So last week we honored the life and teaching of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and one of the practices that he brought is the practice of using these Gathas.
Gathas are Sanskrit terms for kind of songs or verses and Thich Nhat Hanh popularized these Gathas to kind of coordinate with the rhythm of the breath.
So for example,
I know I'm breathing in.
I know I'm breathing out.
I calm my body and my mind.
I smile.
I dwell in the present moment.
I know this is a precious moment.
So a Gatha is like a meditation poem that we can use to help us focus the mind during meditation.
Many people find their mind wanders so much that they have a hard time keeping their attention present even for just a moment.
So a Gatha provides a stronger anchor for the wandering mind.
So one of the most important suttas in the Thich Nhat Hanh Plum Village tradition is the discourse on the full awareness of breathing.
So apparently it's taught in every Plum Village retreat.
And this discourse is called the Anapanasati Sutta.
Anapanasati Sutta.
And it's located in the middle and discourses of the discourses of the Buddha.
And so for clarification,
Sutta means discourse and Anapanas means breathing in and out.
And Sati means mindfulness.
So it's the discourse on mindfulness of breathing in and out.
So before we begin this study of the Anapanasati,
I kind of want to offer up a disclaimer.
In the centers where I've practiced,
The primary foundation and background of practice is from a different discourse of the Buddha called the Satipatthana.
And Sati again means mindfulness,
But the Patthana means the presence of or the foundation of mindfulness.
So in the Satipatthana,
The four foundations of mindfulness are the emphasis and that's basically what I teach.
So that's my background.
But then there's this whole other way of practicing mindfulness taught by the Buddha.
And that's the discourse called the Anapanasati Sutta.
And this hasn't been my primary practice.
So we are truly exploring this together.
So it seems that whenever there's reference from the ancient text to what kind of meditation practice the Buddha himself did,
It seems that the primary reference is that he practiced mindfulness of breathing.
So the Buddha said if you follow this mindful breathing all the way,
You will fulfill the four foundations of mindfulness.
You'll cultivate the seven factors of awakening,
Which we've also looked at,
And you'll come to awakening yourself.
So this is appealing,
Right?
And I think it's important to say that I've done a lot of retreats,
Some on the four foundations of mindfulness,
Some on the seven factors of awakening,
But I never retreated on this Sutta,
On anapanasati.
It's been taught in various ways,
But it's not been a focal point for my practice.
I think in part because in the meditation scene that I was exposed to is really about learning the practice of mindfulness.
And it begins with the breath.
It begins with the breath.
But the focus and the breathing,
I kind of quickly let go of in favor of what's been called or what's called open awareness.
So in the open awareness practice,
You're just here in the present moment,
And you're just aware of what's happening as things are going on.
And you're very present and you're noticing it.
And it's the way that I've been schooled in practice.
And it's really a beautiful way of practicing.
But I will say that open awareness,
It doesn't lend itself very well to getting concentrated.
And so in the anapati sati,
And this exploration together on mindfulness of breathing,
The breathing is kept at the center all the time.
So it really lends itself to this concentration practice.
So breath meditation is very important in this Buddhist practice in all lineages.
Almost all forms of practice have some emphasis on breath meditation.
And breath meditation works as a focus of concentration.
And also as a basis for developing insight,
Or developing mindfulness.
And these are two primary purposes in our Buddhist meditation.
So the discourse,
The anapanasati discourse,
Starts out with the context for which the Buddha is going to give this teaching.
So he's on a rains retreat.
So every rainy season in India,
Which is generally three months,
About three months,
The monastic community stays in one place,
And they practice there.
So they're not traveling and teaching or going for alms,
They're staying in one spot.
And so this still happens actually on retreat centers today.
Often in the fall,
There will be a three month retreat.
So in those three month retreats,
They really come out of this tradition of rains retreats.
So during the rains retreats,
All the senior students,
The teachers and practitioners gathered in one place to practice.
So in this assembly,
There are people who have attained different stages of enlightenment,
Different stages of spiritual maturity.
So there are people who are practicing the four foundations of mindfulness,
And some are practicing the seven factors of awakening,
And some are practicing loving kindness meditation,
And some are practicing equanimity or compassion.
So it really describes how at the time of the Buddha,
There was a really big diversity of practice that people were doing,
Even in his presence,
They weren't all practicing the same way.
And the Buddha is really he was it stated that he's really pleased with all the diversity of practice.
He says that some people are also practicing mindfulness of breathing.
And he offers teaching,
Describing mindfulness of breathing,
And he sort of lays it out in like a bullet points sort of like,
Like if you were ever at a PowerPoint presentation,
You know,
There's bullet points.
So there are 16 stages,
16 points.
And these 16 are divided into four groups.
So the four pieces are called the four tetrad's,
The four tetrad's,
And we'll explore these together,
We'll practice these together.
So when I first read this,
It's like,
Oh,
Boy,
You know how it seems like a lot to keep track of,
Right.
But it's,
There's actually a really natural order to it.
The idea here is practice deepens,
You know,
As practice deepens your meditation,
It starts to change from where you started.
And so it's supposed to be kind of a transformation.
If nothing else,
This practice of mindfulness of breathing will,
Will allow you to be more relaxed.
It's sort of like,
The way I understand it.
If you were to use like,
Let's say we're doing a woodworking project,
And you're using sandpaper on wood,
And your wood is really rough to start out.
At first,
You need to use kind of a coarse sandpaper to make,
Make a difference in the wood to actually smooth it a little bit.
And at some point,
You're not going to get the wood to smooth from the coarse sandpaper anymore.
So you have to let go of that.
And then you have to bring in more refined sandpaper.
And that's and you can't get any more benefit,
You know,
As you kind of move through the different paper,
You might have to go through four or five different grades of sandpaper until finally,
All you're using is a soft piece of cloth to polish the wood.
And you started out with this really coarse sandpaper.
So it's the same thing with meditation practice,
You know,
Or with our inner life,
We have to kind of start at this kind of course experience of meditation.
And it's maybe it's hard to stay with the breath and stay with this is a long birth,
This is a short breath.
But as the meditation deepens,
And gets more and more refined,
These kind of the way these 16 points evolve is they get more refined,
And we can stay with them.
So and these 16 different steps,
The steps alternate a little bit between those that involve just being present for something just the way it is recognizing this is a long breath,
This is a short breath.
And then the other steps involve changing your experience or doing something about it.
You know,
This out breath with this out breath,
I calm the body.
With this in breath,
I experience ease with this out breath I let go.
So then you're doing something about it.
So Thursday,
We'll begin these steps.
And what I'll do now is I'll put into the chat where you can locate the sutta.
It's in the Majjhima Nikaya,
Which means the middle length discourses,
And it's discourse 118.
And so in the chat,
I'll go ahead and put a couple of resources in and I'll right now it's just opening up for questions.
So thank you for your your kind attention and for being willing to go into this together.
As I said,
This is not my primary practice.
So it's really an exploration and I look forward to kind of going deeper together on this.
So thank you.
Thank you.
