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Mindfulness of Breathing (59) Observation and Insight

We continue with this series of talks on the 16 steps of mindfulness of breathing, and we're now coming into the last tetrad, which is a tetrad on observation. The last tetrad comprises the final steps: 13, 14, 15, and 16. All four steps have in common the introduction of a new verb, and that is the verb to observe.

It goes something like this: "One trains to observe X," or "One trains observing X when one breathes in, one trains observing X when one breathes out."

In these last four steps, there's something we're observing while we continue with the breathing. There's something about the continuity of mindfulness of breathing which allows us to observe things without latching on to them, helping us not to cling or hold on. There's a way in which, by staying with the breathing, there is a continual letting go. The breathing is where the mind is resting. We notice all kinds of things happen, but in a certain way we're letting go of our involvement. We are letting go of any prioritization, of doing anything with it, of changing it, or thinking about it. We're just going along with the breathing, going back to the breath, being with the breath.

It is a way of keeping ourselves soft, fluid, and relaxed. It is a letting go and allowing the psychophysical system to have a break from our active involvement, our active, deliberate engagement, doing, and wanting. We are letting something deeper happen that can only happen if we get out of the way.

In these last four steps, this is represented very strongly by the verb to observe, the idea of observing. It's the first time in the Anapanasati^[1] discourse—these 16 steps—where observing comes into play.

If you read through the teachings of the Buddha and the suttas^[2], we see that most commonly, observing is a very well-developed practice when the mind is able to be really centered in the present, concentrated. A strongly concentrated, present mind is the one that begins doing this practice. So there's a lot of preparation in the 16 steps. The first 12 steps are preparing ourselves for this capacity to lean back and just watch, to just observe what's happening without being involved.

Some translators translate this verb, anupassati^[3], as contemplating. Contemplating, in the way that I relate to that word, is closer to thinking, reflecting about something, or thinking about something. It suggests a more active thinking process.

Observing is actually etymologically what the word anupassati means. Anu-, the prefix, means towards something, and passati means to see, seeing. Put them together, and we're gazing onto something, seeing, or looking towards something, in a sense. Because of this, I think observing works very well as a translation. We're observing, and there is a deliberateness in observing, but it's not quite the same as actively looking. It's just settling back and being an observer.

I liken it to being a naturalist who goes into a natural setting to observe the natural behavior of animals or birds. It's very important that the naturalist not interfere with the life there and somehow stay unrecognized by what's happening, so they watch nature unfold without interference from humans, just to observe.

Earlier in these 16 steps, it begins with breathing in: one knows one is breathing in; breathing out: one knows one is breathing out. This idea of knowing is one of the attentional faculties we have. To know as we begin, knowing the breath—and we never stop knowing the breath. We recognize the breath, we are there with the breathing.

But then, what's happening is we're also experiencing things. We're experiencing the body, we're experiencing joy and happiness, we're experiencing the mind, we're experiencing gladness, experiencing subtleness, steady concentration, and we're experiencing liberation. This experiencing is also a little bit passive, or receptive. It isn't so much like we're doing something; we're just allowing ourselves to experience. Knowing, also, is just knowing something, and we're not judging it or criticizing it. We're just knowing it clearly.

These two activities of knowing and experiencing are here to ground us in the present moment. And so, at some point, it shifts to just observing.

This is where the art of deeper mindfulness is: to observe. In the other mindfulness discourse of the Buddha^[4], there's a lot of language of observing. If you read the text carefully, observing happens in the higher stages of mindfulness; that's where observation comes in. So earlier, knowing and experiencing are grounding us in the present moment, helping us stay present, and learning to develop concentration to rest in the present.

When the ability to be focused and present in the moment becomes easy and light, and we feel really grounded and centered, that is when observation becomes stronger. This is because we're going towards being less intentional, deliberate, and even less active in the mind. The more activated we are in the mind, the more waves, agitation, or clouds there are over our capacity to see clearly.

As we get quieter and quieter, what we're left with is this ability just to observe. Then we learn to trust that, to settle back: "Okay, now I'm just observing. I'm not needing to interfere, and again, no judging. I don't have to fix anything, adjust anything, or make anything different. I'm just watching. Just watch."

You can feel that in this very centered place, if we start reaching out to do something, to fix something, to judge something, or to think about something, it feels a little bit like we're losing something. We're losing the open field, we're losing the freedom, we're losing the peacefulness of just observing. It's very clear that observing is a better place to be in these deeper states of meditation.

It becomes very important in these final steps because we really want to get out of the way and not overlay concepts, ideas, judgments, "shoulds," and "shouldn'ts" on top of our experience. We want to really be able to take things in much closer to how they're actually perceived, before a lot of judgments, concepts, and generalizations that we make about things. Just to observe.

So there's a turning with this last tetrad from the practices that are more meant to be concentrating, settling, and focusing, to now switching to vipassanā^[5]. Observing is where the insight practice begins. Classically, insight practice is built, or is done, on the foundation of a mind that has gotten very stable, concentrated, still, joyful, happy, soft, at ease, content, safe, and liberated from the hindrances^[6]. Now the mind is ready for insight practice, and the insight practice is built on this capacity to just observe, just observe the experience.

In fact, vipassanā, the word that we translate as insight, has the same verbal root as anupassanā. In vipassanā, passanā again means to see, and vi- is usually understood to be a prefix here meaning to see clearly, or a prefix of emphasis, to really see, clearly see, to observe, to clearly observe, or to clearly be aware.

So, to observe. That is the medium through which we're going to explore these next four sets of practices of mindfulness of breathing.

Q&A

Then someone asks, "Why is vipassanā often taught as an intro to mindfulness?"

It also works that way, and it doesn't have to be done only with the strong base of concentration. It can, in fact, be practiced directly. But a lot of what people are doing when it's practiced directly and immediately is sorting their way through all the ways in which they are not concentrated. They're beginning to become wise about the hindrances, about distractions.

Rather than more directly getting concentrated, there is a concentration through a lot of understanding and wisdom about all the things that keep us going distractedly. So then we can settle with wisdom, rather than settling with—sometimes they say settling with faith, when a person is just dedicated, just being simple and focused.

But sooner or later, if you start with mindfulness, concentration is brought in, and mindfulness and concentration become partners. If we start more with concentration, then later mindfulness is brought in, so they become partners. Both are true and both are valuable. And this Anapanasati can be seen as a kind of hybrid of these two, with a lot of emphasis on this settling, relaxing, and concentrating that sets a stage for a strong mindfulness.

Thank you all very much.