From Buddhism: Mindfulness Of Breathing

Anapana-sati in Pali language means mindfulness of breathing is one aspect of contemplation of the body which is the first of the four application of mindfulness.

The Buddha considered the application of mindfulness to be one way to lead to the purification of beings and the solution of all problems; it is the approach to the knowledge of the Noble Eightfold Path and effects the realization of deliverance.

The first of these four applications of mindfulness has as object the body either within oneself or externally. Thus, while contemplating the body from within, one becomes aware of one’s breathing. One is aware of breathing in, and aware of breathing out. With intensified attention one becomes aware of slight nuances breathing: when breathing in, and likewise exhaling become longer or deeper, shorter or more subtle, it is noticed as such.

In the Buddhist practice, there is no retention of breath or any other interference with it. There is just a quiet bare observation of its natural flow, with a firm and steady, but easy and buoyant attention, i.e., without strain or rigidity. The length or shortness of breathing is noticed, but not deliberately regulated.

It is in bare attention, in watchfulness, in awareness, without the introduction of any type of regulation that lies the greatest value of this application of mindfulness. For, in this passive watchfulness without anticipation or exertion, without intention or eagerness of reaching a set purpose, “a calming, equalizing and deepening of the breath will result quite naturally; and the tranquillization and deepening of the breath rhythm will lead to a tranquillization and deepening of the entire life rhythm.”

The Buddha himself recommended this application of mindfulness of breathing as follows: “If cultivated and developed it is peaceful, excellent and unique, a delighted way of living. It conquers all evil and unwholesome mental states that have risen in the mind and makes them vanish in a moment, as a shower of rain lays down all dust.”

Mindfulness of breathing, however, in more than just tranquillization of emotions; it is a quieting down of all bodily activities, which is the entrance to the states of mental absorption. Or, if one chooses, this mindfulness may lead on to the path of insight, seeing the body as a process of origination and dissolution, realizing that there is just a body, passing on without grasping. It is in such realization of no-self that deliverance is attained through mindfulness of breathing.

The method of development is explained in five stages: learning the meditation subject, questioning about the same, establishing the subject, absorption therein and ascertaining the individual characteristic of such meditation subjects.
The counting of breaths is advised as a device to settle mindfulness and to cut off the external distraction of reasoning. One should count the breaths one by one at the completion of each breath, not making a series less than five or more than ten. Counting up to less than five necessitations a too frequent repetition of the beginning of the series, and that would not allow the settling of mindfulness; counting in series of more that ten might results in attention being diverted to number rather than to breaths. A breath is considered completed when the outgoing air strikes the nostrils. This counting, however, has no connection with the tempo of breathing and it is not intended to regulate the inhalation and exhalation. It is merely a help to unify the mind and keep it in the same direction, ‘just as a boat is steadied with the help of a rudder,’ which itself does not contribute to progress and speed. It must not be forgotten, however, that counting is mere device to settle the mind and, therefore, as soon as the distractions of reasoning have ceased and mindfulness is settling itself, the counting should be dispensed with.

The next advice is that concerning the connection and the uninterrupted following of the process of breathing with mindfulness, after the counting has been given up. The attention given to breathing is at the point of contact, whereby each breath as it were is fixed in mindfulness, just as a sawyer of wood pays attention to the point where the teeth of the saw cut into the wood, without giving attention of those teeth when they approach or recede.

Once such attention of mindfulness is established, it is sometimes not long before the sign arises. It is the acquired sign, a mental image which appears as if even with the eye and which varies with the different subjects of meditation. From this stage on, attention should be fixed on this image; and it is this fixation which marks the entrance of the mental process into absorption.

The sign or mental image in this particular type of meditation has naturally no direct resemblance to the material object. And thus the mental image rather conveys the impression of a light touch of cotton or silk or a gentle breeze. In others it creates the impression of a star, a cluster of pearls; or again of a wreath of flowers, a puff of smoke, a film of cloud, etc. They all are poetic attempts to translate a mental impression of gentle peacefulness according to individual perception. Hence this sign is called the counter image or the mental reflex. As soon as this images arises, the stage of neighborhood concentration is reached which is the access to the stages of mental absorption. It is at this point that a decision has to be made either to proceed towards absorption of mind which is meditation of tranquility or to turn towards meditation of insight into the real nature of all phenomena, which alone can lead to complete deliverance.

With the appearance of the mental reflex the hindrance towards perfection are arrested the mental defilements suppressed, but only for so long as mindfulness remains established and the thought-process remains composed. The hindrances and the defilements can be completely overcome and removed only through insight into the nature of all materiality which includes breathing and mentality, as being impermanent, the cause of conflict and without abiding entity. Only in the realization of these three characteristics can the path of sainthood be entered and completed.

Of the four applications of mindfulness which include mindfulness on breathing the Buddha said “whoever should develop these for seven days for him may be expected one of two points, either insight knowledge in this life itself, or the state of non-return to this existence.”

It is, moreover, the one kind of concentration, the culture of which brings all four methods of mindfulness to completion. And as these four in their turn bring the seven factors of enlightenment to perfection, leading to comprehensive insight and deliverance, it is, therefore, rightly that the Buddha spoke of this method of mindfulness of breathing as the ariyan way of life, the divine way of life, the Tathagata’s way of life, for he himself generally spent the three months of the rainy season in the intent concentration on in-breathing and out-breathing.