❖ The Meditative Development of Mindfulness of Breathing ❖ ~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

❖ The Meditative Development of Mindfulness of Breathing ❖

~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

Mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati) is a complete meditation practice in itself. It is complete from the beginning to the end – even up to the path-fruition (magga-phala), that is Nibbāna. 

Because of this completeness, its aim is different from other meditation objects (kammaṭṭhāna). This practice has breathing in and breathing out as its only object. Thus, there is nothing that has to be moved, changed or set up. The breathing is always present.

Mindfulness of breathing is an extremely convenient method of practice for, as indicated above, there is no need for external objects to carry around or set up. Whenever one decides to practice, he or she will find the in- and out-breathing there. This is not the case with many of the other kinds of meditation objects which depend upon external objects such as colored discs, corpses and so on. 

Rather, by taking the in- and out-breathing as a meditation object, one takes his meditation object wherever he or she goes, since the in- and out-breathing always accompanies the meditator. Thus, it is rightly said that the practice of ānāpānasati is convenient.

Another noteworthy feature of the practice of mindfulness of breathing is that it is harmless. It is an extremely refined meditation object that doesn’t lead to fear, excitement, commotion or confusion. In this way it is not like meditating on corpses which, indeed, may cause a great sense of fear or loathing to arise in the mind of the meditator...

(From “The Meditative Development of Mindfulness of Breathing,” a lecture given on 13th August 1972 at Suan Mokkhabalārāma)

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To read/download the full teaching as free ebook (pdf), please visit “Suan Mokkh – The Garden of Liberation”:

https://suanmokkh.org/books/125

16th December, 2022

❖ “Do we need spiritual goals in life? If so, how can we avoid becoming attached to them?” ❖

 ❖ “Do we need spiritual goals in life? If so, how can we avoid becoming attached to them?” ❖

~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

We endeavor and aspire to do everything with intelligence, with wisdom. We already have some paññā, some intelligence and wisdom, and so we endeavor to do everything with wisdom rather than with defilement and desire.

We can call this our spiritual goal – to do everything with intelligence and wisdom. This means everything we do, everything that wisdom tells us we must do, we do that with wisdom. And things that wisdom says we shouldn’t do, we don’t do. What we do, we do only with wisdom rather than with desire and defilement.

When we speak of paññā – right understanding, wisdom, intelligence – we mean something that is already free of attachment, because paññā is essentially the understanding that there’s nothing which can be clung to as ‘me’ or ‘mine.’ When there’s clear understanding of the fact of anattā (not-self), then there’s no possibility of desire, attachment, and the defilements interfering with what we’re doing or with this goal. 

So if we have genuine wisdom then there’s no problem.

In some languages there’s a word for wisdom which is correct, and there’s also a word for a kind of twisted, crooked, deceptive, or deceitful kind of understanding or intelligence. In English we might distinguish between intelligence and cleverness or craftiness, for example the kind that’s used by psychologists who make the advertising on TV. You can call that intelligence, but it’s a crooked, dishonest kind of intelligence used to deceive people.

And so in the same way we need to distinguish between genuine wisdom and false, crooked wisdom. If what we do is with genuine wisdom, then there’s no problem. We just investigate, just use that wisdom to continually investigate and examine everything we do.

(From the retreat “Why Dhamma?” as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)

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Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.

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To listen to this teaching on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/buddhadasa/19910510-4-dhamma-questions-and-responses

For all English retreat talks by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu:

https://soundcloud.com/buddhadasa/

For more information and free ebooks, visit Suan Mokkh – The Garden of Liberation:

https://www.suanmokkh.org/

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Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C03766

25th November, 2022