Hi Guys.
This post quotes a previously omitted part of the satipatthana's section on respiration, delves into the philosophy and translation, and ties the text into the lived experience of this meditation.
Earlier in the thread I omitted the part of the section on respiration which reads:
Feeling the whole body, I shall breathe in." "Feeling the whole body, I shall breathe out," thus he trains himself. "With the bodily activities calmed, I shall breathe in," thus he trains himself. "With the bodily activities calmed, I shall breathe out," thus he trains himself"
I omitted this section earlier because we were talking about observing the breath and I thought "feeling the whole body" would confuse people, like, 'Am I to feel the breath or feel the whole body?'. Indeed this is breath awareness and not whole body awareness.
Textual Translations
Some scholars have translated 'whole body' to mean 'the entire body of the breath': the entire length of the in breath, the pause where it turns around, and the entire length of the out breath. Of course that is what we are doing, so it is a practical, useful interpretation, but then the verse goes goes on to say, 'with the bodily activities calmed'. Then it's pretty obvious that 'feeling the whole body' in context with 'bodily activities calmed' just refers to the physical body, and when the sutta says 'body' it literally just means body.
Why would they first say one of the mindful objects is body and use the word 'body' throughout the section on body to mean body, and then use that same word to mean 'the whole of (the breath)'? It makes no sense, so I don't buy it. Some of the great teachers say this is what it means, but as we discussed, we do not believe on authority. We believe upon logic, if it adds up, if the reason is consistent, and the 'body of breath' interpretation does
not fulfill those criteria!
Buddhist Knowledge
The completeness of knowledge is the direct experience, so the sutta should be meaningful in the experiential context, which is what this thread does, so you see it is true in yourself rather than blindly accepting what an authority says. This is your power of discernment and self-determination, and you can see very clearly that the 'body of breath' interpretation, although completely practical and useful, is
not an accurate literal translation, because contextually, it is senseless.
What are the foundations of knowledge? 1) you hear the dhamma as dogma; 2) You analyse and intellectually comprehend the dhamma and; 3) you experience it for yourself and have your own true insight.
"Body" Just Means Body
Because we are practicing, and we know the purpose of the practice and where it is going next, and we have experienced that breath awareness is making us more conscious of, and sensitive to, sensations and tensions elsewhere in the body, we can see how the word 'body' in the satipatthana literally just means the body. However, even though the 'entire body of the breath' translation makes no sense contextually, and is an obvious mistranslation, it is absolutely perfect in the useful and practical sense.
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Tying The Sutta Into Actual Meditation Experience
What we really want to do on this thread is to tie the sutta in with the lived-experience of meditation practice, because when we do that, the meaning of the sutta is more profound than its literal translation.
Of course, we are feeling the entire duration of in/out breathing. It kinda goes without saying, right? But let me talk to you about the actual experience in anapanasati so you'll see how the literal translation of 'body' just mean the body.
Just Be has already explained it experientially, but she is not a Buddhist philosopher so she doesn't care what texts say. I get into the texts, but not as a linguist, rather, as to how it reflects the real-lived-experience of meditators. Just Be has so far mentioned body sensation including something in the jaw as well as tensions in the legs. It just so happens that I have the same tensions in the legs. During my meditation training this tension would recur over and over again.
I should use the leg tension as my example in this post, because it is my own experience, and I believe it is a common experience among meditators. Your own experience might be different, but directly relatable. The meaning I discuss is universal even though the manifestations of it are individually unique.
"Feeling The Whole Body"
First I should discuss "feeling the whole body". Actually, you intend to only feel breath, but because you sit and feel the breath sensation, you are also connected to body sensation generally. Hence, when you feel breath you become more acutely sensitive to what happens elsewhere in the body. So the sutta says "
Feeling the whole body, I shall breathe in. Feeling the whole body, I shall breathe out"
This has to happen, because anapanasati uses subtle breath sensation to hone the mind's sensitivity so that you become sensitive to the whole body in preparation for the body awareness stages. Hence, in the translation Sky123 provided, it is worded,
"I will breathe in sensitive to the entire body. I will breathe out sensitive to the entire body."
"With the bodily activities calmed"
Next is calming bodily activities. The 'body of breath' interpretation says you calm down your breathing - perfectly practical - but because the word 'body' simply means body, '
With the bodily activities calmed' only means calming the body. Relaxing. Simply that. But as Just Be described, and as it also is in my experience, tension in the legs creeps up unconsciously. In your case it might be another tension somewhere else. At some point, that tense sensation becomes strong enough to capture the attention - I notice it is tense, so I cease tensing. This means, while I am not mindful, there is tendency to unconsciously tense up my legs, but when I become mindful, I know it is tense and cease tensing. Hence
""With the bodily activities calmed, I shall breathe in. With the bodily activities calmed, I shall breathe out."
"Thus He Trains Himself"
Lastly, "Thus he trains himself". The 'body of breath' interpretation is simple, you train by feeling the entire duration of breath while calming down the breath. Useful and practical. The literal translation, 'body'=body, is extraordinarily nuanced and we'll go deep into that during the body awareness stages. For now I can say, because we generate that tension unconsciously it is not so simple as you just relax. Yes you relax, but later you notice the tension has come back unbeknownst to you. By practicing anapanasati we become conscious of that tendency, and each time we notice we have tensed it, we cease tension again. After a while we'll notice the tension sooner and relax it earlier. The time in tension will thus decrease, decrease, occur less frequently, and eventually not occur at all. "He trains thus" regards this
sort of training. In this way, the words,
"With the bodily activities calmed, I shall breathe (in and) out," thus he trains himself." apply to the actual experience and practice of anapanasati.
Conclusion
You only feel the nose/air sensation. The sensations elsewhere and tensions wherever they happen to arise will just occur to your conscious awareness. You are not moving the attention all about trying to find these tensions. You just observe the nose/air feeling.
I spoke a lot, but I have now quoted the previously omitted part of respiration according to the satipatthana sutta. There is only one more section on 'observing body in body', and there are still experiential aspects to cover as well as refinements to be made.
I hope those who are interested in the 'edgier' philosophy find what I say useful, and that meditators see how it directly pertains to their meditation experience. Acknowledgments to Just Be for explaining this from an experiential standpoint before, and to Sky123 for an alternatively worded interpretation. May the love of the universe shine upon us all and happiness fill our days.