The name and the setting
«Nhập tức, xuất tức» is the in-breath and the out-breath; «niệm» is mindful, clear attention — exactly the meaning of the Pāli name Ānāpānasati. The sutta is the 118th of the 152 discourses of the Middle Discourses. The reading page counts about 4,100 words, some 16 minutes of reading, under four headings: mindfulness of breathing, fulfilling the four foundations of mindfulness, fulfilling the seven factors of awakening, and the fulfilment of true knowledge and liberation.
The sutta opens in the Eastern Park, the mansion of Migāra's mother at Sāvatthī, where the Buddha is staying with many well-known elders such as Sāriputta, Mahāmoggallāna and Ānanda, who are busy teaching the newly ordained monks. On the full-moon Uposatha night after the Pavāraṇā, the Buddha says he is satisfied with this way of practice and will stay at Sāvatthī until the Komudī festival of the fourth month; monks from the countryside gather there. On the full-moon night of Komudī he praises the assembly as free of idle talk, then names who is present, from arahants to monks devoted to the four foundations of mindfulness, the seven factors of awakening, loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity, the perception of impermanence, and lastly mindfulness of breathing.
Sixteen steps in four groups
In the sutta's words, the monk goes to a forest, the root of a tree or an empty hut, sits cross-legged with the body upright, sets mindfulness in front of him, and breathes in mindfully, breathes out mindfully. Each step is trained with both the in-breath and the out-breath. The first group: knowing a long breath, knowing a short breath, experiencing the whole body, calming the bodily formation. The second: experiencing rapture, experiencing happiness, experiencing the mental formation, calming the mental formation.
The third group: experiencing the mind, breathing with a gladdened mind, with a concentrated mind, with a liberated mind. The fourth: contemplating impermanence, the fading of desire, cessation and relinquishment. The first two steps simply know the breath as it is happening; from the third step on the text says «he trains», so these are things trained step by step.
From the breath to the four foundations, the seven factors and liberation
The second half of the sutta answers three linked questions. First, how the sixteen steps fulfil the four foundations of mindfulness: the first four are contemplation of the body, since breathing is one of the bodies; the next four, contemplation of feelings; the third four, contemplation of the mind, since mindfulness of breathing cannot be found in someone muddled; the last four, contemplation of phenomena, as the practitioner sees with wisdom the abandoning of covetousness and grief and looks on with equanimity.
Second, how the four foundations fulfil the seven factors of awakening, each arising from the one before: mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture not of the flesh, tranquillity of body and mind, concentration, and then equanimity. Third, the seven factors, developed in dependence on seclusion, dispassion and cessation and ripening in relinquishment, fulfil true knowledge and liberation. The sutta closes as the monks delight in the Buddha's words.
Reading the sutta and practising gently at home
On the sutta's page you can read the Vietnamese text, the English translation (tab «English»), or both side by side (tab «Cả 2»). The sutta is long and repetitive, so you may read one heading at a time; the «Chant» button keeps the screen on and scrolls the text as you read aloud. The library has no recording (MP3), no Pāli chanting text and no commentary (Aṭṭhakathā) on this sutta yet; for deeper study, see the Treatise on Breathing below.
If you want to practise along with the sutta, begin with the first two steps: sit upright yet relaxed, breathe naturally and simply know whether the breath is long or short. The sutta teaches knowing the breath, not forcing it: do not hold the breath, do not try to lengthen or deepen it. If you feel dizzy, your heart races or you feel uneasy, stop and rest. This is a training of the mind, not a medical method.
