Trying to find triggers and safe space in the midst of health issues that affect nervous system, heart rate and breathing; stiff neck and shoulder muscles keep re-contracting; how to respond to getting so tired; what is the wise and caring response to body; navigating touch and contact skillfully; how can we be heirs to our kamma if there is no self to inherit it; through investigation of qualities of citta clarity and falling away has occurred – how to sustain; the more I see things clearly the more I feel the weight of delusion causing sadness and disgust and feeling of pointlessness for practice; how to approach in and out breath to calm mental activity (citta)/please speak to mindfulness of feeling from the Ānāpānasati Sutta.

Questions about involuntary movements in practice; please you comment on the third tetrad of ānāpānasati; please review the potential value of jhāna experiences; say more about how ignorance sucks energy from citta; deep fears and primal memories.

Misguided jhāna; how to practice with the three characteristics (anicca, dukkha, anatta); is ānāpānasati enough for liberation?

Mindfulness can be thought of as a boundary setter. It’s used to discern what to stay with and deepen into, and what to avoid and stay out of. Instructions are given for how to apply this to ānāpānasati, mindfulness of breathing.

The exploration and practice of Samatha/Concentration/Calm Abiding through Anapanasati/Mindfulness of Breathing Meditation.

Using the breath to evoke all 7 awakening factors through the 16 steps of anapanasati.

Body scanning; stuck areas; mental proliferation; ‘commander’ and ‘do-er’ aspects of mind; appropriate objects of meditation; thoughts that arise during ānāpānasati; dealing with hinderances; restlessness

Restlessness/preoccupation with things to do; mental proliferation/lost in mind; bad memories; ānāpānasati; 5 khandā

The Buddha's description of his own use of this practice: a neble dwelling, A Tathagata abiding. Deeping into the four tetrads of the Anapanasati Sutta

Mindfulness of breathing, 16 steps, four tetrads, Fulfilling the four foundations of mindfulness

1) The difference between tanhā and upādāna – which is more important to address? 2) Stream entry – what is it, what helps get to the next level, different definitions of the ‘noble disciple’. 3) Questions about citta – difference between citta and citta saṅkhāra, between mano and citta. 4) Jealously, loneliness, lack of love. 5) Ānāpānasati sutta – is it sequential, do we develop each step in every sitting? 6) Ajahn’s one word of advice. 7) Questions on identity and anattā.

A guided meditation through the Ānāpānasati sutta. Establishing a comfortable, upright posture, incline awareness toward direct experience of the body. Sustain appropriate mindfulness and citta will sensitize to the qualities we call 'body’. This exercise resets the mind, which is then gladdened, steadied and cleared so that insight can develop.

Sati – mindfulness – is only mentioned once in the Ānāpānasati sutta. ‘Directly feeling and knowing’ – pajānati – is the mode of practice. When we’ve attuned to this, we move to ‘training’. This phase of ānāpānasati begins with training in deeper sensitivity of the entire body.

Referring to the text, see what’s not there – there’s no mention of one-pointed attention. This is a common misunderstanding. Consider instead a one-pointed intention, to bear in mind, and return again and again to the process of breathing.

What is the body? Not the picture of it but the direct experience of it. Referring to instructions given in the Ānāpānasati Sutta, guidance is given to directly experience the body in its diverse manifestations of energy, feeling and sensation. Breathing in, breathing out, allow the process to occur at its own rate and stay with what’s unfolding for you.

After spending a recent retreat with Ven. Analayo Bhikkhu at Spirit Rock on this subject, James offers his understanding of Ven. Analayo's explanation of the discourse and how it can be applied in our meditation practice. You can also go to (paste it in your browser) this link to hear Ven. Analayo's Anapanasati guided meditation. https://www.windhorsepublications.com/mindfulness-of-breathing-audio/

Tina Rasmussen provides 13 minutes of instruction on the Samatha (concentration and serenity) meditation, in particular the anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) practice. This includes everything that a person needs to know to begin practicing Samatha anapanasati meditation.

Continuing from the Anapanasati sutta we turn to vedana, the 2nd foundation of mindfulness. With great courage. we can develop contentment no matter the pleasure, pain or neutrality of any give moment. In not understanding vedana we are forever imprisoned by our wrong views. When we can breath consciously in a greater range of pain, pleasure and neutrality we find the path to non-conditional contentment.

In many discourses the Buddha gave very detailed instructions on how to develop Mindfulness of Breathing from our first awareness of breathing in and out through calming the mind into samadhi (concentration) and then steps to cultivate liberating insight. These 16 steps also include the cultivation of happiness and contentment as an aspect of the path to freedom.

Guided Sit: “Allow yourself to enter into and experiment with this approach to developing concentration ...which is a VERY simple, direct & potentially powerful practice…though while it’s simple, it’s not always so easy.” A one hour, very clear guided sitting meditation, leading one through the initial process of developing concentration via the practice of Anapanasati with learning to clearly and gently focus the attention on the ‘anapana spot’.

In the search for happiness, we generally only experience the search, marked by discomfort or desperation. Relationship is key. The instructions for ānāpānasati train us to develop a more dispassionate relationship where we learn to stand in the presence of, or witness from, the edge of experience. From here the right kind of relationship, marked by non-expectation and non-aversion, can be cultivated.

The deeply ingrained reactivity to jump from unpleasant feeling is saṇkhāra. We leave the richness and intelligence of embodiment for the virtual world of programs and drives. Steadying and stabilizing the bodily energies with ānāpānasati develops a different kind of saṇkhāra, one that responds to phenomena with non-demand and acceptance.