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?
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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My experience is the way round. Thanks to the work done on the DADs outside the cushion when I sit the mind is silent because at peace with the past, not having anything for the future and not clinging to the present. The anapanasati steps happen on their own. As always there is no doing while meditating, just being.
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