Wings to Awakening
When you keep the breath in mind, you get all four frames of reference in one. The breath is "body," feelings lie in the body, the mind lies in the body, mental qualities lie in the mind.
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The four frames of reference when we sit in meditation: The breath is "body," comfort and discomfort are "feeling," purity and clarity are states of "mind," and steadiness of mind is "mental quality."
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When practicing concentration, we have to imbue it with the four paths to success.
Chanda (desire): Have a friendly interest in the breath, keeping track of it to see, when we breathe in, what we breathe in with it. If we don”t breathe out, we”ll have to die. If we breathe out but don”t breathe back in, we”ll have to die as well. We keep focused on this, without focusing the mind on anything else.
Viriya (persistence): Be diligent in all affairs related to the breath. You have to be intent that "Now I”m going to breathe in, now I”m going to breathe out; I”m going to make it long, short, heavy, light, cool, warm, etc." You have to be in charge of the breath.
Citta (attention): Focus intently on the breath. Be observant of how the external breath comes in and connects with the internal breath in the upper, middle, and lower parts of the body; in the chest — the lungs, the heart, the ribs, the backbone; in the abdomen — stomach, liver, kidneys, intestines; the breath that goes out the ends of the fingers and toes and out every pore.
Vimansa (discrimination): Contemplate and evaluate the breath that comes in to nourish the body to see whether it fills the body, to see whether it feels easy and natural, to see if there are any parts where you still have to adjust it. Notice the characteristics of how the external breath strikes the internal breath, to see if they connect everywhere or not, to see how the effects of the breath on the properties of earth, water, and fire arise, remain, and pass away.
All of this comes under meditation on physical events, and qualifies as the great frame of reference (mahasatipatthana) as well. When the mind has fully developed the four paths to success, complete with mindfulness and alertness, the results in terms of the body are the stilling of pain. In terms of the mind, they can lead all the way to the transcendent: the stages of stream-entry, once-returning, nonreturning, and arahantship.
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If you really develop concentration, it will result in the five kinds of strength: (1) conviction; when you gain conviction in the results you see coming from your efforts, then (2) persistence arises without anyone having to force you. From there, (3) mindfulness becomes more comprehensive in what you are doing, (4) concentration becomes firmly established in what you are doing, giving rise to (5) discernment of all things right and wrong. Altogether these are called the five strengths.
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Tranquillity meditation (samatha) is a mind snug in a single preoccupation. It doesn”t establish contact with anything else; it keeps itself cleansed of outside preoccupations. Insight meditation (vipassana) is when the mind lets go of all preoccupations in a state of all-around mindfulness and alertness. When tranquillity imbued with insight arises in the mind, five faculties arise and become dominant all at once: (1) Saddhindriya: Your conviction becomes solid and strong. Whatever anyone else may say, good or bad, your mind isn”t affected. (2) Viriyindriya: Your persistence becomes resilient. Whether anyone teaches you the path or not, you keep at it constantly without flagging or getting discouraged. (3) Satindriya: Mindfulness becomes dominant, enlarged in the great frame of reference. You don”t have to force it. It spreads all over the body, in the same way that the branches of a large tree protect t…
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