Thanks for the very interesting info. You might remember the palicanon micro-analysis on parimukha I was lead to do - in the phrase usually translated as “and established mindfulness in front of him”. The conclusion was that if in the pali canon parimukha appears with a specific meditation it was overwhelmingly with anapanassati - a connection that was not to be found in the sanskrit versions. I had to think of that when you write in your article that anapanassati “is the only form of explicitly seated meditation that is given its own saṃyukta within the SA”.
Also lately I went over Sutta Nipata IV and V, and if I remember correctly there is no specific meditation method mentioned at all. Could it be that the systematized methods we find in the suttas are a condensation of editors who brought order into much more diverse practices and approaches?
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