Anapanasatibhavana

Anapanasati-Bhavana
Why I chose the method of anapanasati-bhavana follows on from why

I meditate so let’s go into more detail on this (developing from
purpose). 
“Meditation can help you follow your path and be at peace.” For me
this makes an assumption that we want to follow our path and be at
peace ie end suffering; suffering ends when people are following their
paths – another assumption. I know Four Agreements tells me not to
make assumptions but this assumption is Dhamma, it is nature, tathata
– the way it is. When you have worked through the 4 tetrads of
anapanasati-bhavana (in the satipatthana sutta the four foundations of
mindfulness) this will be clear, maybe it will be clear after finishing
reading this? 
According to Dhamma following your path is natural, it is your nature

– spirit, so if it is natural why don’t we follow it? And the answer is
conditioning, we are conditioned and we need to go beyond our
conditioning to begin to follow our paths. 
So what is conditioning? Conditioning begins from the moment we

are born. From that moment we are expected to make agreements, and
to begin with we do that instinctively – through our parents. Nature
provides us with instincts to survive, and to begin with these instincts
revolve around our relationship with parents; instincts are part of
nature’s conditioning. Our parents bring to us who they are and we
agree to be much of what our parents expect. As we get older we are
conditioned by education, and even older by peers and the wider
society. To follow our paths we need to learn what this conditioning
is, and learn how to detach from old conditioning and not attach to
new conditioning. Through meditation we learn how not to attach and
detach. 
Understanding what causes conditioning is important because it then

helps us to remove that conditioning. Conditioning starts naturally
with instinct. To begin with instinct is necessary for survival but as
we mature such instinctive conditioning is not necessary and we can
go beyond it. The next stage of our conditioning comes through
education. Essentially education provides us with two tools, firstly it
provides us with skills society needs, and secondly it provides us with
the agreements required to function in our society. Skills are
necessary, we need to be organised, read and write, and other skills
that education provides but which are often not given their full
import. And the reason some people don’t give these aspects of
education their full value is because of the agreements that society
requires of us. There are two tacit agreements that society, especially
western society, expects of us – to accept wars for profits and to
accept wage-slavery. These tacit agreements are part of our
conditioning in schools yet they are rarely made explicit and are not
conscious agreements that we make. In a sense these are shadow
agreements – shadow conditioning. Why are these agreements
necessary in our society? Our societies are dominated by the
economic needs of the society, and those needs are defined by the
1%-satrapy. The 1% require increasing profits, they exert power and
influence over our governments, and require of us our labour and
consuming to continue making these profits. These social agreements
change conditioning over times, the societal conditioning that we
undergo now is not the same as the conditioning of the Buddha’s
time, but the methods used for detaching and non-attaching to
conditions are timeless – the Buddha’s wisdom is timeless. 
During our lives we mature, we begin to understand the conditions

that work on us in our lives, and using timeless methods we can
remove this conditioning and follow our paths to be at peace.
 
To describe the actual meditation method of anapanasati-bhavana we

look at the 4 tetrads of kaya – body, vedana – feelings, citta – mind
and Dhamma (which can be variously considered in translation as
Nature, Mother Earth, Gaia-consciousness or spirit); in Buddhism
Dhamma has a specific meaning when I am not discussing Dhamma
in Buddhist terms I prefer Gaia-consciousness. Through meditation
we learn that kaya, vedana and citta create conditions in the mind
which prevent proper “connection” with the Dhamma – sunnata, and
if we learn how to stop creating these conditions then we reach
atammayata which Ajaan Buddhadasa translates as
“unconcoctability”. [In his translation of the satipatthana sutta
Thanissaro Bhikkhu called atammayata non-fashioning]. The word
concoct conjures up for me proliferations but I like the double
meaning of fashion – fashion as in building (and therefore
concocting) and fashion “a popular trend, especially in styles of dress
and ornament or manners of behaviour” because it brings in the
timely nature of contemporary conditions; the methods for achieving
the state of mind of atammayata are timeless however. 
When we are working towards atammayata we are trying to prevent

body, emotions and mind from concocting conditions that prevent the
mind from reaching a state that allows us to truly follow our path, to
be at peace and end suffering. In a sense it is this state of atammayata
that I was discussing in “The Treatise of Zandtao” when I described
the 3 tenets of Zandtao:- 
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" >

<TR>
<td width = 15%></td>
<td><img src="http://zandtao.com/bzblog/zandtaobullet.gif" alt=""

width="25" height="25" border="0">Improving the mind </td>
</tr><tr>
color="#FF3300">Harmonising our energy </td></tr><tr>

color="#FF3300">Taking care of our bodies 
</TD>
</tr></TABLE> 
But there were two things I did not focus on in the Treatise, the fourth
tetrad of Dhamma and the need for integration, both of these
omissions I considered in detail in the second section of the
Pathtivism manual. There is a need to integrate these four tetrads but
this is technically wrong, we need to integrate the first three within
the context of the Dhamma or even better the Dhamma integrates
through the 4 tetrads.

Anapanasatibhavana

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Anapanasatibhavana

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Anapanasatibhavana

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Anapanasati-Bhavana

Why I chose the method of anapanasati-bhavana follows on from why

According to Dhamma following your path is natural, it is your nature

So what is conditioning? Conditioning begins from the moment we

Understanding what causes conditioning is important because it then

During our lives we mature, we begin to understand the conditions

To describe the actual meditation method of anapanasati-bhavana we

When we are working towards atammayata we are trying to prevent

<TABLE WIDTH="100%" >

<td><img src="http://zandtao.com/bzblog/zandtaobullet.gif" alt=""

<td width = 15%></td>

You might also like