Breath, an aspect of the body
Today, feel one breath as something the body does, not something you must manage.
- Read · about 2 minutes
It’s when a mendicant—gone to a wilderness, or to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut—sits down cross-legged, sets their body straight, and brings mindfulness to the present.Just mindful, they breathe in. Mindful, they breathe out.Breathing in heavily they know: ‘I’m breathing in heavily.’ Breathing out heavily they know: ‘I’m breathing out heavily.’Breathing in lightly they know: ‘I’m breathing in lightly.’ Breathing out lightly they know: ‘I’m breathing out lightly.’They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in experiencing the whole body.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out experiencing the whole body.’They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in stilling the physical process.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out stilling the physical process.’…For I say that the in-breaths and out-breaths are an aspect of the body.MN 118 · Ānāpānasati Sutta · “Mindfulness of Breathing” · tr. Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0)
From the text
The passage describes a mendicant gone to a wilderness, the root of a tree, or an empty hut, who sits cross-legged, sets the body straight, and breathes in and out mindfully. They know a heavy breath as heavy and a light breath as light, practise experiencing the whole body while breathing, and practise stilling the physical process. The in-breaths and out-breaths are called an aspect of the body.
In everyday life
A mendicant is a monk or nun living on alms; the instructions are given to them, but the practice needs nothing you do not already have. Sit. Set the body straight, whatever straight means for your body today. Breathe, and know it. That is the first step. The second is to know each breath as heavy or light. The third, experiencing the whole body, can be taken, one way, as widening attention to the body the breath moves through; the fourth, stilling the physical process, as letting the body settle. The last line quoted is the one this journey is built on: the breath is an aspect of the body. One way to take that is as a movement to feel rather than an idea to think about. Today’s sit rests attention on the breath at the nostrils, chest, or belly, in the same spirit; when the mind drifts, come back to the next breath.
- Sit · 3, 5 or 10 minutes
Breath Awareness
Sit comfortably upright, hands in your lap or on your knees. After reading a cue, you may close your eyes and rest with the breath until the next one appears.
- Live · during your day
Once today, when you sit down anywhere, take three breaths and notice which part of the body moves most with each one: the belly, the ribs, or the shoulders.
- Reflect · this evening
Where in the body did you feel the breath most clearly today?
Answer on paper, or in the app’s journal, which stays on your iPhone.