Mindfulness of Breathing
(ànàpànassati)
Introduction
Here we should like to explain very briefly how one meditates using mindful-ness of breathing, in Pàëi called ànàpànassati. Our explanation is based mainly on the `ânàpànassati Sutta' (`The Mindfulness of Breathing Sutta') of the Majjhima Nikàya (The Middle Length Discourses). There the Buddha explains why one should practise mindfulness of breathing:
When, bhikkhus, mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated,
it is of great fruit and great benefit.
Then The Buddha explains how mindfulness of breathing is of great fruit and great benefit:
When mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated,
it fulfils the four foundations of mindfulness.
When the four foundations of mindfulness are developed and cultivated,
they fulfil the seven enlightenment factors.
When the seven enlightenment factors are developed and cultivated,
they fulfil True Knowledge and Liberation.
Here, the Buddha explains that when ànàpànassati, (mindfulness of breathing) is developed and cultivated, the thirty-seven requisites of enlightenment (satta-tiüsabodhipakkhiyadhammà), are thereby also developed and cultivated.
We shall now explain how it is done. We shall refer section by section to the `ânàpànassati Sutta'. Let us then take The Buddha's next explanation:
He ...