved in the Samyukta Agama are SA 815, SA 803, SA 810–812 and these three sutras have been translated into English by Thich Nhat Hanh.[6]

Discourse summary

Benefits

The Buddha states that mindfulness of the breath, "developed and repeatedly practiced, is of great fruit, great benefit."[7] Ultimately, it can lead to "clear vision and deliverance."[8] The path by which this occurs is that:

Preparatory instructions

Prior to enumerating the 16 steps, the Buddha provides the following preparatory advice (which the Chinese version of this sutta includes as part of the first object):[10]

  1. seek a secluded space (in a forest or at the foot of a tree or in an empty place)
  2. sit down
  3. cross your legs
  4. keep your body erect
  5. establish mindfulness in front (parimukham)

Core instructions

Next, the 16 objects or instructions are listed, generally broken into four tetrads, as follows:[11]

  1. First Tetrad: Contemplation of the Body (kāya)
    1. Discerning the in and out breathing
    2. Discerning long or short breaths
    3. Experiencing the whole body (sabbakāaya)
    4. Calming bodily formations
  2. Second Tetrad: Contemplation of the Feeling (vedanā)
    1. Being sensitive to rapture (pīti)[12]
    2. Being sensitive to pleasure (sukha)
    3. Being sensitive to mental fabrication (citta-saṃskāra)
    4. Calming mental fabrication
  3. Third Tetrad: Contemplation of the Mind (citta)
    1. Being sensitive to the mind
    2. Satisfying the mind
    3. Steadying the mind
    4. Releasing the mind
  4. Fourth Tetrad: Contemplation of the Mental Objects (dhammā)
    1. Dwelling on impermanence
    2. Dwelling on dispassion
    3. Dwelling on cessation
    4. Dwelling on relinquishment

Related canonical discourses

Breath mindfulness, in general, and this discourse's core instructions, in particular, can be found throughout the Pali Canon, including in the "Code of Ethics" (that is, in the Vinaya Pitaka's Parajika)[13] as well as in each of the "Discourse Basket" (Sutta Pitaka) collections (nikaya). From these other texts, clarifying metaphors, instructional elaborations and contextual information can be gleaned.

Discourses including the core instructions

In addition to being in the Anapanasati Sutta, all four of the aforementioned core instructional tetrads can also be found in the following canonical discourses:

The first tetrad identified above (relating to bodily mindfulness) can also be found in the following discourses:

Metaphors

Hot-season rain cloud

In a discourse variously entitled "At Vesali Discourse"[21] and "Foulness Discourse"[22] (SN 54.9), the Buddha describes "concentration by mindfulness of breathing" (ānāpānassatisamādhi)[23] in the following manner:

"Just as, bhikkhus, in the last month of the hot season, when a mass of dust and dirt has swirled up, a great rain cloud out of season disperses it and quells it on the spot, so too concentration by mindfulness of breathing, when developed and cultivated, is peaceful and sublime, an ambrosial pleasant dwelling, and it disperses and quells on the spot evil unwholesome states whenever they arise...."[24]

After stating this, the Buddha states that such an "ambrosial pleasant dwelling" is achieved by pursuing the sixteen core instructions identified famously in the Anapanasati Sutta.

The skillful turner

In the "Great Mindfulness Arousing Discourse" (Mahasatipatthana Sutta, DN 22) and the "Mindfulness Arousing Discourse" (Satipatthana Sutta, MN 10), the Buddha uses the following metaphor for elaborating upon the first two core instructions:

Just as a skillful turner[25] or turner's apprentice, making a long turn, knows, "I am making a long turn," or making a short turn, knows, "I am making a short turn," just so the monk, breathing in a long breath, knows, "I am breathing in a long breath"; breathing out a long breath, he knows, "I am breathing out a long breath"; breathing in a short breath, he knows, "I am breathing in a short breath"; breathing out a short breath, he knows, "I am breathing out a short breath."[26]

Expanded contexts

Great fruit, great benefit

The Anapanasati Sutta refers to sixteenfold breath-mindfulness as being of "great fruit" (mahapphalo) and "great benefit" (mahānisaṃso). "The Simile of the Lamp Discourse" (SN 54.8) states this as well and expands on the various fruits and benefits, including:

Pali commentaries

In traditional Pali literature, the 5th-century CE commentary (atthakatha) for this discourse can be found in two works, both attributed to Ven. Buddhaghosa:

English commentaries

Interpretations

Different traditions (such as Sri Lankan practitioners who follow the Visuddhimagga versus Thai forest monks) interpret a number of aspects of this sutta in different ways. Below are some of the matters that have multiple interpretations:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ A History of Mindfulness: How Insight Worsted Tranquillity in the Satipatthana Sutta by Ajahn Sujato pg 149
  2. ↑ For instance, in Southeast Asian countries, "Anapanasati Day" is the full-moon sabbath (uposatha) day in the eighth lunar month of Kattika (usually in November) (e.g., see Bullitt, 2005).
  3. ↑ A Romanized Pali version of this sutta can be found at www.metta.lk (SLTP, n.d.). Examples of English translations are Nanamoli (1998), Nanamoli & Bodhi (2001), Nhat Hanh (1988) and Thanissaro (2006a).
  4. ↑ "The Relationships Between Traditional And Imported Thought And Culture In China: From The Standpoint of The Importation Of Buddhism" by Tang Yijie. Journal of Chinese Philosophy 15 (1988) pp.415-424
  5. ↑ A History of Mindfulness: How Insight Worsted Tranquillity in the Satipatthana Sutta by Ajahn Sujato pg 148
  6. ↑ Nhat Hanh, Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries.
  7. ↑ Nanamoli (1998), p. 5, translation. See also Thanissaro (2006a) for similar wording.
  8. ↑ Nanamoli (1998), p. 5, translation. The Pali phrase being translated here as "clear vision and deliverance" is: vijjā-vimuttiṃ. Vijja is the literal Pali antonym for avijja, traditionally translated as "ignorance" or "delusion" and canonically identified as the root of suffering (dukkha, cf. "Twelve Nidānas").
  9. ↑ The Pali is: Ānāpānasati bhikkhave bhāvitā bahulīkatā cattāro satipaṭṭhāne paripūreti. Interestingly, SN 54.13 states: Ānāpānasatisamādhi kho ānanda, eko dhammo bhāvito bahulīkato cattāro satipaṭṭhāne paripūreti (underscore added). That is, the latter discourse identifies that it is the concentration (samādhi) associated with anapanasati practice that leads to fulfillment of the four satipatthana.
  10. ↑ The preparatory and core instructions are also detailed in the "Arittha Sutta" ("To Arittha," SN 44.6).
  11. ↑ This enumeration of the core instructions is largely based on Thanissaro (2006a) and Nanamoli (1998). The basis for mapping each of the tetrads to one of the four satipatthana is that, in the Anapanasati Sutta, after what is here identified as the "core instructions," the Buddha explicitly identifies each tetrad as related to a particular satipatthana.
  12. ↑ The arising of pīti suggests the arising of the first jhanic state.
  13. ↑ Vin.iii,70 (e.g., see Buddhaghosa, 1999, p. 259, VIII.145).
  14. ↑ Thanissaro (2006d)
  15. ↑ For this entire chapter (SN 54), see Bodhi, 2000, pp. 1765-1787. For a few of this chapter's individual discourses, see SN 54.6 (Thanissaro, 2006b), SN 54.8 (Thanissaro, 2006c) and SN 54.13 (Thanissaro, 1995).
  16. ↑ Piyadassi (1999).
  17. ↑ See, for instance, Nanamoli (1998), Part III.
  18. ↑ See, e.g., Thanissaro (2000).
  19. ↑ Nyanasatta (1994).
  20. ↑ Thanissaro (1997).
  21. ↑ Vesālīsuttaṃ, in the Burmese Chaṭṭha Saṇgayana edition of the Pali Canon (see http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/s0305m.mul9.xml). This edition is the basis for Bodhi (2000), pp. 1773-74.
  22. ↑ Asubhasuttaṃ, in the Sinhala Sri Lanka Tripitaka Project (SLTP) edition of the Pali Canon (see http://www.metta.lk/tipitaka/2Sutta-Pitaka/3Samyutta-Nikaya/Samyutta5/53-Anapana-Samyutta/01-Ekadhammavaggo-p.html). The basis for this SLTP title is that it starts with the Buddha providing a talk about meditating on "foulness" (asubha, e.g., see Patikulamanasikara). (Traditionally, the intent of such a meditation is primarily to diminish one's attachment to their own or another's body.)
  23. ↑ In the Samyutta Nikaya (SN) chapter on breath-mindfulness, over half the discourses (SN 54.7 to 54.20) emphasize the concentration (samādhi) resulting from breath-mindfulness over breath-mindfulness per se. This is consistent with several enumeratons of Enlightenment factors (i.e., Five Faculties, Five Powers, Seven Factors of Enlightenment and Noble Eightfold Path) where the factor of mindfulness precedes that of concentration (Bodhi, 2000, pp. 1516-17).
  24. ↑ Bodhi (2000), p. 1774.
  25. ↑ The Pali word translated as "turner" here is bhamakāro, literally, "one who makes spin," usually referring to the spinning of a wheel (see, e.g., Rhys Davids & Stede, 1921-25, p. 498, entry for "Bhamati" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.2:1:3491.pali, retrieved 2007-11-08). In addition, the Pali word translated here as "turn" is añchanto, whose definition includes "to turn on a lathe" (see, e.g., Rhys Davids & Stede, 1921-25, p. 13, entry for "Añchati" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:285.pali, retrieved 2007-11-08).
  26. ↑ Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10) (Nyanasatta, 1994).
  27. ↑ According to the Samyutta Nikaya post-canonical commentary, other meditation subjects such as the four elements fatigue the body, while still others, such as kasina objects, strain the eyes (Bodhi, 2000, p. 1950, n. 296).
  28. ↑ This benefit, the abandoning of householder memories and aspirations, is identified as common to each type of body-centered-mindfulness meditation identified in the Kayagata-sati Sutta (MN 119) (Thanissaro, 1997).
  29. ↑ Bodhi (2000), pp. 1770-73.
  30. ↑ Nanamoli (1998), p. 13.

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