alt=Buddha statue doing anapanasati|thumb|Buddha statue doing anāpānasati
(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 Tibetan, Zen, Tiantai, and Theravada 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 sutras, 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 Sutra is to go into the forest and sit beneath a tree and then to simply watch the breath:
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,
Counting the breath is attributed by the Theravada tradition to Buddhaghosa's commentary the Visuddhimagga, In the dhyana sutras this is organized into a teaching called "the six aspects" or "the six means":