Anapanasati 9: Deepening The Practice

In this recording, we have paused at the ninth step of the Anapanasati sutra -- Breathing in, I am aware of my mind. Breathing out, I am aware of my mind. We review the difference in Buddhist psychology between feelings and emotions, and discuss the importance of being grounded in contemplations of the body and the feelings in order to engage the work of inquiry which begins in earnest with contemplations of the mind. This is followed by a guided meditation, which includes periods of silence.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

Hello everybody.

Happy Sunday.

Is it raining where you all are?

It's been raining all day here.

Yeah,

I'm sure it is in Raleigh.

Okay,

Well we've got a few people here.

Let's go ahead and get started.

The Anapanasati Sutra is a 16 step process involving four different contemplations.

Contemplations of the body,

Feelings,

The mind,

And objects of the mind.

And because a number of people here on the screen are pretty familiar with this,

I'm not going to take a lot of time to go through it now.

But I'd be happy to stay on afterward and answer some questions or as I said I can refer you to some other resources.

I did mention last week,

We're on the ninth step,

And I mentioned last week that this seems like a good point for us to pause in our progression through the 16 steps of the Sutra.

In the first set of contemplations of the body,

We learn to settle ourselves,

To find our breath and mindfulness,

To kind of come down out of our heads into a connection between breath and body to calm the body.

In the second set of contemplations of the feelings,

We've learned how to find a place of contentment,

Happiness,

Even joy from which to name and calm our feelings.

The mind is quiet,

The mind is waves on a windy day,

You know,

They settle on a day when there is not wind.

And it reveals a calm,

Smooth surface of water.

And this too is a process of settling our feelings.

And both of these within the stability of mindfulness of the breath and any place within the Sutra,

Any place within the progression of 16 steps,

Even though the first two steps have to do with mindfulness of the breath,

The trick is to maintain mindfulness of the breath as we move through these other contemplations and to use mindfulness of the breath as a base,

As a root.

Remember,

Anapanasati means literally inhalation,

Exhalation,

Attention.

So what the word really truly means is attention to the breath.

So this stuff seems very important as we enter into this third set of contemplations,

These are the mind.

And for the mind really to reveal itself clearly,

We have to have less of the churning,

You know,

That's caused by tensions in our body or by distractions from our feelings.

Somebody commented or contacted me recently and asked for a little bit of clarification between contemplation of the feelings and of the mind as we've gotten into the contemplations of the mind.

And I thought this might be a good moment just for a second to reconsider the difference in Buddhist psychology between feelings and emotions,

Words that in our sort of normal lives we use interchangeably.

In Anapanasati contemplations when we refer to feelings what we mean is the reactions that we have to our perceptions of what's happening in our sense fields,

You know,

The five that we normally consider sight and sound and touch.

And now a sixth which is the mind.

And in day to day life,

You know,

I experience and I react to all kinds of physical sensations which I perceive as positive,

Negative,

Neutral and I respond accordingly.

As I sit in meditation what I find is as I sit still the perceptions which come through my physical body decrease.

And the perceptions from my mind as my thoughts wander,

These begin to come through much more strongly and again I react to them as positive,

Negative or neutral and the teaching here of course is just to simply see them as such,

Not to explore their content.

The goal here is for them to calm,

To dissipate,

To be fewer in number and so we see them,

We experience them in their nature and rather than really digging through their content and in this way we let them pass.

As we move into contemplations of the mind our work of self-inquiry really begins in earnest.

It's really the purpose of Anapanasati practice and this work begins to deepen and these things which are more emotional thinking begin to reveal themselves especially we consider these things in light of ideas such as the way that we cling or we experience aversion,

Fear,

Hatred,

Remorse,

Shame,

Regret.

All of these things which we feel,

Think about,

You know,

A lot of times we just mire ourselves down into.

So again the teaching here is simply to see that these things are.

The ninth step says,

Breathing in I am aware of my mind,

Breathing out I'm aware of my mind and we ought not to cling to these things,

These difficult thoughts but neither should we try to push them away that rarely works.

For me it really only strengthens them.

So rather we see them and as we do we're rooted still in mindfulness of the breath,

We become aware of these thoughts,

Our emotional responses to them,

We see their roots,

We begin to understand them.

And this is valuable practice and the reason I want to pause is that it's necessary to be able to do this much with honesty and acceptance before we can move on to allowing these kinds of things in our mind to change.

And you know that's the common pattern that we see through the four different contemplations.

Cultivating mindfulness,

Establishing awareness,

Allowing things to calm and then to change.

So that's really all I want to say.

We'll do about 20 minutes or so of guided meditation.

Let me just check the time.

Yeah,

We'll do about 20 minutes of guided meditation,

We'll do four or five minutes of walking meditation,

And then we'll do 20 minutes or so of quiet meditation.

If you're not familiar with walking meditation,

If that's not a practice that you've done,

It accomplishes two things.

You know it does give your body a chance to get up and to move around but the idea is not really to see this as a break from meditation but rather as a continuation of meditation,

Meditation of movement.

So as you're walking,

You don't necessarily want to move about in front of the television,

You don't want to be checking your phone.

I like to keep my hands sort of in this position but across my belly,

Mindful of the feet as they touch the floor,

Mindful breathing.

So at the end of the guided meditation,

We'll start with three bells,

We'll end with one bell,

We'll do four or five minutes of walking meditation,

At which time you'll hear a deeper sounding bell which is an invitation to come back to your seat,

And then we'll start a period of quiet meditation.

I encourage you to take a couple of deep breaths.

There's a lot of tension in American life right now,

A lot of uncertainty.

We were talking about this in the online meditation group I take part in Sunday mornings.

People are unsettled and people are carrying tension in their own ways.

Just take a couple of deep breaths.

Let your shoulders be relaxed.

Think about the muscles in your face,

Your jaws,

Your tongue,

Hands.

Consider for a moment the place where you are,

The room that you're in,

That it offers you a place of safety and seclusion to practice this evening.

And be grateful for that.

Many people don't have that.

And as you consider your physical seclusion,

Think about a seclusion of the mind.

We all have responsibilities,

We have things we need to think about tomorrow morning.

We have worries,

We have concerns,

Responsibilities.

But we don't need to bring those here with us now.

There doesn't need to be a place for those here.

And I encourage you to set an intention in this place and in this time to practice with your breath and with this group assembled for your own growth and for how your growth is of benefit to others.

I encourage you to establish a sense of mindfulness.

It's an abstract thing.

It's not something we can touch,

It's not something we can hold,

But it's very real.

It's a thing that requires cultivation over time and with practice.

The first two steps of the sutra are,

As I breathe in,

I am aware that I am breathing in a long breath.

As I breathe out,

I am aware that I am breathing out a long breath.

Or as I breathe in,

I am aware that I am breathing in a short breath.

As I breathe out,

I am aware that I am breathing out a short breath.

Of course you don't have to say these words to yourself and your breath doesn't need to be long,

Doesn't need to be short,

Doesn't need to be smooth.

It only has to be your breath,

The one thing that is always there,

The one thing you can always turn to.

Your breath is your closest friend.

So I encourage you for a moment to just be aware of your breathing,

The inhalations,

The exhalations.

Find your breath and cultivate your mindfulness there.

Where does mindfulness really come from?

Where does mindfulness reside?

We spend so much time in our heads.

As you cultivate awareness of breathing,

Bring attention to your body,

To your whole body.

Your mindfulness of breathing moves slightly back to something more of a peripheral awareness,

Not gone.

Mindfulness of the breath is the root of all we do in this practice.

But bring your mindfulness now to your whole body.

Gentle,

Easy connection.

Breathing in,

I'm aware of my whole body.

Just this much is such a precious gift that we can offer to ourselves.

Just this much is such a precious gift that we can offer to ourselves and through that to those around us.

Being mindful of the breath,

Mindful of the body in the moment.

There's a simple contentment here.

We so often feel discontent.

But this is simple.

Let your body calm.

Your breath is calm.

This moment,

Just now,

Is your life.

Be open to a sense of contentment.

Breathe and enjoy.

Let your body calm.

And now,

Too,

Let your awareness of the whole body just move back a little bit into its peripheral awareness.

Your peripheral awareness.

Joining the breath there,

Letting the rootedness in the breath and the body be strong for everything that follows.

You may find that your sense of contentment builds.

You may find even a sense of joy.

Just being in the present moment.

I encourage you to hold yourself open to the experience of joy.

Fleet or sustained,

What a wonderful thing.

Sometimes joy comes,

Sometimes it's overwhelming.

Like a great cleansing wave.

Sometimes we're just content.

Just happy.

Happy in our practice.

The sutra encourages the development of this contentment,

This happiness,

Even joy.

Because some of the things we contemplate further on are difficult.

And if we establish a place of contentment,

Happiness from which to do that,

It's easier.

Breathing in,

I feel happy.

Breathing out,

I am content.

You may find yourself distracted.

I certainly do from time to time in meditation more than from time to time.

Small remembrances of things that happened earlier in the day.

A concern about tomorrow.

Really mostly these are feelings.

Activities of the mind.

We don't need to examine the content of these simple things.

These are the waves on the water.

We see them in their simplicity.

Positive.

Negative.

Neutral.

Just see them and identify them as that.

Don't need to follow them.

Don't need to push them away.

If you don't hold them,

They will dissipate.

Rooted in our breath,

Feelings rise.

Feelings fall.

Like a cloud that drifts in front of the light of our awareness and then passes.

And our light shines again bright and pure.

No problem.

The sutra says,

Breathing in,

I am aware of my feelings.

I am aware of the activity of my mind.

Breathing out,

I calm my feelings.

The water stills.

And we are left smooth and calm.

All of this happens over time and with practice.

And all of these steps lead to a place where we can genuinely begin to inquire as to the workings of our mind,

Our emotional thoughts.

Breathing in,

I am aware of my mind.

Breathing out,

I am aware of my mind.

But stay rooted.

We live so much in our minds as we go through the day.

Rooted in your body,

Rooted in the breath.

Just bring a simple awareness to your mind.

No more complicated than the awareness you bring to your breath.

Sati,

Bear attention.

Over time,

We begin to see things in our mind that are rooted in what the Buddha called the mind.

Feelings of separateness from others.

A separation which interferes with our compassion.

Our ability to join with others.

Fear,

Anger.

These come and these go.

An understanding of impermanence is important here.

And again,

Our job is not to try to push these away,

But to simply recognize them,

See them for what they are,

Understand where they come from.

That's it.

As we vote,

Please welcome Andr Lim.

Thank you.

Reviews

Grateful for another good lesson and practice. Very centering. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏

Happy to find that this series continues!