Don't focus on inhalation/exhalation?

[EricJ]

I was reading "The Mystery of the Breath Nimitta" whenever I came across this quoted passage from the Patisambhidamagga:

""...the bhikkhu sits, having established mindfulness at
the nose tip or on the upper lip, without giving
attention to the in-breaths and out-breaths as they
approach and recede...the body and cognizance in one who
is energetic [ in this endeavour ] becomes wieldy...his
applied thoughts are stilled...[ and ] his underlying
tendencies come to be done away with..."

In my anapanasati practice, I have followed the in-and-out of my breath as it enters and leaves my nose. Am I doing something incorrectly or failing to understand what that quote means?

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Eric,

I suspect it means that you don't follow the breath on its trajectory throughout the body, but rather pay attention solely to what's happening and being experienced at that precise location, which is of course a product of the breath, but is not the breath itself.

Happy to be proven wrong of course, if someone has a more definitive answer.

Metta,
Retro.

[pink_trike]

Following the breath deeper into the body would progressively lead to a myriad of sensations lower and lower in the body's energy system which are taught to be distractions.

[mikenz66]

Hi Retro, etc,

Yes, the instructions for building concentration in the Commentaries and Visuddhimagga are definitely to focus on sensations in one place, not follow the breath in and out of the body. And that's how most modern teachers I am aware of teach using the breath as a concentration practise (i.e. with the long-term aim of Jhana).

Of course, following the breath in and out might conceivably be useful for other purposes (that I can't think of offhand...). I feel that there is a lot of confusion about instructions to do with meditation objects related to the breath (touch of air on the nostrils, general feeling of breathing in an out, motion of the abdomen, etc, etc). Those different instructions can sound contradictory. And they often are because they are using the objects for different purposes.

Mike

[Kare]

Greetings Eric,

I suspect it means that you don't follow the breath on its trajectory throughout the body, but rather pay attention solely to what's happening and being experienced at that precise location, which is of course a product of the breath, but is not the breath itself.

Happy to be proven wrong of course, if someone has a more definitive answer.

Metta,
Retro.

My understanding of this quote is the same as yours (so either we are both right or we are both wrong ...)

[catmoon]

Following the breath deeper into the body would progressively lead to a myriad of sensations lower and lower in the body's energy system which are taught to be distractions.

That would depend on who is doing the teaching!

[pink_trike]

Following the breath deeper into the body would progressively lead to a myriad of sensations lower and lower in the body's energy system which are taught to be distractions.

That would depend on who is doing the teaching!

Yes.

I had my Theravada hat on when I said that...

[retrofuturist]

We need to get you some hat smilies, Mr. Trike!

In the meantime you'll have to settle for these.



You can apportion them as you see fit.



Metta,
Retro.

[Collective]

I'm...confused

[puthujjana]

I would suggest reading through the commentary to the anapanasati sutta:

http://bps.lk/bp_library/bp502s/bp502_part2.html

I benefited much from reading it.