..续本文上一页t his nostril as it passes through his nose.” A short-nosed man however, feels it on his upper lip. This is a strange bit of business if one thinks about it, because even if one is a “short-nosed man” one can only feel the exhalation of warm air out the nostrils onto the upper lip. We are now missing the entire in-breath. So it seems we have another puzzle.

　　If we look back to the original sutta at the word “mukha”, it literally and sensibly means “entrance” or “mouth.” If we give it this obvious meaning we have: “He fixes his attention at the “entrance””, the entrance being either the nose or the mouth. The early commentators are assuming the reader realizes that the meditator may be breathing either through his mouth or his nose. If he is breathing through his mouth he should direct his attention to air contact at the lip. It is very sensible advice really, for it would be a shame to have to give up breath meditation just because one has a cold or a plugged nose or even more important, near death one may be only able to breathe through the mouth. Surely we should not give-up at that point! So we see what began as a straightforward location of breath contact at the nose or mouth, i.e. “the entrance”, slowly take on the perplexing addition of a “long-nosed and a short-nosed man.”

　　The first interpretation (i.e. “setting mindfulness before him”), of course, is true in general since the point of the exercise is enlightenment. However, that leaves us none the wiser when we ask “What exactly should we pay attention to

　　” The debate over the meaning of this phrase came about at a very early time, and in fact all three commentaries have opted for mukha as nose or mouth. This is a quote from the original note in the Patisambhidamagga:

　　“Has the sense of embracing” is in the sense of being embraced. What is embraced

　　 The outlet. What outlet

　　 Concentration based on mindfulness of breathing is itself the outlet, right up to the arahant path. Hence “has the sense of outlet” is said. The meaning of “outlet from the round of rebirths” is expressed by the meaning of the word mukha (mouth) as foremost (front). “Has the sense of establishing” is in the sense of inpidual essence. The meaning expressed by all these words is: Having made mindfulness an embraced outlet.

　　[Continuing on, from other teachers we have a straightforward and helpful bit of technical advice -- surely the proper meaning]: But some say that “has the sense of embracing” stands for “embracing as the meaning of mindfulness”, and that “has the sense of outlet” stands for “door of entry and exit as the meaning of in-breaths and out-breaths”. Then what is meant is: Having established mindfulness as the embraced outlet of the in-breaths and out-breaths.” (Note 14, Engl. Ed.; PsA 350-1)

　　Some modern teachers have suggested that it doesn”t matter where the breath contact is located, probably in response to the phrase which occurs later on in the sutta: “Experiencing the whole body, he breathes in...”, etc. And since the whole body of the breath is not explicitly stated, they feel there is room for interpretation. But the breath as a “whole body” is explicitly mentioned in the Anapanasati Sutta, though not in the Satipatthana Sutta the phrase means the same: “I say, monks, that of bodies this is one, that is to say breathing-in and breathing-out” (Majjhima Nikaya, PTS edition, III.83, p.125; the footnote states that “...breathing is a body because it is included in the field of touch”). As well there is an explicit location of “the entrance” in the sutta, which the three commentaries agree on, whatever the later confusion over nose and mouth may have been. It also overlooks the simile which immediately follows the explicit location, i.e., “As a turner or his apprentice, while mak…

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