Ānāpānasati
Attention resting on the natural breath, the first meditation the Buddha taught and the one every tradition keeps returning to.
How to practise
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Sit comfortably upright; let the eyes close or lower.
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Find the breath where it is clearest, nostrils, throat or belly, and rest attention there.
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Know the in-breath as an in-breath; the out-breath as an out-breath. Nothing else to do.
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When the mind wanders (it will, a thousand times), notice where it went, and gently return.
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The return IS the practice, begin again, without commentary, for the whole sitting.
Effects & fruits
- Settles attention on one simple, always-available object
- Reveals the mind's restlessness without fighting it
- Builds the concentration (samādhi's seed) that deeper practices need
- A lifetime practice disguised as a beginner's one
Precautions
- Watching the breath can make some people feel short of breath, let the breath stay uncontrolled and merely observed
- Intense restlessness in early weeks is normal; shorter sittings beat abandoned ones
In the tradition
The Ānāpānasati Sutta is essentially this page’s content, twenty-six centuries older, and blunter: know the long breath as long, the short breath as short. Every tradition since has dressed it up; none has improved it. The wandering-and-returning that beginners take as failure is the very muscle being trained.
Sources & further reading
- Ānāpānasati Sutta , the Buddha (Majjhima Nikāya 118) (mindfulness of in-and-out breathing)
- The Heart of Yoga , T. K. V. Desikachar