[Marinausa]

Hello Dave

Anapanasati describes the fruition of stream entry, which is why modern Buddhism focuses on the Satipatthana Sutta. Not many Buddhists actually understand the Anapanasati Sutta. If we have an interest in Anapanasati, I can only recommend the explanations by Ajahn Buddhadasa.

However, for a short explanation:

(1) the sixteen stages of Anapanasati can be practised on the level of neighbourhood concentration. (However if this is completed, one "starts again" on the level of jhana (attainment) concentration.)

(2) the translation above is incorrect. Stage 3 is "experiencing all (sabba) bodies (kaya)", meaning, experiencing the breath & body together & their interrelationship. When stage 3 is experienced, it is undertood the breath is the body fabricator/conditioner (kaya sankhara). Stage four is calming the body fabricator (kaya sankhara), namely, the breath. Stages 7 and 8 are experiencing and calming the mind fabricator/conditioner (citta sankhara), namely, the feelings of rapture and happiness.

So the sixteen stages are:

(1) experiencing long breathing;

(2) experiencing short breathing;

(3) experiencing how the different kinds of (long & short) breathing affect (condition) the physical body;

(4) experiencing the calming of the breathing as a result of dwelling with a non-attached mind, ;

(5) when the breath calms so the mind converges naturally at the nose tip, rapture arises;

(6) when rapture calms, happiness appears;

(7) experiencing the mind conditioner (citta sankhara), that is, understanding the difference between how rapture affects the mind as opposed to how hapiness effects the mind, the same as in stage three, when the mind understood how different kinds of breathing affect the body in different ways;

( 8 ) calming rapture & happiness;

(9) when rapture & happiness are calmed, there will remain/appear underlying defilements of the mind, in the form of lust, anger, confusion, etc. These pure non-verbal defilements (that is, not thoughts) are experienced;

(10) when the defilements cease or calm, the mind becomes glad or happy. This degree of happiness is more subtle than in stages 5 and 6;

(11) when the gladness ceases, the mind converges into one-pointedness again, with one-pointedness as is object;

(12) the mind liberates itself from the one-pointedness, just in the same way, thru mere non-attached awareness, the mind has calmed the breathing, calmed the feelings, calmed the defilements and calmed the gladness. Now, the mind liberates itself from the one-pointed concentration so it is pure, bright, clear and, most of all, open.

(13) as the mind has been made pure in stage 12, whatever is experienced is experienced as mere impermanence. Previously, the mind saw "objects" such as "the breath" were impermanent. The breath was the predominant object. But now impermanence becomes the predominant object rather than, say, the breath. As the mind is so pure, each arising & passing of consciousness (with whatever object) with each arising & passing of each in breath & out breath is experienced as impermanence;

(14) the pervasive seeing of impermance results in attachment fading away; in dispassion (viraga); and

(15) the quenching of suffering (nirodha) and

(16) relinquishment; to not regard anything as "I" or "mine".

With metta