The Buddha on Breathing

Meditating with or on the breath has a very distinguished history! Working with the breath to develop concentration, awareness, and insight dates back to well before the Buddha, into the earliest practices of the sages, mystics, and yogis of the Indian sub-continent.

The Buddha found meditating on the breath incredibly powerful, so placed a very strong emphasis on it in his teaching. On Saturday I went to a mindfulness teachers workshop at the ZenYoga studio on the subject of what the Buddha taught about breathing, run by my Zen teacher Daizan Skinner. 

When he was just 7 years old, sat under a tree while his father (the King of the local province) was presiding over the annual ploughing ceremony, the little Gautama Buddha entered into a spontaneous state of meditation. Tradition says he entered this first state of meditation by means of the breath.

The boy Gautama at 7yrs old sitting under a tree in spontaneous meditation

Later, this experience proved crucial to his spiritual quest towards full liberation from the suffering caused by life. He remembers "I thought of a time when my father was working and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree: quite secluded from sensual desires, secluded from unwholesome things I had entered upon and abode in the first meditation."

Interestingly, the Buddha was very much against any practices that held or prolonged the breath – as is found in traditional Hatha Yoga (and was probably widely practised at the time of the Buddha) – he advocated relaxed, natural breathing. Through experience he found that "stopping the in-breaths and out-breaths in [his] mouth and nose... [creates] a loud sound of winds (energy) coming from my ear holes... violent winds in [his] head... and belly." He found "each time, though tireless energy was aroused in me and unremitting mindfulness established [his] body was over-wrought and uncalm because [he] was exhausted by the painful effort."

The sutras claim that "the Buddha himself declared that he realised perfect Self-Awakening through the practice of anapanasati (breath meditation)" and that "concentration by mindfulness of breathing, when developed and cultivated, leads to a pleasant dwelling in this very life and to mindfulness and clear comprehension." He even taught his son, Rahula, "if mindfulness of breath is cultivated with continuous practice, then there is a vast harvest, there is great richness."

After lunch we spent some time meditating on the breath, then looking at the development of breath meditation from the earliest Buddhist accounts, through the different schools that have arisen since, into China and Japan and Zen.

One of the key early Buddhist sutras dealing with the breath is the 'Satipatanna Sutra'. "Sati" has come to be translated as "mindfulness", so this is the 'Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness'. In it, the Buddha explains that the most direct, immediate (or in some translations, the only) way to reach enlightenment is through the four foundations of mindfulness.

These are "contemplating the body in the body", "contemplating the feelings in the feelings", "contemplating consciousness in consciousness", and "contemplating mental objects (i.e. thoughts, ideas, concepts) in mental objects."

He goes on to say "And how does a Bhikkhu [a monk] live contemplating the body in the body? ... [He] goes to an empty place, sits down, crosses his legs, straightens his body, and arouses mindfulness of the breath... Mindful, he breaths in, and mindful, he breaths out." Like this we can contemplate the body in the body via mindfulness of the breath.

Then he says "Let alone seven years, let alone half a month, if anyone would develop these four foundations of mindfulness... for seven days, one of two fruits can be expected for him: either liberating knowledge right here and now, or... non-return (i.e. nirvana)."

Wow, just seven days...!

So it's clear the Buddha held mindfulness of the breath in very high esteem! He says it really is the most direct way to fully wake up and realise the truth.

In the last part of the workshop, we each took on a question relating to what we'd learnt and came up with a little presentation on it. My question was: "How dows this practice relate to the four noble truths?"


The four noble truths were one of the first things the Buddha taught after his great enlightenment, and basically sum up the whole of Buddhist teaching. The four noble truths are:

1. Suffering exists as an inherent part of life
2. Suffering arises due to wanting things we don't have (craving, greed), not wanting things we do have (aversion, hate), and confusion or delusion as to the way things are now.
3. There is a way to end this suffering for good (liberation, enlightenment)
4. And that way is called the 8-fold path, and includes things like right livelihood, right speech, right mindfulness, etc.

By becoming aware of our breath, we automatically bring our attention to the present moment (we can't be breathing in the past or future!). With our attention on how things are right now, breathing and noticing the body in the body, we allow any thoughts, feelings or memories that arise to simply come and go. This presence and non-judgmental acceptance gives rise to an increasing sense of calm and clear understanding. With this clear, relaxed and open mind we begin to see where we are holding on to things (events, feelings, concepts, material objects), rejecting things, wanting things to be different, or being confused. Mindfulness of the breath is the vehicle we use to travel along the road towards the end of suffering.

If you'd like to explore the practice of mindfulness a little more, I run drop-in classes and 8-week courses at the ZenYoga studio in Camberwell, London. See here for more info.

A night in the Mu shed

Gyokuryuji temple

I've just got back from an absolutely incredible trip to Japan! Most years my Zen teacher Daizan Roshi organises a group trip over to his teacher's temple up in the mountains of central Japan – this was my 2nd trip out there. The temple, called Gyokuryuji, is a small hermitage training temple near the town of Seki in Gifu prefecture (about 1hr north of Nagoya).

We started with a 5-day silent Zen retreat (sesshin) led by Daizan's teacher Shinzan Roshi (see photo below), then had a few days for Zen-related cultural activities and sightseeing in Kyoto and Nara.

Shinzan Roshi by the front steps of the temple

Before I go on, let's just step back a moment. For the last few months before going to Japan I was working on editing and producing a DVD based on a recording of a workshop Daizan gave last year on the teaching of a famous Zen master, Nantembo Roshi. (Check out the DVD and trailer here.)

Nantembo Roshi was a very powerful and enigmatic character and developed a unique style of practice based around the famous 'Mu' koan of Zen. Back in the 800s in China there was a great master called Joshu. One day a monk asked Joshu "does a dog have Buddha-nature?". To this Master Joshu replied "mu" (literally no, or not) in an attempt to break through this monk's dualistic way of thinking. It worked! In Rinzai Zen this koan is used to help people get a first glimpse into their own true-nature (Buddha-nature).

What was unique about Nantembo was he got his students to practice with mu all the time, no matter what their current koan was. In the training hall they would all be chanting 'mu' with each breath, and only in private interview would they attempt to answer their koan. He found this to be a very effective way for people to develop their inner power and that kind of non-discursive, immediate, present-moment knowing/understanding.

It turns out Shinzan Roshi is a fan of this style of practice too, and back in the 80s and 90s he used to get pairs of monks training under him to do what he called 'mu sesshins' – 7 days shut up in the temple storehouse chanting mu 24hrs a day...

The temple storehouse (building next to the telegraph pole)

After having spent so long hearing about Nantembo's practice (after editing the DVD I could practically recite it...) and these mu sesshins, I wanted to try it out for myself!! So on the 4th day of the retreat over in Japan, myself and a friend, Ed, decided to lock ourselves in the Gyokuryuji storehouse for (only) 24hrs to explore this mu practice.

The storehouse was pretty full of junk, so we only managed to clear enough space for our two sitting cushions and a pot to pee into! The upstairs was a bit clearer, so we used that for walking meditation.

Just after breakfast on the 4th day we paid our respects to the Buddha and set our intention for the 24hr practice, then, led by Daizan holding the keisaku aloft, we installed ourselves in the storehouse. As Daizan slid the door shut and locked it from the outside, shutting out the daylight, we began our chanting.

The tiny space in the storehouse where we sat chanting mu for 24hrs

At first I went for the full Nantembo-style practice (as described on the DVD) – deep relaxed in-breath, then tightly close the eyes, tense the jaw, arms, fists, legs and lift the pelvic floor with a long slow out-breath making a low reverberating sound of muuuu. Wow, I tell you, after an hour of doing this things really get going! Belly tingling, energy currents flowing and rising up the body. But I soon realised I couldn't keep this going sustainably for the remaining 23hrs! I relaxed into a long slow mu keeping the body soft.

Without any kind of timer, we just nodded (or prodded) each other when we felt we wanted to take a break from the sitting and go upstairs to walk. The space was small so we could only move in a small circle, but the little window gave us a break from the dingy darkness of downstairs. All the time we kept the mu-ing going. Deep in-breath, and a long mu on the out-breath.

After about 4hrs Daizan brought us lunch in a big bowl. We paused our mu-ing for about 20mins to eat, but tried to keep our awareness centred in the belly (hara). After another 6hrs Daizan brought us dinner and we took another 20min break, then we were on our own until breakfast in the morning. We were very grateful when Daizan slid a bowl of chocolatey sweets through the door at about 10pm – these would prove decisive in getting us through the night! We decided we would break for 10mins every 2 hours after midnight just to punctuate the dark hours and give us a sense of time moving forward! Once night fell, the storehouse became absolutely pitch dark – to the point where you couldn't tell whether your eyes were open or not!

From a few hours in, I remember thoughts creeping into my mind basically saying "you can't do this". I started counting the hours left and trying to work out how I was going to get through to the end... And it wasn't long before my belly hurt from all the deep mu-ing, and my legs ached from being sat cross-legged. But I knew the only thing to do was to remain present with how things felt in that moment. In the present moment, nothing is ever a problem – problems only come when you want things to be different. So for me, this practice became very much one of remaining in the moment. I did my best to transform those negative thoughts into "right now I'm breathing in; right now I'm making the sound of mu; right now I'm sitting; right now I'm walking; etc. It became one of the most valuable lessons in mindfulness I've ever experienced.

All this mu-ing also had the effect of generating a great deal of energy in my system. As I've already mentioned, a strong sense of solidity in the belly (hara), tingling in the feet, legs, hands, and up the spine, energy currents flowing through the body, and a deep feeling of grounding (despite the upward rising energy), all slowly built and strengthened as we moved through the 24hrs.

I have to admit the last few hours were very difficult, and became an exercise in simply sticking it out. But we made it!

For the 3-4 days after the mu retreat, I felt like I was plugged in to the national grid. A source of energy was moving in my body way beyond what I normally experience. I was physically tired, a little droopy in the eyes, and my body ached, but I was drawing on this extra source of energy. It made me feel light and nimble, ready to go, and very connected to the world around. Even now, more than 2 weeks later, I feel more connected and more in touch with my energy body than I have ever felt.

Buy the DVD (or download the video) and try it out for yourself! Highly recommended (24hrs in a dark storehouse not necessary!!).

Watch this video interview with myself and Ed about our experiences: