Watching the Breath
I have set forth the Dhamma without making any distinction of esoteric and exoteric doctrine; there is nothing, Ananda, with regard to the teachings that the Tathagata holds to the last with the closed fist of a teacher who keeps some things back.
Maha-parinibbana Sutta: Last Days of the Buddha
Digha Nikaya 16
I have a student that has been studying with lay teacher who specializes in tonglen, a Tibetan style of practice. The teacher, a younger Caucasian man seems to know his stuff, but we have some disagreements. They may be cultural. My back ground is in Classical Buddhism as taught in Asia. His is Western as taught in America. One of the areas where we find some disagreement is what the Buddha might have meant regarding breath meditation. Another is how a lay person ought to practice.
A method of meditation that the younger man teaches is called “long breath, short breath.” I’ve only seen this method taught in context of yoga practice, primarily hatha yoga. The young man insists that it was taught by the Buddha.
If you want, you can experiment with different kinds of breathing. If long breathing feels comfortable, stick with it. If it doesn't, change it to whatever rhythm feels soothing to the body. You can try short breathing, fast breathing, slow breathing, deep breathing, shallow breathing — whatever feels most comfortable to you right now.
Once you have the breath comfortable at your chosen spot, move your attention to notice how the breathing feels in other parts of the body. Start by focusing on the area just below your navel. Breathe in and out, and notice how that area feels. If you don't feel any motion there, just be aware that there's no motion. If you do feel motion, notice the quality of the motion, to see if the breathing feels uneven there, or if there's any tension or tightness. If there's tension, think of relaxing it. If the breathing feels rough or uneven, think of smoothing it out. Now move your attention over to the right of that spot — to the lower right-hand corner of the abdomen — and repeat the same process... Then over to the lower left-hand corner of the abdomen. Then up to the navel; right & left; to the solar plexus; right & left; the middle of the chest, right & left; to the base of the throat, right & left, to the middle of the head taking several minutes for each spot.
Here is where the short breath, long breath may have come from in Buddhism. It is a mistaken interpretation from one of the original Suttas (Pali, Sanskrit Sutra). It is Majjhima Nikaya 118 but also found in the Mahayana Agamas, specifically the Ekottarika Āgama, 17.1. Ānāpānasmṛti. It is clear that one does not deliberately take long or short breaths. He is only aware that they are only long or short. In the Agama version it is even more clearly stated that the “insight” to be gained is that the breath comes from the mind. The breath is a natural breath not one that contrived or mechanically forced to be either short or long. That comes from a practice of yoga called pranayama.
Deliberately altering your breath is the realm of pranayama yoga. It is found in the Bhagavadad 4.29. The word pranayama is a combination of “breath” + “soul.” It found its way into Tibetan practice possibly through Padmasambhava in the 7th century CE. He seems to have been more interested in yoga than in Buddhism introducing many Hindu yogic beliefs into Buddhist practice. It was Patañjali (2nd century CE) was the Hindu yogi that first systematize the practice. Breath awareness is a Buddhist practice, breath control is a yogic. There is nothing wrong with yoga, but one should be clear about what practice he is doing. Arbitrarily assigning a practice to either the Buddha or some yogi is unfair to both practices.
Further breath meditation comes under the heading of samatha meditation. It is translated as “tranquility” but literally means, “coming to harmony” or sama may also means “pacification.” (Sanskrit, shamata). Breath meditation is not about insight but about reaching tranquility. Contemporary meditation teachers often link samatha with vipassana (translated as “insight”; Sanskrit vipashyana). Vipassana is the “insight” part of meditation; insight, which enables one to see, explore and discern "formations" (conditioned phenomena based on the five aggregates). It refers to insights into the three characteristics (also called, “seals) of the universe: All that exists in the universe is subject to three characteristics:
- anicca. Everything is limited to a certain duration and, consequently, liable to disappear. (Changeable)
- dukkha. Everything is unsatisfactory. There is nothing that can be relied upon, there is nothing that can bring true happiness. (Stressful)
- anatta. Everything is deprived of a self. There is no self-inherent entity, nothing that can be controlled. (Void of inherent and autonomous self-existence; “empty” in Mahayana terms).
When [the Pāli suttas] depict the Buddha telling his disciples to go meditate, they never quote him as saying 'go do vipassana,' but always 'go do jhana.' And they never equate the word "vipassana" with any mindfulness techniques. In the few instances where they do mention vipassana, they almost always pair it with samatha — not as two alternative methods, but as two qualities of mind that a person may 'gain' or 'be endowed with,' and that should be developed together.
“One Tool Among Many, The Place of Vipassana in Buddhist Practice”
Thanissaro Bhikkhu © 1997
Similarly, Ajahn Brahm writes,
Some traditions speak of two types of meditation, insight meditation (vipassana) and calm meditation (samatha). In fact the two are indivisible facets of the same process. Calm is the peaceful happiness born of meditation; insight is the clear understanding born of the same meditation. Calm leads to insight and insight leads to calm."
Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond. Wisdom Publications, Inc. p. 25.
In your case, being aware that you prefer the long breath during meditation is not an insight. It is simply being “self aware.” So when your teacher calls that self-awareness an insight, he is mistaken. For the Buddha, insight vipassana, has a very specific meaning. Every profession, even Buddhism, has its own vocabulary. Applying modern English definitions to Buddhist terms is almost always a mistake that can take you down many a rabbit hole and away from the goal, nibbana. Your current teacher sounds well-meaning and somewhat trained in tonglen, but examine what he says very carefully, just as you examine what I say. Take the tonglen teachings with a grain of salt. The slogans are easily misinterpreted by lay people who have not had monastic or deeper training. They are not meant to be taken superficial but are incredibly deep approaching many levels of practice.
Here is what the Buddha had to say about breath and meditation. He talks about it in sets of four.
The First Set of Four
With the first set of four explanations The Buddha explains:
[1] If he [the meditator] breathes in long, he understands:
'I breathe in long.'
If he breathes out long, he understands:
'I breathe out long.'
[2] If he breathes in short, he understands:
'I breathe in short.'
If he breathes out short, he understands:
'I breathe out short.'
[3] 'I shall breathe in experiencing the whole [breath] body':
thus he trains.
'I shall breathe out experiencing the whole [breath] body':
thus he trains.
[4] 'I shall breathe in tranquilizing the body-formation':
thus he trains.
'I shall breathe out tranquilizing the body-formation':
thus he trains.
Here, mindfulness of breathing fulfills body-contemplation (kayanupassana), the first foundation of mindfulness. Here, the Buddha explains it for attainment of the four ànàpànassati, which is samatha (tranquility) meditation.
Practicing Samatha
The Buddha said the bhikkhu breathes in and out understanding that his breath is long or short. As one's mindfulness of breathing develops, this comes naturally: one comes naturally to understand that one's breath is sometimes long, sometimes short. It is not important whether it is long or short; what is important is that one is calmly aware that it is either long or short. The sutta does not say take a short breath and then a long breath. Why would this instruction be absent? Because it is a mechanical and forced method of breathing. The Buddha was very much into observing what is natural to us.
Then The Buddha said the bhikkhu breathes in and out experiencing the whole body. By the whole body (sabbakaya), The Buddha means the whole body of breath. This understanding also comes naturally. As one's mindfulness of breathing develops further, one becomes naturally aware of the beginning, middle, and end of each in-breath and each out-breath as it passes by the nostrils or at the upper lip. Here again, it is not important whether one's breath is long or short; what is important is that one all the time knows the whole body of each in and out breath: that one knows the whole body of breath from beginning to middle to end.
Lastly, The Buddha said the bhikkhu breathes in and out “tranquilizing” the bodily formation. By the bodily formation (kayasankhara — “body of aggregates”), The Buddha means the breath passing in and out through the nose.
Tranquilizing the breath also comes naturally, because as one's mindfulness of breathing develops, one's breath becomes more and more subtle, more and more tranquil. So, all one does is to try all the time mindfully to comprehend the subtle breath.
If one is able in that way to be aware of the subtle breath for a long time, say for two or three hours, one's concentration will become even deeper than before. Eventually, one may experience the nimitta (sign of concentration).
But that comes later.
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