Anapanasati, and more questions

Discussion
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Mudita everyone.
I have been reading this forum for quite a while now - and I appreciate the quality of its content.
English is not my first language, so I hope not to damage the prose, while passing along some additional musing.

I must admit that anapanasati is my ducky. This is why I allow myself to enter the conversation.

I see anapanasati as an “insideful” dwelling in the tetrad that are kāya, vedanā, citta and dhamma.
A progression, that is explained at the end of each tetrad in SN 54.13; namely:

  1. Kaya:

"I call this a certain kind of body (kāyaññatarāhaṃ), Ananda, that is, breathing in and breathing out.
Kāyaññatarāhaṃ, ānanda, etaṃ vadāmi, yadidaṃ - assāsapassāsaṃ."

Therefore, dwelling in the breath (in/out - assāsa/passāsā - ānā/pāna) is dwelling (cf. viharati) in the body.

  1. Vedanā:

"I call this a certain kind of feeling (vedanāññatarāhaṃ), Ananda, that is, an intellect-made (manasikāraṃ) breathing in and breathing out.
Vedanāññatarāhaṃ, ānanda, etaṃ vadāmi, yadidaṃ - assāsapassāsānaṃ sādhukaṃ manasikāraṃ."

Therefore the intellect-made ānā/pāna is (becomes) a feeling. And dwelling in, discerning (pajanati) this intellect-made feeling is dwelling in vedanā.

  1. Citta:

Here one must refer to SN 41.6 (SA 568) for the macro-approach of citta; namely:
“Perceiving and feeling is done with the citta, they are things bound up with the citta”.
“Saññā ca vedanā ca cetasikā ete dhammā cittapaṭibaddhā.”

Therefore, at the macro level (paṭiccasamuppāda,) citta is about feeling and perception.

And we must refer to SN 47.42 (SA 609) for its micro-approach; namely:
“With the origination of nāmarūpa there is the origination of citta.”
“Nāmarūpasamudayā cittassa samudayo”
Here the micro-expression of citta is done by the arising of Nāma (sense-consciousness, contact, feeling, perception and manasikara) + Rūpa (the four great elements (mahābhūtāna rūpa), and the forms derived from them (upādāya)) - see definition of Nāma-Rūpa in SN 12.1-2 (SA 298)) -
Here, nāma is “extended” to mano and phassa.

Therefore dwelling in citta, in the case of anapanasati, is about the perception of this intellect-made feeling derived from the in & out breath(#2).

Significant note:
While SN 12.2 defines Nāma as feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā), intention (cetanā), contact (phassa), and intellect-producing (manasikāra) - SA 298 defines Nāma as feeling (受 - shòu - sensation), perception (想 - xiǎng - ideation), intention (行 - xíng - practical), and consciousness (識 - shí - knowledge).
In other words, SA considers the scope of Nāma, as operating strictly in the NāmaRupā nidāna (with its establishment of consciousness in the khandhas - see SN 12.39 & SN 22.3) [macro level] - while SN considers the scope of Nāma, as an “extended” (descended - cf. avakkanti) NāmaRūpa, that operates within saḷāyatana + the phassa & vedanā nidānas [micro level] - Namely an “extended” Nāma that operates in satta.

  1. Dhamma

To put it simply, dwelling in dhamma is contemplating (anupassi) the “intellect-making since the origin” - the “yoniso manasikara” of the all process. From the assāsapassāsa to the full phenomena.

Ānāpānasati is the pañña (discernment) of the making of a all phenomena - step by step.

Seven factors of enlightenment (Satta Sambojjhaṅge)

Enters the Seven factors of enlightenment (Satta Sambojjhaṅge).

The enlightenment factor of Mindfulness is just about having preserved the recollection of the Teaching, through this dwelling in the tetrad.

The enlightenment factor of Investigation of Phenomena (dhammavicaya sambojjhaṅgo), just about investigating the latter dhamma.

Ensues the Enlightenment factors of energy, rapture, serenity and concentration, and equanimity that derive naturally (in cascade) from this investigation of the dhamma.
That is to say:

  • "While he discriminates (vicinati) the phenomena/dhamma with discernment, goes about (vicarati), and engages into investigating it (parivīmaṃsamāpajjati), there is firm and unshaken energy. "
    Yasmiṃ samaye ānanda, bhikkhuno taṃ dhammaṃ paññāya pavicanato pavicarato parivīmaṃsamāpajjato āraddhaṃ hoti viriyaṃ asallīnaṃ,
  • When his energy is firm, there arises in him a rapture free from sensual desire (spiritual).
    Yasmiṃ samaye ānanda, bhikkhuno āraddhaviriyassa uppajjati pīti nirāmisā,
  • For one whose mind is uplifted by rapture the body becomes tranquil (serene) and the mind becomes tranquil.
    Yasmiṃ samaye ānanda, bhikkhuno pītimanassa kāyopi passambhati, cittampi passambhati,
  • Serenity of body and pleasure of mind (sukhino cittaṃ) brings concentration in him.
    Yasmiṃ samaye ānanda, bhikkhuno passaddhakāyassa sukhino cittaṃ samādhiyati,
  • With a well concentrated mind, there is equanimity.
    Yasmiṃ samaye ānanda, bhikkhu tathā samāhitaṃ cittaṃ sādhukaṃ ajjhupekkhitā hoti.

Once the enlightenment factors have been applied to each one of the tetrad - one after the other - a meditator is quite ripe to enter plainly the deconstructive job of the Jhanas.

My take.
Mudita.

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28

What I had in mind was explicit contractions or explicit references for how to expand the sutta. I have noticed when reading Ven. Analayo’s translation of the Samyuktāgama that suttas sometimes tell you to “expanded as before”, or something to that effect. The Pali is normally contracted in a different way, that is , by saying peyyala, “etc” . Here is an example from the second sutta of the Samyuktāgama : “Just as with giving right attention to impermanence, in the same way also for dukkha, emptiness and not-self”.

Have you had a look at Ven. Analayo’s study of this sutta? It should only take you five minutes to read it. It’s only a few pages. It’s available here. If he has made any mistakes, it would be great if you would point it out. I should perhaps add that this study is his PhD thesis, and so it will have been reviewed by top scholars.

I think anyone who is seriously interested in Buddhism should be interested in what is the earliest expression of these teachings and should not be tied too strongly to any particular tradition. It is not about the authenticity of the Pali canon, but about the authenticity of one’s practice.

Perhaps you underestimate the critical faculties of monastics. I have no interest in pursuing a practice which does not lead anywhere and thereby waste my time. It is absolutely essential to be clear-eyed about the nature of these teaching, so as to make the best possible decisions on how to live one’s life.

In my opinion, it is no easy matter to decide who is most biased in this case.

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This review of MN 118 and SA 815 illustrates my point. The main emphasis is on how the two texts are similar, and how they agree—mainly, how they are parallels. Even when differences are found, they are the obvious differences in formulas. When SA 815 does not include certain materials, they are quickly substituted in from completely different texts.

Moreover, the author does not question the references to the Brahmaviharas and to Impurity Contemplation. The Brahmaviharas are referenced a very tiny number of times in the SA, but they are never taught in the SA, nor are they even called Brahmaviharas. Impurity Contemplation is mentioned several times, but the tiny amount of scattered material suggests that it was likewise not an original part of the SA. These are major features of the SA that are different from the MA, but I don’t see any attempt to investigate issues like this.

Several times the author states that MN 118 “and its parallel” consider the 16 stages of anapana to be mapped onto the Four Bases of Mindfulness. However, if you look at SA 815, there is no mention of the Four Bases of Mindfulness whatsoever, nor even mention of the sixteen stages. Instead, a small footnote mentions that the text is being supplemented by a completely different one, SA 810, which is quite unique within the Anapana Samyukta. Again, what parallel text are we studying?

MN 118 is known best for its instructions on anapana, but SA 815 mainly enumerates the benefits of anapana, and does not even teach the practice. When we say that SA 815 is a parallel to MN 118, that is true, but it is only a partial parallel. It is a parallel mainly in the sense that some of the framing materials of MN 118 are similar to the main text of SA 815.

I know that monastics can (and do) produce quality studies and great investigations into Buddhist texts (e.g. A History of Mindfulness). In my personal opinion, it seems like Bhikkhu Analayo’s studies smooth over substantial differences that a scholar should report and investigate. When one text can be so easily substituted for another, sometimes flying across time and space, then there is something wrong with the methodology.

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Is Impurity Contemplation here equivalent to the Perception of non-Beauty (aka recollection of the body parts / organs? ).

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@Gabriel this is the transcript of the dhamma talk I referred to earlier in this topic:
intro-indo-op-080127-et.pdf (69.2 KB)

The mp3 can be found in this link:

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Thanks! I especially like the beginning where he takes the instruction literally, it’s surely one of the better instructions I’ve seen. It emphasizes the joy, gladness and tranquility that should accompany every good samadhi-meditation (or maybe all meditation until the upekkha-high).

Yet, it’s a helpful interpretation of the text - and like the speaker points out - based on decades of practicing. My question is not far away from that, just has a different focus: If we had an excellent critical understanding of the anapanassati-related suttas (with all the variants, connotations, corruptions etc.) what would we necessarily conclude as the right pratice? What would be left without a possible clear sutta-based understanding?

For example the question where to observe the breath - at the tip of the nose? nowhere specifically? we had a detailed discussion about it here. A careful conclusion here was that the pali editors created a connection between anapanassati and parimukha, whereas the chinese and sanskrit editors didn’t. So on that point we can’t practice according to the suttas because we simply don’t know how it was originally meant to be. And wherever we can’t know we really need to go back to our teachers and our own understanding…

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My thought is that the lack of details in given techniques from the suttas, such as anapanasati, is deliberate. They have few details because we need to figure out the details for ourselves via trial and error. The specifics in what works for one mind will be different from another.

Why are there so many potential meditation subjects and skillful perceptions in the suttas? One reason is that there are so many different minds. If there were some precise technique that worked for everybody, every time, the Buddha would have known it and taught it.

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Thich Nhat Hanh’s (?) Chinese-English translations of SA 803/10/15.

Mudita

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There is a strong advice in SN 54.13, in the section about training to be sensitive to, satisfying, steadying & liberating the citta, that deals with the need to have a strong sati (recollection of the Teaching)

I say, Ananda that there is no development of concentration by mindfulness of breathing for one whose sati is not called up (muṭṭha/forgotten), and who lacks discernment.
Nāhaṃ, ānanda, muṭṭhassatissa asampajānassa ānāpānassatisamādhibhāvanṃ vadāmi.

There seems to be two steps in Sati, the recollection of the Dhamma - 1. the need to protect the Teaching, by recollecting it, through the dwelling in the tetrad - 2. the need to put sati in front, as a line of defence.

The first step:

Namely protecting the recollection of the Dhamma, by dwelling in the four tetrads, might (and I know this is unusual,) be explained by satipa + (ṭ)ṭhāna.

√Pa, in Pali, is described as adjective (“drinking”) in this little dictionary of roots:
Link
But it has also the meaning of “guarding” in Sanskrit.
Link
पा pā or प pa ifc. m. f. who guards, who protects.
nṛpa [«who protects men»] king.
We find such an occurence in the Pali, with janādhipa (a king - lit: protecting ¶ living creatures (janā) with wisdom (dhi)).

A woman child, 0 king, may prove
Even a better offspring than a male
Itthīpi hi ekacciyā,
seyyā posa janādhipa
SN 3.16

Also, satinepakkena in SN 48.9 has this meaning of “protecting”.

“And what, bhikkhus, is the faculty of mindfulness? Here, bhikkhus, the noble disciple is mindful, possessing supreme mindfulness and discretion (note: “mindfulness and discretion” or “protection in sati”), one who remembers and recollects what was done and said long ago.”
“Idha, bhikkhave, ariyasāvako satimā hoti paramena satinepakkena samannāgato cirakatampi cirabhāsitampi saritā anussaritā”
(Bodhi)

The PTS has for definition of nepakka: [fr．nipaka] prudence，discrimination，carefulness - [from Sanskrit nipa].
In the Monier-Williams: Link
You should have the following definitions:
निपा [ nipā ] to guard or protect from (abl.) ; to observe , watch over, to protect , guard , govern.
निप [ nipa ] [ ni-pa ] m. f. n. protecting.

To summarize, it seems plausible that, grammatically speaking, √pa might, in fine compositi, be the adjective base of pa: guarding, protecting.
Satipa(ṭ)ṭhāna = the place protecting the recollection of the Dhamma (or abiding, protecting the recollection of the Teaching - if the latter is grammatically feasible).
Cattāro satipaṭṭhāne = the four places protecting the recollection of the Teaching.
Meaning that by dwelling in the tetrad, we protect the remembrance of the Dhamma.

It is, friend, when these four establishments of mindfulness are not developed and cultivated that the true Dhamma declines.
SN 47.23

The second step:

Is to be found here:
Link
Namely that sati (the recollection of the Teaching,) is “gatekeeping” the internal spheres of senses (ajjhatikāni āyatanāni), so as to preserve the body and its four great elements.

What is mukha in “parimukhaṃ satiṃ upaṭṭhapetvā” (setting mindfulness to the fore)?
We might have, once again, to turn towards the Sanskrit.
Link
“front d’une armée” means an “army front”.
“ājimukha” means “first line in a battle”, for instance.

Pari has the same meaning in Sanskrit than in Pali; viz. “about”.
=> Parimukha could well mean: “about (in the area of) the front (line)”.
Not a battle front though; just a “gatekeeping”.

So, as far as answering your question:

For example the question where to observe the breath - at the tip of the nose? nowhere specifically?

I would say that observing it as breath (and what it [wisely] can do - as in [“build from the origin”],) should suffice, I suppose.

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I’m glad you do! We work on our own views while working on others’ :)[quote=“yogakkhemi, post:27, topic:4054”]
kāyaññatarāhaṃ
[/quote]

Piya Tan translates here ‘all kinds of’, or ‘another’. In MN 118 it’s kāyesu kāyaññatarāhaṃ, i.e.
In-the-body is another/a/a certain body, i.e. in-and-out-breath…

The formula is terse and obviously difficult to interpret. The different range of translations shows that in itself it’s not fully explaining, that we have to put some interpretation in[quote=“yogakkhemi, post:27, topic:4054”]
discerning (pajanati) this intellect-made feeling is dwelling in vedanā.
[/quote]

also a difficult translation I feel. To translate mano/manas as ‘intellect’, especially here, is too narrow. I have not found yet a satisfactory analysis of mano, viññāna, and citta in the suttas, even though some people tried. But I would suggest to take it as the more general ‘mind’ here.

and again a difficult assumption. When it comes to mano, viññāna, and citta single suttas that highlight specific aspects are not enough to define them…

As the Sanskrit equivalent I have found स्मृत्युपस्थान smṛtyupasthāna, i.e. the prefix would be ‘upa’ rather than ‘pa’. Do you have another source?

I’m no exception in trying to make sense of difficult suttas/passages. I would just be careful not to develop a too idiosyncratic reading. Does your reading lead you to a very different understanding of the practice of anapanassati?

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I would say that both interpretations are converging towards the same goal anyway - namely: protecting something.

In the first case:
स्थान sthāna: link abiding with a sense of standing firmly.
उपस्थान upasthāna: link abiding with a sense of standing firmly, in the proximity of.
स्मृत्युपस्थान smṛtyupasthāna link - although translated as “earnest thought” on the MW; smṛty as compound for smṛti, has the meaning of the “sacred texts” that are not revealed (as opposed to śruti).
Therefore, smṛtyupasthāna would literarly take the meaning of “dwelling (as in standing firmly - being present) in the proximity of the Teaching (Dhamma)” - if we take upasthāna as the present participle of upa-sthā.

In the second case:
In Sanskrit for instance, “apānapa”, means “guarding the vital air (apāna)”.
So although, as far as I know, there is no entry in the Sanskrit dictionaries for “protecting the sṃrti” - sṃrtipa; it is not an impossible opening.

And I should again refer to SN 47.23; which shows how important it is, to dwell (viharati) in the tetrad, so as to preserve (protect) the recollection of the Dhamma - In other words, being very close to recollecting the Teaching, by dwelling in the tetrad:

It is, friend, when these four establishments of mindfulness are not developed and cultivated that the true Dhamma declines.

So, “protecting the Dhamma”(satipa) or “being present next to it” ([u]paṭṭhāna) - does not make a big difference.
The important thing is to preserve the Teaching - then - to put that preserved, (and present) Dhamma in front (mukha,) as a “gatekeeper”, when meditating on the breath - or any other meditation, if they are of any significance.

Again:

I say, Ananda that there is no development of concentration by mindfulness of breathing for one whose sati is “not called up” (muṭṭha/forgotten), and who lacks discernment (asampajāna). SN 54.13

Reading and practice.

Mudita.

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Thanks for taking the time to go through it. This means we can be a bit more hands on.

Fair enough. From my point of view an important point here is that this not part of what I would call the main teaching of this sutta. It is more like the narrative background. I think it is quite likely that this narrative may have been expanded a bit in the Pali, but I cannot see that this has any practical consequences for how ānāpāsati should be practised.

This is worth bringing up with Ven. Analayo. I am interested myself in the basis on which he brings in SA 810. I don’t know, but I suspect there is a good reason for this. In my experience he is quite careful in how he proceeds.

This is a serious charge. I think it is worthwhile investigating this a bit further before we come to such a conclusion.

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For anyone interested, Ven Anālayo has a chapter about the Ānāpanasati sutta (as well as another chapter on the Satipaṭṭthāna sutta) in this book. Unfortunately only preview sections are freely availabe.

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In my opinion, it should be not be considered as such. People should be completely free to disagree about methodologies, or come to different conclusions. There should be a certain amount of discourse and debate, and that’s normal.

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While being a good read I guess that our educated forum might benefit more from his publications to a scholarly audience (e.g. on academia.edu). Simply because this book is for a more general public and Ven Analayo basically only references his own older work. Did anyone read his 2013 book “Perspectives on Satipaṭṭhāna”? But I’m not sure how far he there goes into anapanassati.

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Yes, I agree. I only mentioned it becasue of the general subject of this discussion thread and I thought some people might find these chapters interesting (including their practical application)

Yes, I found it to be excellent, both in terms of scholarship( the comparative study of the various parallel versions) and practice (based on what he sees as the key themes/practices that emerge based on his comparative study). The way he weaves these two aspects together is something I really appreciate about his work.

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And is anapanassati an important part of that book, or is it only a small part in the satipatthana framework?

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Hi @Gabriel

Hmm, I would say it’s important but also that it’s a relatively small part and it’s in relationship to satipaṭṭhāna. He devotes about half a chapter specifically to the ānāpānasati sutta (as well as bringing it up in other places). He discusses how the practice of the 16 steps can fulfill the four satipaṭṭhānas (and thus showing how all four satipṭṭhānas can be cultivated using a single object) and how the whole path to liberation can thus unfold.

He also discusses ānāpānasati in relationship to the sequence of the awakening factors and how the awakening factors are to be cultivated suported by seclusion, dispassion, cessation and letting go.

It’s been awhile since I read the book, so perhaps others may have further recollections.

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Fine, but let’s see first of all whether it is well-founded. I’ll get back to this once I hear from Ven. Analayo.

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I have finally heard back from Ven. Analayo, who has just come off retreat. He has allowed me to post his response here. This what he has to say about whether MN 118 and SA 815 are parallels:

Even a cursory look at the discourse itself would show that it does include the 16 steps in abbreviated form. The abbreviation is found here 《雜阿含經》卷29：「是比丘依止聚落，乃至觀滅出息如觀滅出息學」(CBETA, T02, no. 99, p. 210, a2-3). The Chinese character 乃至 corresponds to pe in Pali and means that somehthing needs to be supplemented. The preceding and following parts make it unmistakeably clear that the 16 steps must be supplemented, but it is a matter of doubt if the same also holds for the awakening factor set, as I mentioned in my note footnote 126 on page 666f (proper consultation of which would also have clarified the case, I think):

“SĀ 815 at T II 210a2 has abbreviated this whole section, which thus needs to be supplemented with the full treatment given in SĀ 810 at T II 208a-208c (translated in Anālayo 2007d), a discourse that parallels SN 54:13 at SN V 328-333. The initial exposition of the sixteen steps of mindfulness of breathing in SĀ 810 at T II 208a23 is again abbreviated, and thus needs to be supplemented with the full treatment given in SĀ 803 at T II 206a27. Judging from the abbreviation in SĀ 815, however, it seems as if only the treatment of the sixteen steps found in SĀ 803 should be supplemented, not the relation of these sixteen steps to the seven awakening factors and to knowledge and liberation given in SĀ 810”

Similarly to the SN, we find in SA a grouping together of suttas of similar topic that tends to give a particular exposition only once and then the next discourses abbreviate. This is why on finding such an abbreviation one has to check previous sutras in the same section to see what needs to be supplemented.

Regarding “partial parallelism”, during discussions between Rod and myself we have been wavering between according the status of “partial parallel” to discourse x if only part of it is found in discourse y, which is what I remember we finally agreed on, or if we should also include under “partial parallel” cases where discourse x is fully found in y but y has more material. A good example is the Upakkilesa, MN 128, where the MA 72 version has an additional narrative at the outset that in the Pali tradition is only found in the comy. Still we would reckon the two discourses as full parallels.

The present case falls under the second type. As you can see on page 1051 of my comparative study of the MN in the list of parallels, the final decision (not necessarily the only possible one, but the one that so far seems to work best to my mind) was to accord status of full parallel to SA 815, and partial parallels to SA 803 and SA 810. I expect not everyone will agree with that, but just to explain how this came about.

In a follow up email about whether the relationship between the sixteen steps and the four satipaṭṭhānas is included in SA 815, he has this to say:

In my footnotes I also refer to an already published translation of SA 810, I append it to this mail. From either reading the translation in there or from perusing the discourse in its original Chinese it would become clear that this is indeed included.

For copyright reasons I am unable to upload the translation of SA 810.

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