(Pali; Sanskrit: ), meaning "mindfulness of breathing" ( means mindfulness; refers to inhalation and exhalation), is the act of paying attention to the breath. It is the quintessential form of Buddhist meditation, attributed to Gautama Buddha, and described in several suttas, most notably the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118).
Derivations of anāpānasati are common to Theravada, Tibetan, Zen, and Tiantai Buddhism as well as Western-based mindfulness programs.
Contemplation of bodily phenomena The Ānāpānasati Sutta prescribes mindfulness of inhalation and exhalation as an element of mindfulness of the body, and recommends the practice of mindfulness of breathing as a means of cultivating the seven factors of awakening, which is an alternative formulation or description of the process of dhyana: sati (mindfulness), dhamma vicaya (analysis), viriya (persistence), pīti (rapture), passaddhi (serenity), samadhi (unification of mind), and upekkhā (equanimity). According to this and other suttas, the development of these factors leads to release (Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) from dukkha (suffering) and the attainment of nirvana.
Derivations of anāpānasati are a core meditation practice in Theravada, Tiantai, and Chan traditions of Buddhism as well as a part of Western-based mindfulness programs. According to Anālayo, in both ancient and modern times anāpānasati by itself is likely the most widely used Buddhist method for contemplating bodily phenomena.
The practice Ānāpānasati Sutta
The mindfulness practice described in the Ānāpānasati Sutta is to go into the forest and sit beneath a tree and then to simply watch the breath:Majjhima Nikaya, Sutta No. 118, Section No. 2; Satipatthana Sutta
While inhaling and exhaling, the meditator practises: training the mind to be sensitive to one or more of: the entire body, rapture, pleasure, the mind itself, and mental processes; training the mind to be focused on one or more of inconstancy, dispassion, cessation, and relinquishment; steadying, satisfying, or releasing the mind.
If this practice is pursued and well developed, it is said by the Buddha to bring great benefit, aiding the development of mindfulness as one of the factors of awakening:
Post-canonical development
A popular post-canonical method still used today, follows four stages:
repeatedly counting exhalations in cycles of 10 repeatedly counting inhalations in cycles of 10 focusing on the breath without counting focusing only on the spot where the breath enters and leaves the nostrils (i.e., the nostril and upper lip area)
Counting the breath is attributed by the Theravada tradition to Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga, but Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośakārikā also teaches the counting of breaths to ten. The dhyāna sutras, based on Sarvastivada practices and translated into Chinese by An Shigao, also recommend counting the breath, and form the basis of Zen practices. In the dhyana sutras this is organized into a teaching called "the six aspects" or "the six means":
Modern sources Traditional anāpānasati teaches to observe inhalation and exhalation by focusing on the air coming in and out the nostrils, but followers of the Burmese Vipassana movement instead recommend focusing on the abdomen's movement during the act of breathing. Other Buddhist schools also teach that as an alternative point of focus.
According to John Dunne, for the practice to be successful, one should dedicate to the practice, and set out the goal of the meditation session.John Dunne talks on Buddhist phenomenology from the Indo-Tibetan textual point of view at According to Philip Kapleau, in Zen practice one may decide to either practice anāpānasati while seated or standing or lying down or walking, or while alternating seated, standing, lying down, and walking meditation. Then one may concentrate on the breath going through one's nose: the pressure in the nostrils on each inhalation, and the feeling of the breath moving along the upper lip on each exhalation. Other times practitioners are advised to attend to the breath at the tanden, a point slightly below the navel and beneath the surface of the body. Practitioners may choose to count each inhalation, "1, 2, 3,..." and so on, up to 10, and then begin from 1 again. Alternatively people sometimes also count the exhalation: "1, 2, 3,...", on both the inhalation and exhalation. If the count is lost then one should start again from the beginning.
The type of practice recommended in The Three Pillars of Zen is for one to count "1, 2, 3,..." on the inhalation for a while, then to eventually switch to counting on the exhalation, then eventually, once one has more consistent success in keeping track of the count, to begin to pay attention to the breath without counting. There are practitioners who count the breath all their lives as well. Beginning students are often advised to keep a brief daily practice of around 10 or 15 minutes a day. Also, a teacher or guide of some sort is often considered to be essential in Buddhist practice, as well as the sangha, or community of Buddhists, for support.
When one becomes distracted from the breath, which happens to both beginning and adept practitioners, either by a thought or something else, then one simply returns one's attention back to the breath. Philippe Goldin has said that important "learning" occurs at the moment when practitioners turn their attention back to the object of focus, the breath.Philippe Goldin in Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation, 11:00 mark
Active breathing, passive breathing
Ānāpānasati is most commonly practiced with attention centered on the breath, without any effort to change the breathing.
In the throat singing practiced by some Buddhist monks in Tibet and Mongolia, the long and slow exhalation during chanting is the core of the practice. The sound of the chant also serves to focus the mind in one-pointed concentration (samadhi), while the sense of self dissolves as awareness becomes absorbed in a realm of pure sound.
In some Japanese Zen meditation, the emphasis is upon maintaining "strength in the abdominal area" (Chinese: ; Japanese: ) and slow deep breathing during the long outbreath, again to assist the attainment of a mental state of one-pointed concentration. There is also a "bamboo method", during which time one inhales and exhales in punctuated bits, as if running one's hand along the stalk of a bamboo tree.
Scientifically demonstrated benefits
The practice of focusing one's attention changes the brain in ways to improve that ability over time; the brain grows in response to meditation. Meditation can be thought of as mental training, similar to learning to ride a bike or play the piano.
Meditators experienced in focused attention meditation (of which ānāpānasati is one type) showed a decrease in habitual responding in a 20-minute Stroop test, which, as suggested by Richard Davidson and colleagues, may illustrate a lessening of emotionally reactive and automatic responding behavior. It has been scientifically demonstrated that ānāpānasati enhances connectivity in the brain.
In the Theravada tradition
The sixteen steps The Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118) sets out sixteen steps of breath meditation arranged in four tetrads (groups of four), each corresponding to one of the four establishments of mindfulness: the body, feelings, the mind, and mental qualities (). The first two tetrads each culminate in calming a "fabrication" (). In the first, this is the breath itself, which the Cūḷavedalla Sutta (MN 44) classes as bodily fabrication (). In the second, it is perception and feeling, which the same discourse classes as mental fabrication (). The later Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa also describes sixteen ways of approaching the practice.
+ The sixteen steps of ānāpānasati in MN 118 Satipaṭṭhāna Ānāpānasati Tetrads 1. Contemplation of the body 1. Breathing long (knowing the breath) First tetrad 2. Breathing short (knowing the breath) 3. Experiencing the whole body 4. Calming bodily fabrication 2. Contemplation of feelings 5. Experiencing rapture Second tetrad 6. Experiencing pleasure 7. Experiencing mental fabrication 8. Calming mental fabrication 3. Contemplation of the mind 9. Experiencing the mind Third tetrad 10. Gladdening the mind 11. Steadying the mind 12. Releasing the mind 4. Contemplation of mental qualities 13. Contemplating impermanence Fourth tetrad 14. Contemplating dispassion 15. Contemplating cessation 16. Contemplating relinquishment
Contemporary interpretations The Ānāpānasati Sutta states that mindfulness of breathing, when developed and pursued, brings the four establishments of mindfulness to completion; these bring the seven factors of awakening to completion, and these in turn bring clear knowing and release to completion.
The Burmese teacher Webu Sayadaw taught ānāpānasati, calling it "a shortcut to Nibbana" that "anyone can use" and "the straight path to Nibbana". He told his disciples that they did not need to know all sixteen ways described in the Visuddhimagga, only the reality of the in-and-out breath.
Anapanasati can also be practised with other traditional meditation subjects, including the four frames of reference and mettā bhāvanā.
In the Chinese tradition
In the second century, the Buddhist monk An Shigao came to China and became one of the first translators of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. He translated a version of the Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra between 148 and 170 CE. Though once believed to have been lost, the original translation was rediscovered at Amanosan Kongō-ji, Osaka, Japan, by Professor Ochiai Toshinori in 1999. Its commentary, on the other hand, is a significantly longer text than what appears in the Ekottara Āgama, and is entitled, "The Great Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra" (Ch. 大安般守意經) (Taishō Tripiṭaka 602).
At a later date, Buddhacinga, more commonly known as Fotudeng (佛圖澄) (231–349 CE), came from Central Asia to China in 310 and propagated Buddhism widely. He is said to have demonstrated many spiritual powers, and was able to convert the warlords in this region of China over to Buddhism. He is well known for teaching methods of meditation, and especially ānāpānasmṛti. Fotudeng widely taught ānāpānasmṛti through methods of counting breaths, so as to temper the breathing, simultaneously focusing the mind into a state of peaceful meditative concentration. By teaching meditation methods as well as doctrine, Fotudeng popularized Buddhism quickly. According to Nan Huaijin, "Besides all its theoretical accounts of emptiness and existence, Buddhism also offered methods for genuine realization of spiritual powers and meditative concentration that could be relied upon. This is the reason that Buddhism began to develop so vigorously in China with Fotudeng."
As more monks such as Kumārajīva, Dharmanandi, Gautama Saṃghadeva, and Buddhabhadra came to the East, translations of meditation texts did as well, which often taught various methods of ānāpānasmṛti that were being used in India. These became integrated in various Buddhist traditions, as well as into non-Buddhist traditions such as Daoism.