The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [567]
137 MA says that in this context, “bhikkhu” is a term indicating a person who earnestly endeavours to accomplish the practice of the teaching: “Whoever undertakes that practice…is here comprised under the term ‘bhikkhu.’”
138 The repetition in the phrase “contemplating the body as a body” (kāye kāyānupassı̄), according to MA, has the purpose of precisely determining the object of contemplation and of isolating that object from others with which it might be confused. Thus, in this practice, the body should be contemplated as such, and not one’s feelings, ideas, and emotions concerning it. The phrase also means that the body should be contemplated simply as a body and not as a man, a woman, a self, or a living being. Similar considerations apply to the repetitions in the case of each of the other three foundations of mindfulness. “Covetousness and grief,” MA says, stands for sensual desire and ill will, the principal hindrances that must be overcome for the practice to succeed, enumerated separately below in §36.
139 The structure of this sutta is fairly simple. Following the preamble, the body of the discourse falls into four parts by way of the four foundations of mindfulness:
I. Contemplation of the body, which comprises fourteen exercises: mindfulness of breathing; contemplation of the four postures; full awareness; attention to foulness; attention to the elements; and nine “charnel ground contemplations”—reflection on corpses in different stages of decomposition.
II. Contemplation of feeling, considered one exercise.
III. Contemplation of mind, also one exercise.
IV. Contemplation of mind-objects, which has five subdivisions—the five hindrances; the five aggregates; the six sense bases; the seven enlightenment factors; and the Four Noble Truths.
Thus the sutta expounds altogether twenty-one exercises in contemplation. Each exercise in turn has two aspects: the basic exercise, explained first, and a supplementary section on insight (essentially the same for all the exercises), which indicates how the contemplation is to be developed to deepen understanding of the phenomenon under investigation.
Finally the sutta concludes with a statement of assurance in which the Buddha personally vouches for the effectiveness of the method by declaring the fruits of continuous practice to be either arahantship or non-returning.
140 The practice of mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati) involves no deliberate attempt to regulate the breath, as in hatha yoga, but a sustained effort to fix awareness on the breath as it moves in and out in its natural rhythm. Mindfulness is set up at the nostrils or the upper lip, wherever the impact of the breath is felt most distinctly; the length of the breath is noted but not consciously controlled. The complete development of this meditation method is expounded in MN 118. For a collection of texts on this subject, see Bhikkhu Ñā˚amoli, Mindfulness of Breathing. See too Vsm VIII, 145–244.
141 MA explains “experiencing the whole body” (sabbakāyapaṭisaṁvedı̄ ) as signifying that the meditator becomes aware of each in-breath and out-breath through its three phases of beginning, middle, and end. In the first edition I followed this explanation and added in brackets “of breath” after “the whole body.” In retrospect, however, this interpretation seems forced, and I now prefer to take the phrase quite literally. It is also difficult to see how paṭisamivedi could mean “is aware of,” as it is based on a verb meaning “to experience.”
142 The “bodily formation” (kāyasankhāra) is defined at MN