Reading list: Mindfulness of Breathing (Anapanasati)
Anapanasati or “mindfulness of breathing” was the method of meditation that the Buddha himself used to attain enlightenment, and during his long teaching career he often stressed its importance to his disciples. In the living Buddhist tradition mindfulness of breathing is regarded as the “root” meditation subject, the basis for all other approaches to meditation as well as a self-sufficient system that covers the entire range of practice for gaining calm and insight.
The present book is an anthology of all the important source material from the Pali Canon and Commentaries on this core system of meditation. The book includes the famous Anapanasati Sutta, the Discourse on Mindfulness of Breathing (Majjhima Nikaya Sutta 118); the commentary on this sutta (including a substantial passage from the Visuddhimagga); an analytical treatise from the canonical Patisambhidamagga; and a selection of suttas from the Pali Canon. All this material has been rendered into lucid English by Bhikkhu Nyanamoli, one of the foremost translators of Pali Buddhist texts in our age.