[JohnMitchel]

...but the 'breath body' is not given pride of place (your "within the context of breathing as a 'body'") in step 3...

hi Dave

naturally, we have already disagreed (wholeheartedly) here

...In other words, in step 3 any remaining physical impacts are integrated into what was awareness of only the breath in steps 1 & 2.

again, we have disagreed here, already

as i suggested, Step 3 is experiencing the spiritual cause & effect relationship between the breath & the physical body

to feel a pain in your knee or foot has no connection whatsoever to Step 3 of Anapanasati

This integrative step is what allows step 4 to be enacted.

step 4 is calming the breathing, which occurs as a natural result of watchfulness, non-attachment &/or concentration

a practitioner generally experiences step 4 before step 3

step 3 is not required for step 4

step 4 is the last step experienced in the tetrad because is the causal condition for the arising of step 5

thus, naturally, it is listed last in the tetrad

however, step 3 is there as an indicator of whether samadhi has been refined/purified so it has the quality of clarity & discernment

as i said, a new meditator will generally experience the calming of the breathing due to merely watching it before they experience any more profound experiences such as step 3

even young children are taught at school to watch their breathing so they learn to calm down

The depth of experienced insight, as described, is tremendous; since samatha and vipassana here occur in tandem, I rather think this is to be expected in connection with Tetrad IV, and not step 3 in Tetrad I.

step 3 is primarily vipassana, i.e., experiencing a cause & effect relationship between the body & breath, and also its impermanence & not-self

the arising of step 3 indicates the mind has clarity (rather than fuzziness)

step 4 is primarily samatha, calm the breathing via letting go & mere watchfulness

I do not think there is any support for this. The demarcation between "he knows" and "he trains" appears to me simply to be an indicator of the difference between a relatively passive awareness of the breath (1 & 2) and a more active application of the mind (3+).

this is not the case in the theory. the words "He trains himself" have deep meaning

the one that "trains himself" establishes samadhi with letting go (vosagga) as the sole object. thus, the 4NTs (right view) is fully engaged and active (see: SN 48.10 & 48.9 about concentration)

I think the whole of anapanasati (sammasati) is preparation for samma-samadhi (jhana).

again, i must disagree here. the last tetrad of Anapanasati is 100% vipassana

kind regards

Element