Does anyone have a recommended commentary on the Anapanasati Sutta? Specifically, one that focuses on applying the sutta to one’s own meditation practice?
Available for free is great, but I’d be interested in any suggestions.
Thank you!
Analayo’s guide to Anapanasati is the best one IMO, it’s strongly based on the EBTs and its a comparative guide (as in, in brings in EBTs from the Chinese and other surviving texts, not just Pali EBTs).
6 Likes
If guided meditations help you form a template for your own practice, here are six narrated by Analayo on anapanasati:
https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/resources/offerings-analayo/breathing-audio/
3 Likes
These are a great help, @Adutiya. Thank you. I do find guided meditations offer a helpful template. 
1 Like
Personally I prefer the practice as laid out in the Visuddhimagga, a modern teaching of which is the Pa Auk method.
Not for a beginner though, as the Pa Auk method focuses on jhana development, whereas Analayo recognizes both insight and serenity as interwoven themes in the Anapanasati sutta. That can be seen from the first tetrad which includes elementary exercises in both energizing, developing sensitivity to bodily energy flows contingent on the breath (step 3) and calming (step 4). Just as inhalation and exhalation is a natural cycle, also in the first tetrad it is natural to have energizing followed by calming. The contrast of opposites is a basic understanding throughout the teaching (SN 14.11).
" [1] Breathing in long, he discerns, ‘I am breathing in long’; or breathing out long, he discerns, ‘I am breathing out long.’ [2] Or breathing in short, he discerns, ‘I am breathing in short’; or breathing out short, he discerns, ‘I am breathing out short.’ [3] He trains himself, ‘I will breathe in sensitive to the entire body.’[2] He trains himself, ‘I will breathe out sensitive to the entire body.’ [4] He trains himself, ‘I will breathe in calming bodily fabrication.’[3] He trains himself, ‘I will breathe out calming bodily fabrication.’—MN 118
“Energizing” means any energy process such as investigation, energy, and rapture, the factors of awakening side with right effort of the noble eightfold path, and with the wisdom component of sila, samadhi and panna.
1 Like
Yes well, I don’t agree with that interpretation. The Visuddhimagga method is suitable for beginners and advanced practitioners. The 1st tetrad is for beginners and aims at developing the 1st Jhana:
The first tetrad is set forth as a meditation subject for a beginner;52 but the other three tetrads are [respectively] set forth as the contemplations of feeling, of [the manner of] consciousness, and of mental objects, for one who has already attained jhána in this tetrad. So if a clansman who is a beginner wants to develop this meditation subject, and through insight based on the fourth jhána produced in breathing, to reach Arahantship together with the discriminations, he should first do all the work connected with the purification of virtue, etc., in the way already described, after which he should learn the meditation subject in five stages from a teacher of the kind already described.
The Visuddhimagga approach is itself an interpretation. I can see rudimentary forms of both calm and insight in the first tetrad and think beginners such as the OP should be aware of both themes of meditation from the beginning.
“The basic difference between mindfulness of breathing as a samatha or as a vipassanã practice depends on what angle is taken when observing the breath, since emphasis on just mentally knowing the presence of the breath is capable of leading to deep levels of concentration, while emphasis on various phenomena related to the process of breathing does not lead to a unitary type of experience but stays in the realm of variety and of sensory experience, and thus is more geared towards the development of insight. These considerations suggest that the sixteen steps are not solely a concentration practice, but also introduce an insight perspective on the development of mindfulness of breathing.”—-“Satipatthana” Analayo
1 Like
Of course, but the Visuddhimagga is the understanding of the elders who were closer in time to the Buddha than contemporary commentators. The Visuddhimagga is how the Noble Sangha understood and practiced the Dhamma just a few centuries after the Blessed One’s parinibbana, based on the older material that it is.
What Ven. Analayo is describing there is mindfulness with breathing via access concentration (what he calls the insight approach). That won’t lead to awakening, non-return or once-return but based on an interesting article by Ven. Bodhi it could possibly lead to stream-entry as Jhana might not be necessary for that attainment. Jhana is required however for the higher stages of awakening.
Please don’t make important statements without referencing them, particularly in beginners discussions. Analayo (“Satipatthana,” VI The Body) in the quote I supplied is speaking in the context of the relevance of the Anapanasati sutta to the Satipatthana sutta, so that is not ‘dry insight’, but the path proper.
“Subsequent to the first four steps of mindfulness of breathing, the Ãnãpãnasati Sutta’s contemplation scheme directs awareness to the experience of joy (pîti) and happiness (sukha). Since these two are
factors of absorption, their occurrence in this part of the sixteen steps has led the Visuddhimagga to the assumption that this progression refers exclusively to absorption experience.68 Possibly because
of this assumption, even the first four steps of mindfulness of breathing in the Satipaììhãna Sutta have at times been identified as being no more than a concentration practice.
Here it needs to be noted that the occurrence of joy (pîti) and happiness (sukha) as steps five and six in the scheme of the Ãnãpãnasati Sutta does not necessarily require the experience of absorption, since both can occur apart from such attainment. According to a verse in the Dhammapada, for example, joy (pîti) can arise as a resultof insight meditation. (Dhp 374)”—Analayo
It can be seen from the insight group of the factors of awakening , investigation> energy> joy, that the primary source of joy is the process of investigation resulting in insight.
1 Like
I had a look at SN46 on the bojjhanga, and I don’t see any support there for the idea that the seven factors of enlightenment are a sequence, or progression. Rather they appear to be discreet factors, each with its own nutriment.
As for the four tetrads of anapanasati (MN118) , it appears that the first three tetrads focus on developing tranquillity, with the fourth tetrad focusing on insight.
I think you could make a case for the first three tetrads being a jhana practice, alternatively you could view the four tetrads as a way of developing the seven factors of enlightenment.
However, I don’t think the four tetrads of anapanasati are directly comparable to the four frames of satipatthana. The four frames of satipatthana look like an elaboration of the first two factors of enlightenment.
Here is an essay by Bhante Sujato and subsequent discussion on Anapanasati:
1 Like
Doesn’t it seem to you that the Ānāpānasati Sutta shows a conditional sequence to the awakening factors?
"Bhikkhus, on whatever occasion a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body…on that occasion unremitting mindfulness is established in him. On whatever occasion unremitting mindfulness is established in a bhikkhu—on that occasion the mindfulness enlightenment factor is aroused in him, and he develops it, and by development, it comes to fulfilment in him.
“Abiding thus mindful, he investigates and examines that state with wisdom and embarks upon a full inquiry into it. On whatever occasion, abiding thus mindful, a bhikkhu investigates and examines that state with wisdom and embarks upon a full inquiry into it—on that occasion the investigation-of-states enlightenment factor is aroused in him…
“In one who investigates and examines that state with wisdom and embarks upon a full inquiry into it, tireless energy is aroused. On whatever occasion tireless energy is aroused in a bhikkhu who investigates and examines that state with wisdom and embarks upon a full inquiry into it—on that occasion the energy enlightenment factor is aroused in him…
“In one who has aroused energy, unworldly rapture arises. On whatever occasion unworldly rapture arises in a bhikkhu who has aroused energy— on that occasion the rapture enlightenment factor is aroused in him…
“In one who is rapturous, the body and the mind become tranquil. On whatever occasion the body and the mind become tranquil in a bhikkhu who is rapturous—on that occasion the tranquillity enlightenment factor is aroused in him…
“In one whose body is tranquil and who feels pleasure, the mind becomes concentrated. On whatever occasion the mind becomes concentrated in a bhikkhu whose body is tranquil and who feels pleasure—on that occasion the concentration enlightenment factor is aroused in him…
“He closely looks on with equanimity at the mind thus concentrated. On whatever occasion a bhikkhu closely looks on with equanimity at the mind thus concentrated—on that occasion the equanimity enlightenment factor is aroused in him…
I’m curious what you disagree with in the section of the Ānāpānasati Sutta where the Buddha says that the four tetrads of mindfulness of breathing fulfill the four satipaṭṭhāna?
“Bhikkhus, on whatever occasion a bhikkhu, breathing in long, understands: ‘I breathe in long,’ or breathing out long, understands: ‘I breathe out long’; breathing in short, understands: ‘I breathe in short,’ or breathing out short, understands: ‘I breathe out short’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body of breath’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body of breath’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in tranquillising the bodily formation’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out tranquillising the bodily formation’—on that occasion a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world…
“Bhikkhus, on whatever occasion a bhikkhu trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing rapture’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing rapture’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing pleasure’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing pleasure’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing the mental formation’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing the mental formation’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in tranquillising the mental formation’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out tranquillising the mental formation’—on that occasion a bhikkhu abides contemplating feelings as feelings, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world…
“Bhikkhus, on whatever occasion a bhikkhu trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing the mind’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing the mind’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in gladdening the mind’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out gladdening the mind’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in concentrating the mind’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out concentrating the mind’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in liberating the mind’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out liberating the mind’—on that occasion a bhikkhu abides contemplating mind as mind, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world…
“Bhikkhus, on whatever occasion a bhikkhu trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in contemplating impermanence’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out contemplating impermanence’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in contemplating fading away’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out contemplating fading away’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in contemplating cessation’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out contemplating cessation’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in contemplating relinquishment’; trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out contemplating relinquishment’—on that occasion a bhikkhu abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world…
“Bhikkhus, that is how mindfulness of breathing, developed and cultivated, fulfils the four foundations of mindfulness.
2 Likes
I’ve read Ven. Analayo’s book. I even tried his method. I found it lacking when I compared it to the orthodox method. At this point I can only repeat that I do not agree with Ven. Analayo and his modern commentary. I agree with the Visuddhimagga. Have a good day 
1 Like
I’ve heard Bhante Sujato say that Pa Auk holds very closely to the Commentaries and that approach to the Dhamma rather than the EBTs.
The Pa Auk method is essentially the Visuddhimagga method, which is from the classical commentarial tradition. The suttas themselves are just the bare bones of the practice. Anyone who explains the method is essentially commentating on the sutta. Ven. Analayo’s book on mindfulness with breathing is as much a commentary as the Visuddhimagga.
I think Analayo is mainly to promote his own Theravada teaching, not early Buddhism, by using Agama texts.
I’m not so sure about that. However, I don’t think we can get an “early Buddhist” teaching on mindfulness of breathing just by looking at the sutta (and Agamas ). It’s too bare bones, being stripped back for memorisation. I think the only early Buddhist anapanasati method we can get is from the commentaries, which are only a few short centuries after the Blessed Ones’s parinibbana. This is the earliest method for practicing it.