Breath meditation (anapanasati) in Zen Buddhism

[Heion]

Hello all,

My name is Alex, I'm an older member of Treeleaf who joined the Sangha when I was 13 or 14, I believe. Recently, I have not been very active on this site for a number of reasons including bulimia and diversifying my understanding of Buddhism by practicing intensely in other traditions (I have done 2 retreats under the guidance of a Theravada Buddhist Meditation Center, and they have proved quite helpful).

Anyways....

While I understand that Dogen emphasized shikantaza meditation, I was wondering what the opinion was on breath meditation as emphasized in other zen traditions (similar to vipassana and anapanasati where you focus your awareness on the energy center below the navel (hara)).

Do any of the priests or experienced members mind weighing in on this?

My current practice is mostly metta and mindfulness of forgiveness. I also practice breath and mantra meditations, but not to the extent which I practice metta.



Gassho,
Heion

[Jishin]

"Now, if you make the slightest discrimination, you will create a gap like that between heaven and earth. If you follow one thing while you resist the other, your mind will be shattered and lost." - Fukanzazengi - Dogen

I think that if the focus is following the breath vs another form of meditation, then a discrimination is made.

If the focus is just following the breath, then no discrimination is made.

My one cent.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Myosha]

Hello all,

My name is Alex, I'm an older member of Treeleaf who joined the Sangha when I was 13 or 14, I believe. Recently, I have not been very active on this site for a number of reasons including bulimia and diversifying my understanding of Buddhism by practicing intensely in other traditions (I have done 2 retreats under the guidance of a Theravada Buddhist Meditation Center, and they have proved quite helpful).

Anyways....

While I understand that Dogen emphasized shikantaza meditation, I was wondering what the opinion was on breath meditation as emphasized in other zen traditions (similar to vipassana and anapanasati where you focus your awareness on the energy center below the navel (hara)).

Do any of the priests or experienced members mind weighing in on this?

My current practice is mostly metta and mindfulness of forgiveness. I also practice breath and mantra meditations, but not to the extent which I practice metta.



Gassho,
Heion

Hello,

Throw it all away.

Just sit.


Gassho
Myosha sat today

P.S. Please sit within 24 hrs before posting. Thank you.

[Kokuu]

Hi Alex!

Good to hear from you! How is the clarinet playing? (I hope I remember correctly, it might have been a flute, bassoon or tuba!).

Anapanasati is a great practice and where I started, together with the cultivation of metta. I love the Anapanasati sutta as it seems as close to the Buddha's words on meditation as we can get. I like to think of the Bhikkhus sitting under a tree listening to Shakyamuni expounding on this and going away to practice. Have you read Thich Nhat Hanh's lovely commentary 'Breathe, You Are Alive'? Larry Rosenberg's 'Breath by Breath' and 'Mindfulness With Breathing' by Buddhadasa are also good.

Some Soto Zen traditions do use breath awareness practices. Shunryu Suzuki taught this. However, it is not shikantaza, rather a shamatha practice used to cultivate attention or produce calmness. The breath acts as a anchor for the various sensations going on whereas shikantaza is anchorless. I have used breath awareness to teach people completely new to meditation in a similar way to putting stabilisers on a bicycle to give some support. I also use the practice myself when my sensations or thoughts are too intense for the free floating nature of shikantaza and I need an anchor to avoid being washed away. Joan Halifax Roshi says she uses anapanasati to collect herself during the first few practices of a sesshin.

In certain Tibetan practices, breath awareness is done for 10-15 minutes before a form of shikantaza to provide stability for the second practice but I find that shikantaza can do this all by itself.

As regards focussing on an energy centre this is, to my knowledge, a Rinzai practice, and not done so much in Soto Zen. I don't do it so can't comment.

In summary, anapanasati is a great practice but, for me, is a precursor to vipassana, shikantaza, Dzogchen etc. The important thing here is that we generally experience life without an anchor, even if we can watch the breath at difficult moments. Direct awareness practices (for want of a better term) such as shikantaza can more easily translate from the cushion to everyday life.

As an addition, I might also recommend balancing your practice so that for each metta practice you do one session of anapanasati or shikantaza/vipassana but that is just what works for me. Wisdom and compassion - a bird needs both wings to fly.

I hope that some of this is helpful.

Morning sitting
the world unfolds
breath by breath.


Deep bows for your continuing exploration of the dharma
Kokuu
#sattoday

[Jundo]

Hi Heion,

I also hope that you are continuing your woodwind practice. Breath is important there too.

Shikantaza is radical non-attaining, so primary emphasis is on allowing the natural breath to just be the breath. One accepts circumstances as they are, without resistance or judgement, neither meddling nor being caught. As an asthmatic with a cat allergy, I can say that in Shikantaza, when wheezing ... Just Wheeze! One's wheezing is the Wheezing Buddha!

Dogen and his Teacher had this to say [The "Tanden" he mentions is the "Hara", the traditional center of the body and its power said to be found below the navel] ...

About breathing during zazen, Dogen Zenji said in The collection of Dogen Zenji's formal speeches and poems (Eihei-koroku), vol. 5: ... In Hinayana, there are two elementary ways (of beginner's practice): one is to count the breaths, and the other is to contemplate the impurity (of the body). In other words, a practitioner of Hinayana regulates his breathing by counting the breaths. The practice of the Buddha-ancestors, however, is completely different from the way of Hinayana. An ancestral teacher has said, “It is better to have the mind of a wily fox than to follow the way of Hinayana self-control.” Two of the Hinayana schools (studied) in Japan today are the precept school (Shibunritsu) and the school based on Abhidharma-kosa (Kusha).


There is also the Mahayana way of regulating breathing. That is, knowing that a long breath is long and that a short one is short. The breath reaches the tanden and leaves from there. Although the exhalation and inhalation are different, they both pass through the tanden. When you breathe abdominally, it is easy to become aware of the transiency (of life), and to harmonize the mind.


My late teacher Tendo said, “The inhaled breath reaches the tanden; however, it is not that this breath comes from somewhere. For that reason, it is neither short nor long. The exhaled breath leaves from the tanden; however, it is not possible to say where this breath goes. For that reason, it is neither long nor short”. My teacher explained it in that way, and if someone were to ask me how to harmonize one's breathing, I would reply in this way: although it is not Mahayana, it is different from Hinayana; though it is not Hinayana, it is different from Mahayana. And if questioned further regarding what it is ultimately, I would respond that inhaling or exhaling are neither long nor short.

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...s-of-Breathing

Keizan Zenji, a few generations after Dogen, said much the same ...

Sometimes when you are sitting you may feel hot or cold, discomfort or ease, stiff or loose, heavy or light, or sometimes startled. These sensations arise through disharmonies of mind and breath-energy. Harmonize your breath in this way: open your mouth slightly, allow long breaths to be long and short breaths to be short and it will harmonize naturally. Follow it for awhile until a sense of awareness arises and your breath will be natural. After this, continue to breathe through the nose.
https://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=t&rc...21070826,d.dGY

Shunryu Suzuki is mentioned in our Always Beginners Series ...

If you think, “I breathe,” the “I” is extra. There is no you to say “I.” What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “I,” no world, no mind nor body: just a swinging door.

We might say that the breath, too, is “no place and everyplace at once.”

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?7695-Sit-a-Long-with-Jundo-Zazen-for-Beginners-%28Part-XI%29

Now, here is something interesting. If one looks closely at the text of the Anapanasati Sutta, one finds that the above descriptions may be the fulfillment of the Sutta!

By some interpretations, Breath Awareness culminates in equanimity, dispassion, acceptance. The meditation culminates ...

16. ‘Breathing in, I observe letting go. Breathing out, I observe letting go.’ He or she practices like this.

He who sees with discernment the abandoning of greed & distress is one who watches carefully with equanimity, which is why the monk on that occasion remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit....118.than.html

I disagree with Kokuu on a couple of points.

I love the Anapanasati sutta as it seems as close to the Buddha's words on meditation as we can get.

Some believe that it is a later Sutta, and there is no particular evidence that it is particularly what the historical Buddha did or did not recommend as a meditation technique. However, one thing clear is that the interpretation and use of the Sutra in modern times is very different from how it was presented in centuries past.

https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=GMNViIBK0wQC&pg=PT420&lpg=PT420&dq=Anapanasati+Sutta+buddhist+modernism&source=bl&ots=fGL1zRkzMv&sig=2QCZnsA5DuM3LWf1JDKE_DSzTqE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiytt7mprvMAhXHVZQKHYcbBbQQ6AEILjAD#v=onepage&q=Anapanasati%20Sutta%20buddhist%20modernism&f=false

and

https://meaningness.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/theravada-reinvents-meditation/

Gassho, Jundo

SatToday

[Myosha]

Hello,

Thank you for the links.


Gassho
Myosha sat today

[Jishin]

I think a 3 year old can give supreme advice on breath meditation.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Rich]

Hello all,

My name is Alex, I'm an older member of Treeleaf who joined the Sangha when I was 13 or 14, I believe. Recently, I have not been very active on this site for a number of reasons including bulimia and diversifying my understanding of Buddhism by practicing intensely in other traditions (I have done 2 retreats under the guidance of a Theravada Buddhist Meditation Center, and they have proved quite helpful).

Anyways....

While I understand that Dogen emphasized shikantaza meditation, I was wondering what the opinion was on breath meditation as emphasized in other zen traditions (similar to vipassana and anapanasati where you focus your awareness on the energy center below the navel (hara)).

Do any of the priests or experienced members mind weighing in on this?

My current practice is mostly metta and mindfulness of forgiveness. I also practice breath and mantra meditations, but not to the extent which I practice metta.



Gassho,
Heion

Your question is about focusing on the Hara which is the body mind center but then you say you practice metta and forgiveness. Sounds a little scattered. But maybe I'm misunderstanding you. What do you practice when sitting?

SAT today

[Joyo]

Hello Heoin, I remember you and it is nice to hear from you again. =)

"Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and grass grows by itself"--Basho

While focusing on my breath, the breath is lost, and what is left is just sitting.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Jundo]

"Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and grass grows by itself"--Basho

While focusing on my breath, the breath is lost, and what is left is just sitting.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Mp]

Hello Heoin, I remember you and it is nice to hear from you again. =)

"Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and grass grows by itself"--Basho

While focusing on my breath, the breath is lost, and what is left is just sitting.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

Agreed ... very nice! =)

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Kaishin]

they have proved quite helpful

Can you explain further? Helpful for what, in what way? What are you trying to accomplish?

-satToday

[Jishin]

Can you explain further? Helpful for what, in what way? What are you trying to accomplish?

You have no beard.

Gassho, Jishin, ST

[Tom]

Heion, I had the same question. The thread helped clear it up.
Gassho
SatToday