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How to Practice Anapanasati Meditation
Anapanasati meditation is the practice of mindful observance of one's breath. Breath awareness allows one to be anchored in the present moment and prevent thoughts about the past and future from rising. Thoughts about the past and future could generate happiness or sadness, desire or aversion, which is ultimtely the source of our suffering. The practice of anapanasati is a tool to free oneself from suffering generated by un-controlled thoughts. In practice, the practitioner is expected to ignore all thoughts that distract one from focus on the breath, simply observing as the thoughts rise and allowing them to dispassionately whither away. The practice of anapanasati will enable you to feel more in control of your life and train your mind not to generate unnecessary or distracting thoughts. This sounds like it generates a potentially robotic mindset, but actually it is quite the opposite. When freed from unnecessary and judgment clouding thoughts, one is able to act more spontaneously and creatively in each moment of their lives.
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
Time, Concentration, An Open Mind
Step 1
Dress in loose clothing and seat yourself comfortably in a quiet, isolated room. Keep your entire spine as straight as possible, but without rigidity and tension. To alleviate thoughts about time or fears of falling asleep, it might be helpful to set an alarm for the time you wish to meditate.
Step 2
Close your eyes and allow your body to relax as you breath.
Step 3
Breathing only through your nose, begin to focus on the sensations of your breath. The heat as it enters your nostrils and goes down into your lungs. The coolness as it travels back out. Whatever other sensations you observe. But when you feel these sensations, have no reaction to them. Just observe them passively, equanimously, however gross or pleasant you find them to be. Understand and accept that inevitably, all sensation shall pass.
Step 4
Allow your focus to fall on a particular area of sensation. Perhaps just above your lip. Perhaps just inside the nose.
Step 5
Focus on this one area of sensation, and focus the area smaller, smaller, smaller, paying attention to nothing else, trying to get your area of focus down to a single cell. Observe the sensations in this one area equanimously, allowing no reaction to distract you from concentration.
Step 6
Ideally, you will choose to expand this practice into Vipassana meditation, discussed in a separate article, but the practice of anapanasati offers benefits on its own.