2.1 From Breath to Nibbāna

In the last section, we talked about satipatṭhāna or establishment of mindfulness. We now know that right mindfulness can only be established through sammā ditthi, or right understanding, which derives from initial knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. Inversely, knowledge of the Four Noble Truths gives us sammā ditthi, which is necessary for right mindfulness in realizing the true nature of life. The Buddha, with great compassion, clearly shows in Mahā Satipatthāna Sutta that for all of us the Establishment of Mindfulness will result in purification of the mind; the eradication of grief, sorrow and lamentation; the expulsion of physical and mental pain, and profound understanding of life leading to ultimate bliss, Nibbāna.

Since the Buddha taught the results of practicing satipatṭhāna at the very beginning of the discourse, we should have no doubts about the satipatṭhāna or its results. It is clear that we will be able to gain tremendous amounts of benefit if we cultivate the Dhamma and cultivate our minds. The first satipatṭhāna we develop is kāyānupassanā or mindfulness of the body. In kāyānupassanā meditation, the first method is “ānāpānasati” or mindfulness of breathing. From the moment, we were born we have been inhaling and exhaling. But most of us are not aware that we can use breathing to establish mindfulness and purify our minds. But the Buddha discovered this over 2500 years ago. Since then, millions of people have benefited from this method. So, this is a tried and tested way that yields result. His teachings of the Four Noble Truths are as follows:

  1. There is suffering in this life
  2. There is a cause for this suffering
  3. This suffering can be overcome and that state is called “Nibbāna”
  4. There is a process to overcoming this suffering, which is the Noble Eightfold Path.

We need to keep this at the forefront of our minds as we learn about meditation.

When beginning meditation of mindfulness of breathing, we must first find an appropriate spot to be seated. Acquire a spot under a shady tree, or an empty space, solitary spot where you won’t be disturbed is best suited for this. Any spot where you will not be disturbed would be suitable. If one plans to meditate with others in a room, everyone should plan to close their eyes and sit quietly and they will each be isolating themselves. This is suitable as it is in accordance with empty space.

Then the Buddha instructs, “Nisīdati pallankṁ ābhujitvā,” when practicing the mindfulness of breathing mediation, the meditator should sit. “Ujuṁ kāyaṁ panidhāya,” the meditator should sit with folded legs, cross-legged with a straight back. For most people this is a very difficult thing to do. There are solutions to this problem. You can make yourself a solid cushion or a little seat about three to four inches high. We should not become accustomed to leaning against the wall. We should not be discouraged if others can sit for a long period with cross legged and straight back but we cannot do it. It takes a little practice and we will be able to do it in the end. It is very important to have a balanced and stable body posture so we can sit for a long period without being distracted by our posture. This way, the first requirement to breathing meditation is fulfilled.

“Parimukhaṁ satiṁ upatṭhapetvā,” now, we have to focus on our breathing and meditate. Our breathing is the subject or nimitta of this meditation. We don’t need to attempt to focus on any other nimittas or subjects. Here the Buddha explains what the subject of breathing is very clearly. “So satova assasati,” he breaths in mindfully. “Sotova passasati,” he breathes out mindfully. Buddha advised us to be aware that we breathe in, and breathe out.

However, you can contemplate the great qualities of the Buddha as the initial step before starting breathing meditation. Think for a few a minutes about the Buddha’s great qualities in any language you are comfortable with, recollecting the meaning of each quality: The Buddha is liberated (arahaṁ), fully enlightened (sammā sambuddho), endowed with true knowledge and virtue (vijjā carana sampanno), well gone (sugato), knower of all worlds (lokavidū), incomparable teacher of those to be tamed (anuttaro purisadamma sārathi), teacher of gods and humans (sattha deva manussānaṁ), the Buddha (buddho), the Blessed One (bhagavā). In this way, create a pleasant mind by recollecting these great qualities of the Buddha. When you think about the Buddha, your mind clears and settles down as suspended particles in a murky pond settle on the bottom and leave the water clear. You begin to feel content and happy. This contentment and happiness becomes a great aid in the development of meditation.

So, now, you inhale with mindfulness and you exhale with mindfulness. This is all you need to do at this stage. This introductory step is not difficult. You can see for yourself how simple this sounds. However, once you try to stay aware of the breath entering and leaving your body, you should soon realize how disobedient your ordinary mindfulness is. You will realize that it is not that easy to sustain mindfulness on a single subject. This, too, is then anatta or non-self because it is not something within your control. You will realize how your thoughts leap from one attraction to another. One moment you are aware of your breath, the next moment your thoughts roll along memory lane, and the next moment building future dreams or your thoughts attach on to external sounds. You will soon understand the nature of this mind. So, what do you do now? The answer is viriya or effort. When your mind starts to wander bring it back gently to the breath. You have to keep in mind that the Buddha taught the meditator to shed both attachments and aversions while developing mindfulness. Avoid having conflict with such mind states.

There are three skills to sustain mindfulness of breathing. These are:

  1. Ātāpi: improving through perseverance the skill of subduing the accumulated weaknesses of your mind.
  2. Sampajañña: using your intelligence skillfully.
  3. Satimā: the skill of staying totally aware and mindful.

In summary, the way to build up the establishments of mindfulness is through perseverance with intelligence and profound awareness. When you grasp the importance of these three skills, you are no longer the casual meditator. You are the meditator who understands that if your mind splits from an attraction to attraction or if your mind splits from aversion to aversion, then you are not ready to meditate. So, you create an atmosphere where you can focus on meditating. You can isolate yourself, sit with folded legs and a straight spine and be mindful of your breathing. Even if your mind wanders to the past or to the future, persevere and gently draw back to your breath. The mind must be totally free of anxiety in order to be successful at this. You must not be discouraged if your thoughts keep splitting to different focus points. Persevere and gently draw it back to your breath. Mindfully you will inhale; mindfully you will exhale. This practice should enhance your life immensely.

2.2 The Way to Cultivate Kāyānupassanā in Ānāpānasati Meditation

So far, we discussed where to sit for mindfulness of breathing meditation, how to sit with folded legs and erect spine, and how to sustain our mindfulness on breathing in and breathing out. We will now teach you how you must not let your mind dwell on things that attract us or repel us but very gently bring our thoughts back to the breath.

Sammā sati or right mindfulness is what leads us to understanding our life. Right mindfulness is essential for this. Sometimes you hear people say that in order to meditate you need to find a teacher, tell them your personal details, and ask them to recommend a meditation method for you, as it could be dangerous to meditate without a teacher. This is not the Buddha’s advice. In Buddhist meditation, the teachings or the Dhamma is the instructor, not a person. So, we will take instruction from the Dhamma the Buddha taught, and the vinaya or the behavioural cord he set. The Buddha himself said to venerable Ānanda, who was his personal attendant and who later recited all the suttās at the First Council, that when the Buddha was no more, his teachings, the Dhamma and the behavioural cord for the Sangha should be considered the great instructor. If we go to a teacher, we can soon discover whether they teach in the same manner as the Buddha. Instructions from the suttās can be easily verified. If, in addition to the instructions from the suttās, there are personal instructions or secret instructions, there is reason to doubt that instructor. The Buddha has stated “Tathāgathappavedito Dhamma vinayo vivato virocati no paticchanno,” the teachings of the Buddha shine when open, not when hidden in mystery. The facet of the Buddha’s Dhamma is that it invites people to approach and discover the Dhamma for themselves (ehipassika). So, by definition there cannot be any secrets in the Buddha’s teachings.

You could have another question: if we are to reveal our personal opinions and personal achievements in public, isn’t that going to be an obstacle for others? If that is the case, the Buddha should have mentioned it first. In the Dhamma, there are no incidents where the Buddha secretly advised a person to meditate and secretly sent him away. All the advice the Buddha gave have been told to Venerable Ānanda and recorded, and all the monks and nuns have heard them. Therefore, there is no secret teaching in the Buddha’s Dhamma. There are no secret advices in the teaching that invites one to ‘come and see.’ If secret advices for mediation are given, you should indeed suspect it.

One day, Venerable Ānanda asked the Buddha, ‘what are factors that would help the Buddha’s path to liberation sustain for a long time? Buddha replied that practicing the Four Establishments of Mindfulness for a long time, talking about them, and following them would sustain the Buddha’s path to liberation for long time. The Buddha preached that the path to liberation will vanish from the world if the true Dhamma is ignored and not followed. We are in fact learning about the Four Establishments of Mindfulness here.

In the mindfulness of breathing meditation, we learned how to be aware of in breath and out breath. Gradually, our mindfulness tends to remain on the breath. This means that without being distracted we are able to sustain our attention on our breath. This is the first step of the mindfulness of breathing meditation.

In the next step of Ānāpānasati meditation, you will be able to distinguish the differences in your breath. Sometimes you will feel a long inhalation, which means you are having a stretched breathing. Since you were mindful about your breath, you realize that you are taking a lengthy breath in. Other times, there will be lengthy exhales. You will recognize those lengthy exhalations since you are mindful of your breath. Suddenly, breath could be short. Since you are aware of your breath, you will realize that your inhalation is short. When you are breathing out short exhalations, you will realize them since you are mindful of your breathing out is short. You notice this because of your sustained attention on the breath.

The Buddha taught a beautiful simile for this awareness of long and short breaths. There is a clever carpenter planning to carve a piece of wood. He takes the piece of wood in hand and sometimes uses long strokes and other times uses short strokes to smoothen the wood. When the stroke is longer, he knows it is long. When the stroke is shorter, he knows that it is short. Likewise, you are mindful and aware if your breath is long or short. Now, you can sustain your mindfulness on your breath without external distractions. However, this depends on your perseverance, intelligence, and mindfulness. That is, if you stop persevering, your mind can drop back to the state where it was before you started meditation.

“Sabbkāya patisaṁvedi,” then as the third step, you direct your attention to the complete breath. That is, you observe when an inhalation starts, continues, and ends. You observe the beginning, continuation, and the end of the exhalation phase of a breath as a certain entity of the body. So, with improving the sensitivity you observe a breath as a certain entity of the body. This entity of entire breath is referred to as kāya sankhāra or a fabrication of the body, as a breath is associated with the body. When your mind becomes settled in this way, your breath becomes lighter.

“Passaṁbhayaṁ kāya sankhāraṁ,” as the fourth step, with improving tranquility you experience this lightening of your breath.

Again, in mindfulness of breathing meditation you first practice sustaining your awareness on your breath, then you observe differences in length of your breath, next you follow the complete breath, and then you observe the inhalation and exhalation as one entity as it becomes light, calm, and tranquil.

2.3 The Way to Cultivate the Vedanānupassanā and Cittānupassanā in Ānāpānasati Meditation

So far, you have learned various stages progressing through mindfulness of breathing meditation towards the stage where the breath becomes very light. As the breath gradually becomes lighter, you could begin to feel a profound happiness or joy. This is called pīti. You might be distracted by this joy to the extent that you forget to be mindful of the breath and latch on to the joy instead. This would result in the interruption of our tranquil concentration. Instead of losing that opportunity to develop mindfulness of breathing meditation by latching on to the joy you experienced, you should understand the joy and while experiencing it, continue to focus on your inhalation and exhalation.

One of the main problems meditators face is assuming that the state of tranquil concentration or samādhi happens by chance. Actually, this state of tranquil concentration occurs because the causes for it to occur were in place. Atāpi, or profound perseverance on purifying our minds, sampajāno or profound intellect, and satimā or profound mindfulness. This state of tranquil concentration is a result of these causes. Be aware that this state ends when you rise from the meditation sitting.

Another problem meditators face is the urge to rush through the initial stage in order to reach the previously acquired tranquil concentrated state and remain there longer. They pay less attention to the mindfulness of the breath and expect samādhi or tranquil concentration stage to come to them. They forget that tranquil concentration stage is a result of causes, which are the initial hard work stages or the mindfulness of the breath. This causes a downward spiral. When they cannot experience the Samadhi or tranquil concentration stage the second time, they feel disappointment, thinking, “I used to be able to experience Samadhi, but now I am a failure at this.” This sometimes causes diffusion of the mind. Due to this diffusion, the mind cannot settle and the mind becomes restless. Because of this restlessness, we cannot keep our minds on the breath. When we cannot keep our mind on the breath we cannot sustain awareness on the breath. This means we cannot focus our minds on the breath. Therefore, we are unable to achieve the stage of profound concentration. Then we feel disappointment and the cycle starts again. So, we must keep in mind that the stage of tranquil concentration is a result of causes and that the causes must be in place for it to occur. This means you need to start from the beginning at each meditation sitting.

When our minds become accustomed to mindfulness of breathing meditation, and our minds become settled we experience profound joy. This profound joy is not the sort of ordinary pleasure we get from listening to good music, watching a movie, or sharing a delicious meal with loved ones. Those are very coarse pleasures. The joy from tranquil concentration is more refined. It is a kind of light and profound joy that comes from utter contentment, resolution, and freedom from worries. When we start to experience this profound joy, and continue to watch our breath we feel a sense of exultation, which slowly settles and we then start to feel a sense of profound wellbeing, or sukha. This sense of wellbeing is both physical and mental.

We talked about the breath becoming very light. This does not mean that it disappears. If we cannot feel the breath, we cannot sustain our attention on it. Sometimes when meditators are meditating with mindfulness of their breaths, after sometime they stop being mindful and simply watch their breaths. Then, when the breath becomes very light they tend to forget what they were doing and become confused. Because of this, we must always stay mindful and aware of the breath. We need to remember that the breath will not disappear just yet. If we are like this we need to make an affirmation to ourselves as we sit to meditate that we will not let the breath disappear. We will stay aware of the breath and keep our mindfulness on the breath. If we still cannot feel the breath, at that point, we can investigate with awareness and we should be able to find the breath and redirect our awareness towards it. When we continue to sustain our attention on the breath in this manner we realize the sukha or profound joy through the breathing. We recognize the breath well enough to understand that this is an inhalation and exhalation. We breathe in and breathe out while feeling this profound joy and with cognition of each in breath and out breath. This feeling and perception are called “citta sankhāra”. The term citta sankhāra is used because this feeling and perception are associated with the mind.

So, when we continue to breathe in and breathe out with profound understanding of this feeling and cognition associated with the mind, even this feeling and recognition become very light. We should prevent ourselves from being distracted by this lightness. We need to understand this but keep our attention and mindfulness on the breath. In the Buddha’s teachings, the word used for this understanding in the preliminary stages of meditation is pajānāthi. Pajānāthi means understanding with mindfulness. This leads to a greater understanding of the way things are. Later, He uses the word sikkhathi, which means practice or training. This means that we must train ourselves to prevent the mind from wondering here and there and develop the skill of being mindful on our breath. In other words, understand the lightening of the breath and skilfully maintain mindfulness on it. Gradually, the citta sankhāra becomes subdued, and we feel joy, or pīti. Knowing and understanding this pīti, we maintain mindfulness on the breath. Then, we feel physical and mental lightness. Experiencing this lightness, we continue to maintain mindfulness on the breath, which enables us to have a feeling of intense comfort or sukha. Experiencing and knowing this sukha we continue to focus our mindfulness on the breath. We must practice this.

As you increase your skills on being mindful on the breath through these stages, your mind will understand clearly how kāya sankāra and citta sankāra become subdued while you still keep your mindfulness on the breath. Your mind then achieves a spiritual rapture. You have a sense of clarity, which Te use to maintain mindfulness on the breath. The Five Hindrances are totally subdued now. Your mind is now at the stage of the first jhāna. The first jhāna is relatively easy to achieve through ānāpāna sati. When you have practiced the first jhāna skilfully, you can achieve a state of samādhi without chatter or vitakka. This is the second jhāna. When you have practiced the second jhāna well, you can achieve the third jhāna. When you practice the third jhāna well, you can achieve the fourth jhāna.

When you hear the word jhāna, you may become somewhat scared or reluctant to strive for it. You may think, I am a householder, I have responsibilities, so how can I practice jhāna? This happens around us when there are those who do not understand the pure Dhamma, and when your confidence in Dhamma is not strong enough and you have no experience of its practicality. It is not a shortcoming of the Dhamma. There are many people around the world who practice this method and experience jhāna and who benefit greatly from it. Therefore, you should place a strong confidence in the Buddha’s words and without any fear, continue with your practice of concentration and improve it.

We are still talking about samatha meditation. If you develop your mind in the way we have described up to this point, you will be able to develop the calming meditation but there are various methods to follow in this world when the concentration is not cultivated. Be careful not to get trapped in those ideas. Some people may tell you that it is a simple thing for them and that they could put you in a jhāna within just ten minutes. Some would also say that if you can stay in concentration for thirty minutes then that, would push you to the first jhāna. They say these things to see how badly you want it. But it just shows their lack of proper knowledge. The very important thing you must be aware of here is that there are no short cuts to jhāna. Until you can subdue and eradicate the five hindrances, which take time and effort, you cannot achieve sustained mindfulness on the breath, which leads to jhāna. Once the five hindrances are subdued, concentration is naturally achieved.

2.4 The Way to Cultivate the Dhammānupassanā in Ānāpānasati Meditation

We are now progressing through the mindfulness of breathing meditation. We find a peaceful spot, keep the back straight, and keep our mind on the point of focus that is our breathing. The breath is also called the object of meditation. We improve our mindfulness totally within the inhalation and exhalation. The breath is the object of our meditation. We should not look for or not expect other objects or “nimitta”. Other than the Satipatthāna sutta, further information on mindfulness of breathing meditation can be found in the Girimānanda sutta, which is in the chapter of tens in the Anguttara Nikāya or the Numerical discourses, and also in the satipatṭhāna samyutta as well as the ānāpānasati samyutta of the fifth book of the Samyutta Nikāya or Connected Discourses. We can get a comprehensive understanding of breathing meditation from these. This is not a personal opinion. It is directly the Buddha’s words.

We must have total confidence in the Buddha’s teachings throughout this meditation, as it was He who originally attained enlightenment through developing mindfulness of breathing meditation. It was He who discovered this method and instructed His followers to attain supreme freedom through this method. It was highly successful then and it will work today as well. If there was a method by which someone could end all suffering and attain arahantship, it is explained very clearly by the Buddha in the Discourses. He had total understanding on this subject and if anyone had an equal understanding that person would be a Buddha too. There is no need to edit or modify this method by saying you can try to meditate in other ways. If someone tries to modify, it only shows that individual’s lack of confidence in the Buddha and the foolish attempt to go beyond the Buddha’s unsurpassed knowledge. We must practice this Dhamma not as teachers but as followers of the Buddha.

We learned that there are two methods of meditation explained in the Satipatthāna sutta by the Buddha, namely samatha and vipassanā. We are now learning samatha-calming meditation. Now, we will explore calming meditation in greater depth as taught by the Buddha. “Iti ajjhattaṁ vā kāye kāyānupssī viharati,” one sustains the mind in the inhalation and exhalation ; one understands the nature of the breath and understands how to sustain the mind on the breath. “Bahiddhā vā kāye kāyānupassī viharati,” as one understands the nature of the breath inside oneself, one understands that in others too, the breath is of the same nature. We, then, understand that this is the nature of the breath within ourselves and outside ourselves.

Then, the Buddha taught “samudaya dhammānupassī vā kayasmin viharati,” when we sustain our mind on the breath, it is kāyānupassanā. When we see the origination of the breath it is the samudaya Dhammanupassi va. This means body is originated from nutriment. Even the continuation of the cycle of rebirth solely depends on nutriment. But in this instance we are considering our bodies. Our bodies exist because of nutriment. Therefore, respiration is composed of the elements of nutriment. Respiration arises due to causes. Therefore, respiration too is impermanent. Realizing the phenomenon that things arise due to causes is samudaya dhammānupassī vā.

“Vaya dhammānupassī vā kāyasmin viharati,” the nature of the breath is that it ceases as well. So the breath arises and it fades away. The nature of the breath is that it arises and ceases.

“Samudaya vaya dhammānupassī vā kāyasmin viharati,” means seen profoundly this arising and cessation. At this point, our meditation turns from samatha to vipassanā-calming to insight. This is clear example of how both calming and insight are included in the Satipatthāna sutta. When we see the arising and cessation of each breath with aware ness and mindfully, we have moved to insight meditation from the previous calming meditation. To progress through this insight meditation, we must have practiced insight beforehand through learning the Dhamma well.
Insight is the ability to realize impermanent things as impermanent, suffering as suffering, and non-self as non-self. We learned in a previous section that insight is necessary for cultivating wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to realize certain things. Wisdom is not gained by chance.

The Buddha explained how the wisdom is gained. Once, the Buddha was asked, “Kathaṁsu labhatē Paññā? ” “How can one gain wisdom?” The Buddha preached “Saddhāno arahato nibbānapattiyā ” “the Buddhas teach the Dhamma that leads to ultimate freedom, Nibbāna.” “Sussūsā labhatē paññā appamattā vicakkhanā ” “The one who listens to that Dhamma very attentively, placing confidence in the teachings and investigates it with diligence, gains wisdom.” According to the Buddha, it is very obvious that one should listen to the Buddha’s teachings in order to gain wisdom. There is a school of thought that if you continue to meditate you will automatically gain wisdom. If this were true, there would have been no need for the Buddhas to expound the Dhamma.

The Buddha once said to his liberated disciples, “two monks should not go on one road. Teach the Dhamma clearly to everyone you meet along the way.” The Buddha continued, “Assavanato Dhammaṁ parihāyanti ” “If people don’t get to hear the Dhamma, they will commit unwholesome actions and be born in planes of misery.” “Bhavissanti Dhammassa aññātāro ” “There will be people who would realize the Dhamma if it is preached to them.” This clearly shows us that this Dhamma can be realized. This clearly shows that learning the Dhamma is necessary to realize the true nature of things. So, we need to understand well that we must cultivate wisdom.

When one develops insight realizing impermanence as impermanence, which leads to the realization of suffering which in turn leads to the realization of non-self. This realization does not come automatically. While maintaining a total mindfulness, you must contemplate impermanence and only then will you be able to realize impermanent things as impermanent. If you can practice contemplation of impermanence through mindfulness of breathing, Buddha teaches that you will be able to refrain from being attached to anything (naca kinci loke upādiyati ). That means the meditator will not grasp a view of I, mine, or myself with regard to breathing and will have a mind of total freedom. This will help us further develop wisdom, further develop awareness and attain a complete understanding of life.

In the Buddha’s teachings, there are no inferior goals. We do not meditate as a memory aid or for health reasons, although they are by products of meditation. Meditating for health and memory skills is very much a worldly concept. The Buddha’s way of meditation is a revolution for freedom of thought. So, if you want to follow this method, we must understand our goal, learn and practice the teachings and meditate. Only then can we achieve a true and honest effort; a genuine need aligns with our conscience and a real desire to understand life.

Now you have learned how to attain concentration or samādhi through ānāpānasati or mindfulness of breathing meditation and how to cultivate insight through ānāpānasati. In developing wisdom, you must keep in mind that this is a contemplation of impermanence. Inhalation and exhalation is impermanent; then you feel the breath; the feeling of breath is impermanent. You perceive the breath, that perception is impermanent. In the breath you create a thought, and form volition. These volitions too are impermanent. You are conscious of the breath, that consciousness too is impermanent. When you continue to contemplate impermanent things as impermanent with wisdom, you will be able to see impermanence as impermanent.