Anapanasati Meditation Explained

"Sati" - Mindfulness; "Ānāpāna" - Breathing. In this short 5-minute explanation, I will walk you through what Anapanasati or Anapana Meditation is, and how we practice it.
This track is extracted from a retreat, so it includes background nature sounds. Please follow this explanation with the guided Anapana meditation on my profile.

Transcript

Anapana is basically breathing, The translation from Pali, The language of the Buddha. You will hear about the Buddha a lot through this retreat. And sati means mindfulness. Sati also has a couple of other translations. We'll talk about it on our philosophy talk. But Anapanasati is mindfulness of breathing. So, Usually when we go to a yoga class or that we start meditating and the teacher says, You know, Bring your awareness to your nostrils, You will see that we straight away change the breath. So maybe you did pranayama before. Pranayama, Where we tend to change the breath in order to create maybe some quietness in the mind or maybe we try to raise heat or raise coolness or do different things. In this particular technique, We're trying to do nothing. We're trying to step back. So, We're basically aiming to observe the breath as it is. Again, When we will start, You will see that we come to observe the nostrils and straight away, Not willingly, You will actually change your breath. So, If that happens, And it probably will, We're just going to maybe take a couple of breaths that are like inhale, Maybe even exhale out the mouth. Because exhale out the mouth as well, Just so you know, Just so you have that in your practice. It's really easy to ground yourself. It's really easy to let go and to surrender. So, At any moment, As well being mindful of other people, But feel free to just take like, Yeah, Just out of the mouth. So, If you do need that, You can do that once or twice and then just allow the next breath to come in from your nostrils, Only from your nostrils, As it is, Without trying to intervene or change or interfere with it. It might be very, Very, Very subtle. It might be so subtle that it's actually really hard to observe. So, We will sit with it and it will be a bit harder to start with, But we'll just find it slowly, Slowly. It will be easier and easier. But we'll start with observing a triangular area. So, It starts from the bridge of the nose and it goes all the way to both sides of the lips. And in that triangular area, We're going to see if we can observe any touch of breath. So, It doesn't have to be just the nostrils. Maybe you'll feel it inside the nostrils. Maybe you'll feel it below the nostrils and above the upper lip. Anywhere. We're just seeking. It's a quite large space that we can observe. And somewhere in that space, We might find it. The breath, Again, It might be shallow, But it might actually be long. There are no rights or wrongs. You're not a better yogi if you have a short breath or you have a long breath. So, That's very important because our mind is going to. . . Oh, Maybe it's better if I am. . . Oh, Maybe it's better if I am. . . So, Let go of any judgment. Let go of any trying to do something. And you might find that it is actually not super easy. Again, Because we tend to always observe the reality from a different point of view, From our point of view. So, Our aim is to just observe the breath wherever it is. If it's in the right nostril, It's in the right nostril. If it's in the left, It's in the left. If it's both, It's both. Super simple. But we'll see how we go. What else I wanted to say about it? Yes. So, Our mind is just going to try to escape. So, You might be aware of it for a few seconds and then your mind will go. . . And then, No hard feelings, No judgment. It's like a muscle. That muscle maybe was never worked before. So, We're just bringing it back. So, It's not like you failed if you thought. No, You're human if you thought. So, If your mind went away, It's okay. We're just bringing it back. No judgment, No hard feelings, No all of this. Just okay. And then you'll be aware of it for a couple of moments. And then it might. . . Oh, I wonder what's for dinner. And then bringing it back. Oh, I'm so tired now. Bringing it back. So, That's all we do. Observe and bring it back. Observe and bring it back. Observe and bring it back. So, That technique is actually going to help us to sharpen our mind towards vipassana. So, The aim is not to be good at it. Yeah? We're just trying to sharpen our mind, To sharpen our mind, To sharpen our mind. That's all we're trying to do. So, Again, Thoughts are normal. Being tired is normal. Anything is normal. If you went away and completely who knows where you've been and how long it was, It's okay. The moment you were aware that you went away is the moment you're back to your practice. Yeah? You're like, Oh, How funny. I was there for who knows how long. Back. Fine. Yeah? All clear? Let's try? Perfect. Okay.