..续本文上一页in-and-out breathing (anapanasati) is one of the most important among the subjects or working grounds for meditation recommended by the Buddha. It is also one of the most popular meditation methods used by past and present generations of Theravada Buddhist practitioners seeking to complete the noble path of deliverance. The method is described in a number of suttas belonging to the Pali Canon (e.g., M 118, M 10, D 22). However, the suttas are quite concise, and at times sparse, in their treatment of meditation methods. Hence, one finds post-canonical exegetical works having as their main purpose the comment, explanation, complement, or clarification of texts that may be deemed abstruse or lacking information within the Canon.

　　Concerning the subject of breathing meditation, three such commentarial works, the Visuddhimagga (Vis., 500 AC, 1st Engl. ed. 1956), the Vimuttimagga (Vim., 100 AC

　　, 1st.Engl.ed. 1961) and the Patisambhidamagga (Pat., 300 BC

　　, 1st.Engl.ed. 1982) are at present available in English translation. Both teachers and students use them widely as valuable references for clarifying key aspects of the practice. Traditionally, the Visuddhimagga, the latest work of the three, has been used and considered perhaps the most authoritative standard to be followed as a manual of meditation.

　　On the subject of the sign (nimitta) and counter-part sign (patibhaganimitta), which arise during breath meditation, there are significant discrepancies between the descriptions found in the Visuddhimagga and Vimuttimagga. Diverse written works by modern teachers mention the characteristics of sign and counter-part sign appearing during breath meditation. Often these descriptions take the classic simile description found in the Visuddhimagga, perhaps as a cautious attempt at not straying from orthodoxy. However, as we show below, this description of the sign (learning or counter-part) may turn out to be quite misleading and, as often expressed by frustrated meditators, unclear.

　　In the Visuddhimagga description of mindfulness of breathing (Vis.213-215, p.277), para.213 one reads:

　　...So too, the bhikkhu should not look for the in-breaths and out-breaths anywhere else than the place normally touched by them. And he should take the rope of mindfulness and the goad of understanding, and fixing his mind on the place normally touched by them, he should go on giving his attention to that. For as he gives his attention in this way they reappear after no long time, as the oxen did at the drinking place where they met. So he can secure them with the rope of mindfulness, and yoking them in that same place and prodding them with the goad of understanding, he can keep on applying himself to the meditation subject.

　　214. When he does so in this way, the sign [see corresponding note, next paragraph] soon appears to him. But it is not the same for all; on the contrary, some say that when it appears it does so to certain people producing a light touch like cotton or silk cotton or a draught.

　　215. But this is the exposition given in the commentaries: It appears to some like a star or a cluster of gems or a cluster of pearls, to others with a rough touch like that of silk- cotton seeds or a peg made of heartwood, to others like a long braid string or a wreath of flowers or a puff of smoke, to others like a stretched-out cobweb or a film of cloud or a lotus flower or a chariot wheel or the moon”s disk or the sun”s disk. [Underlining mine].

　　A note taken from a commentary to the Visuddhimagga reads: “The sign” is the learning sign and the counterpart sign, for both are stated here together. Herein, the three similes beginning with cotton are properly the learning sign, the rest are both. “Some” are certain teachers. The similes beginning with t…

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