In the breath meditation instructions - anapanasati sutta (mn- 118):
Culavedalla Sutta: The Shorter Set of Questions-and-Answers (mn-44)"[1] Breathing in long, he discerns, 'I am breathing in long'; or breathing out long, he discerns, 'I am breathing out long.' [2] Or breathing in short, he discerns, 'I am breathing in short'; or breathing out short, he discerns, 'I am breathing out short.' [3] He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to the entire body.'[2] He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the entire body.' [4] He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming bodily fabrication.'[3] He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming bodily fabrication.'
And what is the bodily fabrication/formation?
----------------------------------------------"In-&-out breaths are bodily; these are things tied up with the body. That's why in-&-out breaths are bodily fabrications. "
Meditation could be seen as the exercise of calming bodily, verbal and mental fabrications.
And in the times of the buddha besides breath, there where many different objects (kasinas,metta with brahma viharas, forgiveness, etc).
So my question is, how do you think the practitioner of this different meditations should calm the bodily formation without using the breath as the object ?.
The key of the issue is "things tied up with the body" (leaving other matters of the body to be calmed besides breathing) ?
Or do you keep calming breathing even doing other objects?
What do u think?.
With metta.