How Mindfulness of Breathing Leads to Awakening

In the book Selves & Not-self: The Buddhist Teaching on Anatta by Thanissaro Bhikkh, there is an explanation of how a meditation technique called anapanasatti (mindfulness of breathing) leads to stream-entry - the first stage of awakening.

The explanation involves the Buddha's teaching on the First Noble Truth: that clinging leads to suffering, and the clinging is to the five aggregates.

In Selves & Not-self, Thanissaro says:

"In his [Buddha's] first noble truth, he identifies suffering as the five clinging aggregates."

In the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta translated by Thanissaro, it says:

Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:[1] Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

And it is the five aggregates from which we build our sense of self.

In Selves & Not-self Thanissaro writes:

As we will see later, he explains the five aggregates as the raw material from which you create your sense of self, but that it’s not skillful to think that they constitute what you are.

When one practices anapanasatti, the steps of gladdening the mind, calming the mind etc result in letting go. You are not attached or clinging if you are relaxed and happy. If you feel good, you are not suffering (ie you are not clinging to the aggregates).

In the Dipa Sutta translated by Thanissaro, it says:

{5} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to rapture.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to rapture.' {6} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to pleasure.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to pleasure.' {7} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to mental fabrication.'[4] He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to mental fabrication.' {8} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming mental fabrication.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming mental fabrication.'

"{9} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the mind.' {10} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in gladdening the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out gladdening the mind.' {11} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in steadying the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out steadying the mind. {12} He trains himself, 'I will breathe in releasing the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out releasing the mind.

In Selves & Not-self, Thanissaro writes:

To wean the mind off its usual habit of feeding on sensuality, we have to train it to enjoy the genuine health food provided by the other means of skillful clinging. This is one of the main reasons why we have to feed it with concentration. The pleasure and rapture of jhana help provide the sense of well-being we need in the here and now to be willing to change our diet [§§21-22].

Thanissaro clarifies what he means by jhana in The Path of Concentration & Mindfulness.

Many of us have heard that jhana is a very intense trance-like state that requires intense staring and shutting out the rest of the world. It sounds nothing like mindfulness at all. But if you look in the Canon where the Buddha describes jhana, that's not the kind of state he's talking about. To be in jhana is to be absorbed, very pleasurably, in the sense of the whole body altogether. A very broad sense of awareness fills the entire body.

As you let go of clinging to the aggregates, the same aggregates that you build your sense of self from, you become freed from identity view.

Thanissaro has written a book on meditation: With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation

My web page on meditation also includes a suitable technique.

Some people may find it hard to practice the jhana's, in that case, according to Bhante Vimalaramsi, metta meditation will work too: On Bhante Vimalaramsi's web site it says:

Happiness arises as the burden of the ego melts away. Bhante talks about the benefits of using Metta here vs. the breath. Metta is much faster and easier for the path to awakening. Metta is not just a "feel-good" practice; it is the direct path to the unconditioned (SN 46.54(4)).

In Selves & Not-self, Thanissaro also discusses the sense of self. He says our idea of self is constantly changing. We might think of ourself in one moment as a child of someone, in another moment as a parent of someone else, at some other time as an employee and later a supervisor, etc etc. What we consider ourself also defines what we consider not-self. Since we are constantly changing these two things, we should learn which forms are beneficial and which are not.

Thanissaro writes:

So, to repeat, the issue is not, “What is my true self?” but “What kind of perception of self is skillful and when is it skillful, what kind of perception of not-self is skillful and when is it skillful?

We already engage in these perceptions all of the time and have been doing so ever since we were children. We have many different perceptions of self. Each sense of self is strategic, a means to an end. Each comes with a boundary, inside of which is “self” and outside of which is “not-self.” And so our sense of what’s self and what’s not-self keeps changing all of the time depending on our desires and what we see will lead to true happiness.

Take an example from your childhood. Suppose you have a younger sister, and someone down the street is threatening her. You want to protect her. At that moment she is very much your sister. She belongs to you, so you will do whatever you can to protect her. Then suppose that, when you’ve brought her home safely, she begins to play with your toy car and won’t give it back to you. Now she’s no longer your sister. She’s the Other. Your sense of your self, and of what is yours and not yours, has shifted. The boundary line between self and not-self has changed.

You’ve been doing this sort of thing—changing the boundaries of what’s self and not-self—all of the time. Think back on your life—or even for just a day—to see the many times your sense of self has changed from one role to another.

We can adopt some ideas of self that are beneficial and lead to happiness and reject others that are not beneficial as not-self. It is this sense of not-self that "anatta" referrs to.

Thanissaro explains this:

... the most skillful form of self-identity you can take along the path—the self that takes pride in always being willing to learn from its actions.

...

We also need to develop a healthy sense of self, which is self-reliant, responsible, and heedful. So we need to feed in these three ways. As for clinging to sensuality: This is the one type of clinging that has no role on the path, but we do require external conditions conducive to training the mind. We need a certain amount of sensory pleasure provided by food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and the pleasures of a peaceful, quiet place to meditate. We’re advised not to obsess over these things, but if we haven’t yet gotten to the point where we can maintain our mental center everywhere, we have to hold to the principle of searching out surroundings conducive for the practice whenever we can.

Thanissaro also points out that the Buddha, when directly asked, refused to say if there is a self or not. This occurs in the Ananda Sutta.

Then the wanderer Vacchagotta went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, exchanged courteous greetings with him. After an exchange of friendly greetings & courtesies, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there he asked the Blessed One: "Now then, Venerable Gotama, is there a self?"

When this was said, the Blessed One was silent.

"Then is there no self?"

A second time, the Blessed One was silent.

Then Vacchagotta the wanderer got up from his seat and left.

Thanassaro also says the sense of self is "an activity, a process."

The important point to notice as we connect these talks with our meditation is that we can view our sense of self as an activity, a process. It’s something we do, and something we can learn to do more skillfully. At the same time we’ll look at our sense of what’s not-self—which is also an activity —and learn how to do that more skillfully, too.

When we learn to do this in the proper way, we’ll arrive at true happiness, free from any suffering and stress. At that point, questions of self and not-self will be put aside. When you arrive at true happiness, you no longer need strategies to protect it—the way you do for forms of happiness that are subject to change—because it’s unconditioned. It doesn’t depend on anything at all. The strategy of self is no longer needed, and neither is the strategy of not-self. As Ajaan Suwat, one of my teachers, once said, when you find true happiness, you don’t ask who’s experiencing it, for that’s not an issue. The experience itself is sufficient. It doesn’t need anybody to watch over it. But to reach that point we have to learn how to develop our skill in employing both the strategies of self and the strategies of not-self.

Thanissaro also explains how full awakening occurs

First you master the state of jhana. Then you try to develop perceptions that give rise to a sense of dispassion for the jhana. Once you’ve developed that sense of dispassion, you develop the perception in which you see all-around dispassion and cessation as desirable. Then you learn how to drop even that perception and stay right there. That, the Buddha says, is where full awakening can occur.

Part II

The path to awakening with anapanasatti works by producing the seven factors of awakening.

Mindfulness->Analysis->Persistence->Joy->Tranquility->Concentration->Equanimity->Awakening.

This series of steps is more like a pipeline than a sequential series of attainments. You start experiencing improvements in subsequent factors as soon as you begin to make improvements in preceding factors. You can measure your progress by observing the development of the factors of awakening within yourself. This is consistent with my views on gradual awakening.

Another way of monitoring your progress involves the stages of awakening which are defined by freedom from the fetters. Anybody can monitor their own progress through observing their own increasing freedom from the fetters over time. 

Thanissaro describes what stream-entery is like in his book Into the Stream. The excerpt below is from the table of contents. The first part is how to attain stream entry. The second part is what it is like to be a stream-enterer. There is much more to it than meditating and realizing anatta. It includes virtue. If you don't have virtue you are not awakened. All those highly rated "arhats" who were exposed in sex scandals (described in part here and here) may have had innumerable realizations and "enlightenment" experiences, but they would not even be considered stream-enterers by this reckoning.

Part I: The Way to Stream Entry

1. Association with People of Integrity
2. Listening to the True Dhamma
3. Appropriate Attention
4. Practice in Accordance with the Dhamma
5. Mindfulness & Alertness
6. Restraint of the Senses
7. The Three Forms of Right Conduct
8. The Four Establishings of Mindfulness
9. The Seven Factors for Awakening
10. Clear Knowing & Release

Part II: Stream Entry & its Results

1. The Arising of the Dhamma Eye
2. The Three Fetters
3. The Character of a Stream-winner
4. Rewards
5. Advice

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