Anapanasati 3: Body Contemplation & Discussion Of Joy

This is a talk and two guided meditations based on the Anapanasati sutra - the sutra on full awareness of breathing. There is a brief description of Anapanasati practice, then a guided meditation on the contemplation of the body, which covers the first four of the 16 steps of Anapanasati practice. Next is a discussion on the contemplation of joy, followed by a second guided meditation.

NOTE: Because these are guided meditations, there are periods of silence, which can last for several minutes.

Transcript

Good afternoon.

Today we'll continue our practice with the Anapanasati Sutra,

The sutra on the full awareness of breathing.

Just as a reminder,

The panasati part of this word means the breath itself,

Literally the inhalation and the exhalation.

Sati is bare attention,

A receptive attention which opens us to a full engagement in our experience.

Paul Haller from the San Francisco Zen Center has an expression that I like,

Which is experiencing the experience being experienced.

Anapanasati is a sense of oneness with the breath,

Not being separate from the breath.

Sati is an expression of how we meet the request of practice,

Which is to look at our lives and see what helps us to nurture awareness,

And what makes that nurturing more difficult.

And when we work to support awakening,

Something is brought forth,

A questioning of what it is to be in accord with awakening.

The practice of anapanasati is one of mindfulness established on an object couched within the context of mindful breathing.

Being aware of sensations of the body,

Feelings,

The mind and objects of mind as they happen,

To know them in the setting of the breath and to disentangle ourselves from them.

Here are the words of the Buddha,

What is the way to develop and practice continuously the method of full awareness of breathing so that the practice will be rewarding and offer great benefits?

It is like this.

The practitioner goes into the forest,

Or to the foot of a tree,

Or to any deserted place,

Sits in a stable posture holding his or her body straight and practices like this.

Breathing in,

I know that I am breathing in.

Breathing out,

I know that I am breathing out.

Remember that there are 16 steps in the anapanasati sutra which are divided into four frames of reference.

Body,

Feelings,

The mind and objects of mind.

We've been working with this first group of four,

The first tetrad,

Or contemplations of the body.

And here they are again.

Breathing in a long breath,

I know I am breathing in a long breath.

Breathing out,

A long breath,

I know I am breathing out a long breath.

Breathing in a short breath,

I know I am breathing in a short breath.

Breathing out a short breath,

I know that I am breathing out a short breath.

Now those are the first two and of course you don't have to say these words to yourself.

And your breath may be long,

It may be short.

It may be deep,

It may be shallow.

It really doesn't matter.

Your breath is your own.

It only has to be yours.

Simply being aware of its nature are what these two instructions are about.

The third and fourth instructions.

Breathing in,

I am aware of my whole body.

Breathing out,

I am aware of my whole body.

Breathing in,

I calm my whole body.

Breathing out,

I calm my whole body.

So what we'll do is a guided meditation,

Moving through the contemplations of the body.

We'll stop then,

Do a period of walking meditation.

And then we'll come back and I'd like to speak for a few minutes about the first step of the second group of instructions.

These having to do with contemplations of feelings.

Specifically this first step in that second group,

Which is the contemplation of joy.

And how the first group of instructions,

Contemplations of the body,

Move directly into that fifth step.

Bring your body to its meditation posture.

And let your mind rest on your body as your body rests on the cushion or the floor.

Be aware of sitting upright,

Rooted,

Aligned,

Strong in your posture.

Posture is an expression of commitment to the way.

Be aware of the space around you.

Honor that space as a container for your practice.

A place where you can be secluded.

And as we have for the body,

Establish a seclusion in the mind.

Rest now from day to day expectations,

Responsibilities.

Set those aside for now.

And I invite you to formulate an intention to practice here and now for your own growth.

And for how your growth can benefit others.

Take a moment again to align your physical posture.

And align your mind,

Your mental posture,

Upright,

Connected with your intention to practice.

And hold to that connection lightly,

But in a very real and dedicated way.

And as we realign ourselves when our physical posture weakens,

The posture of the mind needs to be realigned whenever our attention is lost.

Gently brought back to the breath,

Back to the practice.

Straightness of your body encourages straightness in your mind.

Here,

Now,

This present moment is your life.

Dwelling in the present moment,

Make mindfulness predominant.

Bring mindfulness to the foreground.

Consider how this feels,

Where mindfulness resides.

In your mind.

In your body.

Perhaps in both.

Bring your attention to the space right in front of your body.

From your head to your belly,

A space where mind and body exist as one.

Filled in place by your mind at one end,

By your hands laying loosely on your lap at the other.

And for a moment,

Be aware of the feeling of mind and body when mindfulness is present.

Being with Sati.

Experience your mind and body as one.

Meeting yourself where you are.

Experiencing the experience that's being experienced.

Allowing yourself to be open,

Spacious,

Soft,

Yet alert,

Awake.

Allowing yourself to be open,

Spacious,

Soft,

Yet alert.

Allowing yourself to be open,

Spacious,

Soft,

Yet alert.

And now with mindfulness in the foreground,

Become aware of your breathing.

The inhalations,

The exhalations.

Just the breath.

In and out.

And as you do,

Feel that place at the bottom of your breath.

When your exhalation has moved all the way out and your breath pauses naturally.

Feel a place of open space there,

A place of rest.

And be well there for a moment.

Your body will inhale when it's ready.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

With a sense of inquiry,

Breathe in a breath.

Observe its length.

This is an opportunity to explore with attention.

Observing the breath is to support the mind in mindful observation.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

This process of observing the breath makes it easy to see when your mind is about to wander.

And to bring it back to the comfort of the breath.

Not forcefully,

But gently.

There can be contentment in just this,

Being with the breath in a state of mindfulness.

See if you can find this.

If you can allow it to be.

Just the easy and gentle contentment of breathing in the moment.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And when you feel ready,

With a degree of stability in the breath,

Move on to whole body awareness.

Feel the linkage of your breath and your body.

Not in a particular place,

But in your body as a whole.

At one with the breath.

Let the object of your mindful observation shift quietly to the body.

Keeping the breath in the background,

Still mindful of the inhalations,

The exhalations,

But no longer focused on their quality,

Just that the breath is.

And as a background now to awareness of the whole body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

This awareness of the body,

This experience is more on an energetic level.

Subtle,

Inclusive,

Awareness pervading the body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And in our awareness of the body,

There naturally comes a calming of the body.

A calming of the bodily activity,

A deep sense of relaxation.

Breath is calm.

Body is calm.

Settled.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

And now with mindfulness,

You can feel the presence of your body.

Let's do three or four minutes of walking meditation before moving into our next meditation.

Period of seated meditation,

Guided meditation.

Remember,

Walking meditation is just what it is.

It's a form of meditation.

I encourage you to keep your sense of settled mind,

Calm body.

Not a time to check in with your roommate or look at your phone,

But to get up and move your body in a meditative state.

In a few minutes,

I'll ring a bell that has a deeper tone.

When you hear that,

Please come back to your seat and be settled and we'll continue.

Million dollar needed.

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Here is the next set of four instructions in the Anapanasati Sutra,

The section on the Contemplation of Feelings.

Breathing in I feel joyful,

Breathing out I feel joyful,

Breathing in I feel happy,

Breathing out I feel happy,

Breathing in I'm aware of my mental formations,

Breathing out I'm aware of my mental formations,

Breathing in I calm my mental formations,

Breathing out I calm my mental formations.

You can see a similarity in the structure between these four instructions and the first four instructions for contemplations of the body.

We are building awareness and then calming.

The thrust of the Anapanasati Sutra as a whole is the gaining in knowledge of liberation,

Calming the body,

Feelings and mind in order to work with the seven factors of awakening which are found at the end of this Sutra.

This second group of instructions,

Contemplations of Feelings is based in the subtle pleasant feeling tone that can be found in the body contemplations simply by establishing mindfulness in the moment,

Practicing with the breath,

With mindfulness in the foreground,

Recognizing the pleasant feeling of keeping our mindfulness to the fore,

Deepening our presence in the moment.

Bringing mindfulness to the foreground and keeping it there requires a subtle shift of focus like when our brain filters out familiar and unnecessary sensory input.

When I was a child my family moved to a house that was very close to a railroad track and when we first were there I was astonished by the sound of the trains that would go by at night and particularly by the vibrations that would come through the house and it kept me awake truthfully.

But after a time my brain came to understand it didn't really need to pay such close attention to those things,

It could leave them.

My mind was able to keep those sensations of my body and my ears at bay so that I could focus on just one thing which was going to sleep.

The Buddha spoke of six senses,

The five that we normally consider,

Sight,

Hearing,

Smell,

Taste and touch,

To which he added the mind itself.

Which means that we can consider the ways in which sensations present themselves to the eyes,

The ears,

The nose,

The tongue,

Our skin and the workings of our mind.

And that can bring us to the idea of sense doors.

Encountering perceptions through the senses can pull us from our mindfulness,

Pull us away from the object of our meditation.

And this is where the idea of sense restraint can be used by not grasping after what has been perceived through the senses.

Consider,

What if a sensation at any one of these sense doors,

A sound,

A smell,

A thought,

What if it were met directly by the presence of mindfulness?

What if a sensation were met at the moment of its arising and understood for what it is?

A sensation,

Just that and nothing more,

Something to which we can bring our attention or not.

We can think of mindfulness as a gatekeeper of the senses,

A gatekeeper at the sense doors.

Using mindfulness to help us not grasp after sensations,

Including thought.

Not grasping in unwholesome ways after what is happening around us,

Not grasping at what knocks on any of our sense doors,

Just not answering the call.

And just like our brain does,

Automatically filtering out unnecessary sensations,

We can facilitate that process consciously.

So we can bring our presence,

Our attention to the reality of our breathing and our examination of the body,

Feelings,

Mind and objects of the mind.

This is the strength of mindfulness.

This is part of its intended function in Anapanasati practice.

To stand as a gatekeeper at the sense doors to filter the input of the six senses and to help us keep our awareness on the breath and to the transformations which can lead to a more awakened life.

A gentle sense restraint,

Not grasping after the input of what our senses present.

This is important because this second set of four steps in the sutra,

Contemplations of feelings,

Are removed from sensuality and unwholesomeness.

What I mean by that,

This word unwholesomeness,

Is simply that which draws us away from our contemplation,

Simply that which disturbs us from our meditation.

The rise of joy at this present step,

Breathing in I feel joyful,

Breathing out I feel joyful,

Is the fruition of the preceding practices or contemplations of the body.

Now the four steps of the contemplations of the body can be practiced on their own,

Just by themselves,

But when we do,

The connection to the next steps is lost,

In particular this next step experiencing joy.

When we practice the body contemplations by themselves,

The idea of practicing in a way that joy and happiness can arise is no longer clearly seen and then other tools have to be found in order to hold our ability to stay with the breath.

This is where ideas like counting the breaths come in.

But this experience of joy is linked like an anchor to mindfulness of the breath and the body,

To the calming of the body and the simple feeling tone of contentment and being in the present moment.

The breath is what keeps us in the here and now,

So it's only natural that its pleasantness should be related to the experience of joy.

Now we may not always feel this joy,

Tension or distraction can prevent joy from arising,

And if we have difficulty arousing joy we might want to go back to the previous steps leading to calming the body,

Making sure that tension is left behind.

And of course honestly within those four contemplations of the body you can stop,

You can dwell anywhere along the line.

If it feels like contemplating the breath and just being with its nature is where you want to be,

Then that's where you should be.

If it feels like simply being with awareness of the whole body is where you want to be,

Then be there.

If you want to dwell in the calm state of the body,

Then do it.

But joy can come.

But of course we need to be sure that we don't fall victim to generating an expectation,

A desire for joy as if we were trying to force joy to arise or expect it to arise.

Rather,

Joy is just a natural upwelling of mindful calming of the body and breath.

So what I'd like to do is move through another guided meditation,

We'll move through the steps of bodily contemplations,

And then take time to consider the possibility of the arising of joy.

Be appreciative for a moment of the physical and mental seclusion that you have around you and within you.

Bring a sense of mindfulness to the foreground.

Set your intention to practice in this time,

In this place.

Leave behind the stresses of life,

No need for those now.

Bring a bare awareness to your breath.

Just the breath as it is,

Not its sensations but simply that it is the reality of the breath.

Giving life to your mindfulness.

Being with the breath,

With sati,

A state of bare awareness.

See if you can find contentment in just this,

Just the easy and gentle contentment of breathing in the moment.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

And when you're ready,

Let your mindfulness of the breath move into the background.

It's still there,

But now in your peripheral awareness.

Let your awareness shift quietly to the whole body.

Keeping awareness of breath in the background,

Now with an awareness of your body as a whole.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Let's take a moment of silence.

Feel your breath and your body relax.

Attuning with one another.

Remember the contentment of resting in the moment,

Breathing in the moment.

Let your body be calm.

Let your mindfulness of your breath and peripheral awareness.

Your body relaxed.

Let your awareness shift quietly to the whole body.

Let your awareness shift quietly to the whole body.

Remember that out of this deep calm,

This ease in the breath and the body,

Joy can arise.

The fruition of our practice up until now.

From our engaged intention,

Our mindful attention to breath and body,

A feeling of joy.

Joy in the present moment.

Joy in your simple awareness,

The calmness of your breathing.

Undisturbed.

Relaxed.

At ease and happy to be so.

Relaxed.

Open to joy.

This feeling of joy can be subtle,

That's okay.

It manifests as it manifests.

Just take the next few minutes and hold yourself open to this.

Joy in the breath.

Joy in your body's relaxation.

Joy in this present moment.

Joy in the breath.

Joy in the breath.

Joy in the breath.

Joy in the breath.

Joy in the breath.

Joy in the breath.

Joy in the breath.

I'd like to thank you for joining me this afternoon.

I'm sure you heard my air conditioning come on a few minutes ago.

I don't know what the weather is like where you are,

But it's certainly hot here in North Carolina.

So it felt pretty welcome to me.

And it's a good example of what I was talking about a few minutes ago about the sense doors and how we deal with the perceptions that present themselves to us.

In this case,

To my ears,

To your ears,

To my skin as the cool air began to fill the room.

And do these sensations distract us from where we are,

Distract us from our mindfulness,

Or do they simply become part of where we are and part of our mindfulness?

Remember,

Using mindfulness as guardians at the sense doors is not to try to shut things out,

But just bring them into inclusivity with where we are.

They don't distract us.

They simply become part of where we are,

What we're feeling and what we're doing.

I encourage you to continue to practice with Anapanasati.

It's a very fine teaching.

We know that it was a favorite practice of the Buddha himself,

Something he practiced often,

Full awareness of breathing.

I can recommend two good books,

One by Thich Nhat Hanh called Breathe,

You Are Alive.

It's a fairly old book.

You can find it on Amazon.

A short,

Simple read.

Another book is by a fellow named David Rosenberg.

It's called Breath by Breath.

He is an Insight Meditation teacher,

And it's sort of part description of his own journey with these teachings,

As well as a description of the teachings,

Breath by Breath by Larry Rosenberg.

Good book.

I'd recommend reading it if you'd like to find some other information on this.

Again,

Thank you for being with me this afternoon.

Take good care.

Reviews

Very wonderful practice and talk. Everything flowed together nicely. Many thanks ☮️💖🙏

Thank you so much for such a peaceful and joyful meditation.

Excellent practice, thankyou!
Felt like a mini retreat 🙏