Ācariya Anuruddha on Ānāpānasati

[Ceisiwr]

I've just read Venerable Ācariya Anuruddha's presentation of Ānāpānasati in his work "Manual of Discerning Mind and Matter" (Nāmarūpapariccheda). I found it to be quite a succinct but good explanation of the traditional teaching on how to practice mindfulness of breathing. It has actually helped clear some confusion I had regarding the practice, allowing me to understand it better. Enjoy.

Disillusioned with regard to the inner
and detached with regard to the outer,
with growing alarm the yogī
leaves heedlessness behind

Freed from desire's bonds,
grown wise, emerged from the unwholesome,
one witnesses and partakes
of the nectar of the deathless that is the holy life's
[true essence]

A wise person, developing
the so-called "awareness of the in-coming and outgoing breath",
praised by the rightly and fully Awakened One
as the sovereign king of meditation objects,

can easily attain
absorption as well as access;
discernment as well as tranquillity;
the transcendental as well as the mundane

And subtle, fine, and sharp,
mature and standing in full power,
the mental factors conducive to awakening
become purified to an exceptional extent.

And as such, herein,
eight divisions in the meditation-subject
are set forth in the canonical list.
Namely:

1) counting, 2) staying with,
3) touching, 4) fixing,
5) observing, and 6) turning away from;
7) total purity, and, then,
8) review of these

They are then divided into sixteen,
according to the (four) sati-'paṭṭhana-s,
and again split into thirty-two*
by the dividing of in-breath and out-breath.

How should one fulfill that
and develop with this awareness
tranquillity and discernment (vipassana)
to the full extent of [this practice's] greatness?

Having thoroughly learned the [theory of the]
anapana [meditation-subject],
going into seclusion, in solitude,
one should first of all count,
seated at ease in a sitting posture.

One should not count to less than five,
or take one's count higher than ten;
One should count (them) one by one,
without any break (in awareness).

Without allowing (the awareness) to scatter
(going) inside or outside, again and again,
one should keep the attention with (the breath)
upon the spot it touches, maintaining this
awareness

And then, having placed his attention
on the upper lip at the tip of the nose,
for the yogī constantly adverting
to the contact of the in-breath,

either broad or long,
or round or spread-out,
[some sort of] a "nimitta" ([counterpart-]sign)
arises there
in the form of a star or so forth.

The mind becomes concentrated
with proximity concentration (upacara-samadhi)
with concentration approximating absorption
and mental defilements subside
when the counterpart[-sign] arises

Fixing the mind on the sign,
one then makes it attain absorption (appaṇa)
This, proceeding via the five jhanas,
is the methodology of development with reference
to tranquillity (samatha)

The other (methodology), again, having begun
inhering [in the present] in the in-breath and outbreath.
[Having seen with insight] internally and
externally,
and then, following from that,

having seen with insight, now mature,
the dhamma-s that constitute the grounds (of
insight), as they are,
one enters into transcendental jhana (attaining
nibbana):
this is the purity of insight.

How was the methodology related in its sixteenfold form
by way of the one cultivating
attainment in anapana
and making it the basis for higher attainment?

Firstly, one apprehends
the in- and out-breath that is long –
or be it short -- "as being long or short",
maintaining this awareness, and this knowledge.

And likewise making it [continuously] known
at its beginning, middle, and end,
becoming concentrated, he trains himself
to be "one who experiences the [breath's] whole
body"

And thence, stilling those very formations
(sankhara-s),
one after another,
he is said to be one who trains himself
to be "one stilling bodily sankhara-s".

apanassati ("Awareness of the in- and outbreath"),
grounded thus in bodily sankhara-s,
as the [sati-'paṭṭhana] "observation of body"
is also spoken of as fourfold:*

Making 1) the joy (piti) in his samatha[-jhana]
evident
to his discernment (vipassana) by [making it its]
object
conjoined with knowledge (naṇa),
and [after that] 2) the pleasure (sukha)

One is said to train oneself
experiencing the joy (piti), and so forth, [ i.e.,
sukha & citta-sankhara]
pertaining to 3. the mental sankhara-s
reckoned as sensation (vedana) and [its associated]
perception (sanna).

And training oneself to still
those sankhara-s that are gross,
one is said to train oneself
4. "stilling mental sankhara"

Directed here to these respective objects,
especially for bringing it about,
the observation of sensation [sati-'paṭṭhana]
is referred to in these four ways.

Entering [jhana-s] and reviewing [their associated
mental factors],
as one awakens and causes consciousness
to be revealed
one trains 1) "experiencing consciousness"

As one uplifts that consciousness
through one's joy-filled concentration,
one is said to train
2) "uplifting consciousness"

And so causing that (consciousness) to converge
with absorption and proximity [to absorption]
(upacara),
the yogī is described as training
3) "concentrating consciousness"

And likewise liberating it
from the contrary (factors)
via their (temporary) suspension or (permanent)
eradication,
he is said to train 4) "liberating consciousness".

Proceeding accordingly from
the meditation-subject anapana,
this is the fourfold development of the
"observation of consciousness" [sati-'paṭṭhana].

And owing to discernment's (vipassana) inhering
to an especial extent in "anicca",
discerning (this in them) the wise one trains
1) "observing as 'impermanent'".

And then 2) "observing dispassion"
as, becoming disenchantment, he makes his
craving fade,
and so 3) "observing cessation"
as he makes the dhammas that constitute the
ground come to an end.

And by way of letting go, via [consciousness's]
leaping [into the unconditioned] and releasing [the
conditioned],
he is said to train
as one 4) "observing letting go".

Vipassana on the dhamma-s that constitute the
ground
initiated via anapana
is what's referred to as "the observation of
dhamma-s" [satipaṭṭhana]
and is said to be comprised, like this, of these four
parts.

And thus, it also fulfills
the cultivation of the "foundations of awareness"
(satipaṭṭhana-s), in all four parts,
with its sixteen aspects,
founded on the triple training (in sila, samadhi, and
panna)

And one taking up awareness (sati),
and applying himself to discernment (vipassana) in
this way,
is called a "satokari" (doing so mindfully).
by way of the classifications of the thirty-two
aspects.

And thus having cultivated tranquillity
by way of 1) counting and so on [ 2) anubandhana,
3) phusana, & 4) ṭhapana]
and thence done 5) observation (sallakkhaṇa)
which here designates insight (vipassana),

and attained the 6) turning away, i.e. the path,
established in the 7) purity, i.e. the fruit,
he reaches the recollective viewing
reckoned 8) review.

Anapanassati (the awareness of in-breath and outbreath)
brought to complete fulfillment thus,
is said to be developed
with every aspect and every part.

Developing this, the incomparable concentration of
anapana, the Buddha's chief advice,
which washes away depravity and defilement's
dust, and in the guise of ease puts out dukkha's
fire,
those who conquer distraction with bountiful sati
and sampajanna,
attain to higher still, the highest seat of the
deathless, comprising bodhi in all three forms.

This awareness (sati) that, applied upon
the Buddha and the Dhamma, and the celebrated
Sangha;
and pure sīla, and one's dana;
and deities of dhammic virtue, quiescent peace, and
death;
and the body, and the in-breath and the out --
for the arising of the path to awakening
is the conduit to true dhamma, with its most
auspicious virtues,
should be made use of with the deepest of respect.

So ends the ninth chapter in the Manual of
Discerning Mind and Matter, named
(the section on) “The Ten Recollections”

[Sam Vara]

Many thanks, C., that's brilliant.

Not least because up to about a third of the way through it is describing very closely the method I am being taught. (After that it's above my pay grade! )

I'll have to look at it in more detail later, as it's late now. But where can I find a copy? Who translated it? (There is one term that bothers me, but I'll have to have a look for where I met it before...)

Anyway, much appreciated!

[Ceisiwr]

Many thanks, C., that's brilliant.

Not least because up to about a third of the way through it is describing very closely the method I am being taught. (After that it's above my pay grade! )

I'll have to look at it in more detail later, as it's late now. But where can I find a copy? Who translated it? (There is one term that bothers me, but I'll have to have a look for where I met it before...)

Anyway, much appreciated!

Its from an academic paper. You can find the whole text at the end of it: https://escholarship.org/content/qt0n79 ... 25a003.pdf

The paper itself is also interesting.

[Ceisiwr]

Many thanks, C., that's brilliant.

Not least because up to about a third of the way through it is describing very closely the method I am being taught. (After that it's above my pay grade! )

I'll have to look at it in more detail later, as it's late now. But where can I find a copy? Who translated it? (There is one term that bothers me, but I'll have to have a look for where I met it before...)

Anyway, much appreciated!

I particularly like how Ācariya Anuruddha explains how to combine the Jhāna's with insight. This isn't new of course. You can find this in the Visuddhimagga, but I much prefer Ācariya Anuruddha's explanation here. Apparently a lot of his works have a poetic flare to them when compared to his most famous and more dry work, the Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha. Sadly, most of his work isn't translated. They belong to the "forgotten" texts of Theravāda. Orthodox, but no longer popular.

[skandha]

I've just read Venerable Ācariya Anuruddha's presentation of Ānāpānasati in his work "Manual of Discerning Mind and Matter" (Nāmarūpapariccheda). I found it to be quite a succinct but good explanation of the traditional teaching on how to practice mindfulness of breathing. It has actually helped clear some confusion I had regarding the practice, allowing me to understand it better. Enjoy.

Disillusioned with regard to the inner
and detached with regard to the outer,
with growing alarm the yogī
leaves heedlessness behind

Freed from desire's bonds,
grown wise, emerged from the unwholesome,
one witnesses and partakes
of the nectar of the deathless that is the holy life's
[true essence]

A wise person, developing
the so-called "awareness of the in-coming and outgoing breath",
praised by the rightly and fully Awakened One
as the sovereign king of meditation objects,

can easily attain
absorption as well as access;
discernment as well as tranquillity;
the transcendental as well as the mundane

And subtle, fine, and sharp,
mature and standing in full power,
the mental factors conducive to awakening
become purified to an exceptional extent.

And as such, herein,
eight divisions in the meditation-subject
are set forth in the canonical list.
Namely:

1) counting, 2) staying with,
3) touching, 4) fixing,
5) observing, and 6) turning away from;
7) total purity, and, then,
8) review of these

...

Ācariya Anuruddha's 8 steps above is similar to some of the steps of Zhiyi.

Zhiyi's meditation manual 六妙法門 (Six sublime dharma methods) of the Tiantai school, have the following list for mindfulness of breathing;

1) 數 counting
2) 隨 following (this includes all 16 steps of anapanasati sutta)
3) 止 stabilization
4) 觀 contemplation
5) 還 turning
6) 淨 purification

I think Zhiyi's meditation manuals were written around the time of when the Visuddhimagga was written.