Do SN 41.6 & MN 44 say that kāyasaṅkhāra is ONLY and exclusively made up of breathing?

Q & A
1

Hi,

Here’s what SN 41.6 and MN 44 say:

“Breathing is a physical process. Placing the mind and keeping it connected are verbal processes. Perception and feeling are mental processes.” (MN 44 & SN 41.6 ; Ven. Sujato)

The Pali text translated :

“Assāsapassāsā kho, āvuso visākha, kāyasaṅkhāro, vitakkavicārā vacīsaṅkhāro, saññā ca vedanā ca cittasaṅkhāro”ti. (MN 44)

“Assāsapassāsā kho, gahapati, kāyasaṅkhāro, vitakkavicārā vacīsaṅkhāro, saññā ca vedanā ca cittasaṅkhāro”ti. (SN 41.6)

Do SN 41.6 & MN 44 say that kāyasaṅkhāra is ONLY and exclusively made up of breathing?

I wonder because some people use these suttas to prove that the fourth stage of Anapanasati (MN 118) is exclusively about tranquilizing the breath (because MN 118 talks about tranquilizing kāyasaṅkhāra).

Thanks in advance.

May all beings be filled with kindness.

2

My intuition is this debate is moot - in practice if you tranquilize the body over time giving it attention and noticing everything arising on it [1]- it stills down so that even like screaming toothaches or leg aches fade or disappear - then the only remaining movement or bodily thing (kaya-sankhara) that remains in attention is the breath.

I am not really qualified to speak - I just found this helpful myself in quelling doubts here, so could not resist.

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3

Hi,

MN 44 & SN 41.6 :

“Breathing is physical. It’s tied up with the body, that’s why breathing is a physical process. (Ven. Sujato)

“Assāsapassāsā kho, āvuso visākha, kāyikā ete dhammā kāyappaṭibaddhā, tasmā assāsapassāsā kāyasaṅkhāro (MN 44)

Assāsapassāsā kho, gahapati, kāyikā. Ete dhammā kāyappaṭibaddhā, tasmā assāsapassāsā kāyasaṅkhāro (SN 41.6)

Here is the following syllogism:

P1: According to MN 44 & SN 41.6, we can call breathing “kayasankhara” because it is corporeal and linked to the body ;

P2: Now, muscular movements are corporeal and linked to the body;

C1: Therefore, muscular movements can also be qualified as “kayasankhara”:

C2: So in this sense, the word “kayasankhara” doesn’t just refer to breathing;

C3: So stage 4 of Anapanasati is not just about calming the breath.

Some people might reply that in MN 44 & SN 41.6, vitakka and vicara are vacisankhāra because they cause speech, so we should understand breath as kayasankhara because it causes the life of the body. I note that according to most translations I’ve read (suttacentral), the suttas don’t explicitly say that breathing is kayasankhara because it causes the life of the body. But even assuming this is true, muscle movements are also things that cause the body to live (without diaphragm movements, we can’t breathe, so the body doesn’t survive).

Do you think this is a good proof that step 4 of Anapanasati is not only about breathing but also about other things (like muscular movements)?

Personally, I don’t like speculative reasoning to determine the Buddha’s teaching, so I don’t think this syllogism can prove anything. Nevertheless, I’m curious to have your opinion please.

4

This topic has come up quite a bit over the years (searching this forum will yield a fair amount of information from past discussions). My impression is that the sankharas are described that way by SN 41.6, etc., but in other ways by most other EBT’s mentioning them. Using one simplistic definition in all contexts simply doesn’t work.

You would need to do a broader reading about sankharas in the EBT’s and come to your own conclusions. My impression is that sankharas are primarily subtle impressions related to karma, and that also have some tie-ins as described in SN 41.6, etc.

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