[quote=“Mat, post:9, topic:4834”]
That answers my other (unstated) question- why does something have to cease at the end of every tetrad in the anapanasati sutta ie- body, feelings etc cease at the 4th, 8th step… etc.
[/quote]This completely gives a tentative answer to a question that I had over on this thread about the usage of the phrase 觀住 (guān zhù) that occurs at the end of every set of instructions in this very āgama, SA 176.
The ānāpānasati instructions (MN 118) have a phrase [quote]“He trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in contemplating cessation’.”[/quote] I don’t know enough Pāli to find the source phrase for the quotation.
This makes a lot of sense as to what 觀住 might refer to, one of its most likely readings is “observing cessation”.