Ānāpānasaṁyutta - Connected Discourses on Mindfulness of Breathing

Cultivating mindfulness while breathing in and out yields great fruit and benefit. This sixteen-step practice guides a meditator from foundational breath awareness to calming bodily and mental constructs, ultimately culminating in the profound observation of impermanence and complete relinquishment.

The Buddha explains that mindfulness while breathing in and out yields great fruit when integrated with the seven factors of awakening.

Following a tragic incident in which monks, overwhelmed by disgust after meditating on the body’s unattractiveness, take their own lives, the Buddha presents mindfulness of breathing as an alternative. He describes the collectedness born from breathing as a peaceful, sublime, and pure dwelling that, like a sudden rain settling dust, immediately stills any arisen unwholesome states.

Emerging from a three-month seclusion, the Buddha reveals his primary meditative dwelling: collectedness born from mindfulness of breathing. He elevates this practice as the “Tathāgata’s dwelling.” For a trainee, it leads to the wearing away of defilements, and for an Arahant, it offers a pleasant dwelling in this life.

The Buddha details how collectedness born from mindfulness while breathing in and out fulfills the four establishments of mindfulness. These four establishments then arouse the seven factors of awakening, which, when fully cultivated, culminate in true knowledge and liberation.