Soul

Mindfulness of Breathing

Returning to anapanasati as a small daily practice

meditationbreathinganapanasatimindfulnesssoulpractice

Recently, anapanasati came back to mind.

I could write more about my past experience with it, but that feels like something to save for later. For now, what I want to write about is simpler. However good a meditation practice may be, it does not do much if I do not actually practice it. Like exercise, meditation has to be done steadily before it begins to show up in daily life.

Anapanasati is written in Pali as ānāpānasati, and it is usually translated as mindfulness of breathing, or mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing. Anapana refers to in-breath and out-breath, and sati means mindfulness or awareness.[1]

In the Anapanasati Sutta, MN 118, the Buddha presents this practice as more than simple breath observation. Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translation includes this line.

Mindfulness of in-&-out breathing, when developed & pursued, is of great fruit, of great benefit.[2]

In plain terms, mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing brings great fruit and benefit when it is cultivated and continued. The same sutta describes a practitioner sitting in a quiet place, keeping the body upright, establishing mindfulness in front, and breathing in and out with awareness.[2]

I like that image. It does not ask for a special state before the practice begins. It starts with knowing the simple act of breathing in and breathing out. If the breath is long, one knows it as long. If the breath is short, one knows it as short. The starting point is very simple, and maybe that is why it is so easy to postpone or drop.

Sitting every day is much more ordinary than the idea of meditation. I set an alarm, make a small space where I will not be interrupted, sit down, and watch the breath. When the mind runs off, I notice it and return to the breath. Even if nothing special happens, keeping the time I set is enough, and usually my mood becomes a little lighter. If that continues, sati, the awareness of myself and what is happening, grows stronger.

Exercise works in a similar way. Knowing a lot about weight training, or hearing explanations about how muscle grows, does not change the body by itself. I have to actually show up at the set time and lift the weight.

This time, instead of starting with a large goal, I want to keep it small enough not to become a burden. Even five minutes is fine. The point is to set a regular time, sit down, and continue noticing the breath.

I also wanted to look at what benefits anapanasati is said to bring when it is practiced steadily.

In the sutta, the Buddha says that mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing, when developed and repeated, fulfills the four foundations of mindfulness. The four foundations of mindfulness fulfill the seven factors of awakening, and the seven factors of awakening lead to clear knowing and liberation.[2] At first, that sentence feels far away. With Rupert Gethin’s explanation, it becomes a little easier to read as a practical training sequence. He describes an early Buddhist pattern in which practice is often summarized as abandoning the five hindrances, establishing mindfulness, and developing the seven factors of awakening.[4]

The five hindrances are states that cloud the mind, such as sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness, and doubt. The seven factors of awakening are qualities that support awakening, such as mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. Seen this way, the benefit of anapanasati is not only that it calms me down for a moment. It trains the ability to notice where the mind is caught and to return.

The Visuddhimagga treats this flow more like a practice manual. Buddhaghosa places anapanasati among the forty meditation subjects and explains it especially as a way to cultivate concentration through the breath. In the traditional explanation, one first counts the breaths, then lets go of counting and follows the breath, and later steadies the mind at the point where the breath is felt.[6]

What interests me in that interpretation is that the breath is not only something to observe. It also becomes an object that gathers the mind. If the sutta shows the larger direction, where mindfulness of breathing leads into the foundations of mindfulness and the factors of awakening, the Visuddhimagga seems more concerned with what I actually do when I sit down and the mind keeps wandering. I do not read the two as conflicting. One gives the direction, and the other writes down the method more closely.

I do not have a religion, but I have always been interested in many religious traditions. Buddhism is one of them.

In medical contexts, these practices often appear inside programs such as mindfulness-based stress reduction, or MBSR, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or MBCT. The NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says meditation and mindfulness have been studied in relation to anxiety, stress, depression, pain, sleep quality, and PTSD symptoms.[3]

A more clinical example is the NICE guideline in the UK. In the context of treating depression and preventing relapse, NICE discusses group mindfulness and meditation as well as MBCT, describing the approach as one that pays attention to the present moment and observes thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and breathing. For people at higher risk of relapse, it recommends considering group CBT or MBCT alongside the option of continuing antidepressant medication.[5]

So in modern medical language, the benefits of meditation are connected less to a vague idea of inner peace and more to working with anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, chronic pain, insomnia, rumination, and stress reactivity. That does not mean anapanasati alone treats illness, and medical help is still necessary when it is necessary. But as a daily practice, breath awareness matters because it can help me notice bodily tension and reflexive mental reactions a little earlier. If exercise is added to that, even better.

References

  1. Anapanasati. Wikipedia.
  2. Anapanasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing, MN 118, translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight.
  3. Meditation and Mindfulness: Effectiveness and Safety. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIH.
  4. Buddhist paths to liberation, Developing the seven factors of awakening. Summary of Rupert Gethin’s interpretation.
  5. Depression in adults: treatment and management, Recommendations. NICE guideline NG222.
  6. Anapanasati, Post-canonical development. Summary of the Visuddhimagga-related breathing method.