Re: sati meditation

Ole Holten Pind wrote:

> Dear freinds,
>
> Perhaps a native speaker could tell whether or not the usual
> translation of
> the phrase parimukha.m sati.m upa.t.thapetvaa "having established or
> set up
> his mindfulness in front, to set one's mindfulness alert, summon up one's
> mindfulness in front" or similar translations make any sense whatsoever in
> English. How does one establish one's mindfulness in front, knowing
> that the
> objects mindfulness inter alia is breathing in and out. I find it
> incomprehensible.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ole Pind
>
Dear Dr. Pind (all),
I don't know what the protocol is for posting here, so I apologize if I
am breaking it with this post (please let me know). However, I am aware
that Bhikkhu Soma has looked into this issue and the article is online here:
http://www.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/ebmed058.htm
The article is quite short, but here is the most relevant section (about
half-way down in the above article) under the heading:
**"LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: A SMALL RELATED MATTER"**
:
"A related secondary matter regarding the breath nimitta is, once again,
a traceable misunderstanding, which has evolved to its final form in the
Visuddhimagga. A critical phrase is used in the suttas Four Foundations
of Mindfulness and Anapanasati, that is: "/parimukham satim
upatthapetva,/" which is often translated as "setting mindfulness before
him." One is then left to wonder why the Patisambhidamagga, the
Vimuttimagga, and the Vissudhimagga all confidently give the location of
breath contact as the nostrils. Furthermore, we find in the three works:
"either at the nose or lip." And here Buddhaghosa, the editor, gives as
explanation that a "long-nosed man can feel the breath at his nostril as
it passes through his nose." A short-nosed man however, feels it on his
upper lip. This is a strange bit of business if one thinks about it,
because even if one is a "short-nosed man" one can only feel the
exhalation of warm air out the nostrils onto the upper lip. We are now
missing the entire in-breath. So it seems we have another puzzle.
If we look back to the original sutta at the word "mukha", it literally
and sensibly means "entrance" or "mouth." If we give it this obvious
meaning we have: "He fixes his attention at the 'entrance'\", the
entrance being either the nose or the mouth. The early commentators are
assuming the reader realizes that the meditator may be breathing either
through his mouth or his nose. If he is breathing through his mouth he
should direct his attention to air contact at the lip. It is very
sensible advice really, for it would be a shame to have to give up
breath meditation just because one has a cold or a plugged nose! So we
see what began as a straightforward location of breath contact at the
nose or mouth, i.e. "the entrance", slowly take on the perplexing
addition of a "long-nosed and a short-nosed man." The debate over the
meaning of this phrase came about at a very early time (see quote from
the original note in the Patisambhidamagga, below), and in fact all
three commentaries have opted for /mukha/ as nose or mouth.

     "/Has the sense of embracing/" is in the sense of being embraced.
     What is embraced? The outlet. What outlet? Concentration based on
     mindfulness of breathing is itself the outlet, right up to the
     arahant path. Hence "has the sense of outlet" is said. The meaning
     of "outlet from the round of rebirths" is expressed by the meaning
     of the word /mukha/ (mouth) as foremost (front). "Has the sense of
     establishing" is in the sense of individual essence. The meaning
     expressed by all these words is: Having made mindfulness an embraced
     outlet. But some say that "has the sense of embracing'" stands for
     "embracing as the meaning of mindfulness," and that "has the sense
     of outlet" stands for "door of entry and exit as the meaning of
     in-breaths and out-breaths." Then what is meant is: Having
     established mindfulness as the embraced outlet of the in-breaths and
     out-breaths.(Note 14, Engl. Ed.; PsA 350-1)

Some modern teachers have suggested that it doesn't matter where the
breath contact is located, probably in response to the phrase which
occurs later on in the sutta: "Experiencing the whole body, he breathes
in...", etc. And since the whole body of the breath is not explicitly
stated, they feel there is room for interpretation. But the breath as a
"whole body" is explicitly mentioned in the /Anapanasati Sutta,/ though
not in the /Satipatthana Sutta/ the phrase means the same: "I say,
monks, that of bodies this is one, that is to say breathing-in and
breathing-out" (/Majjhima Nikaya,/ PTS edition, III.83, p.125; the
footnote states that "...breathing is a body because it is included in
the field of touch"). As well there is an explicit location of "the
entrance" in the sutta, which the three commentaries agree on, whatever
the later confusion may have been. It also overlooks the simile which
immediately follows the explicit location, i.e., "As a turner or his
apprentice, while making a long turn, knows that he is making a long
turn, or in making a short turn, knows that he is making a short turn,
so too a monk, in breathing in a long breath, knows that he breathes in
a long breath, in breathing a short breath, knows that he breathes in a
short breath...and so trains himself, thinking: 'I will breathe out,
calming the whole body formation.' "(/Digha Nikaya./ 22) The Buddha
includes this apparently redundant simile for one reason. Similes, like
pictures, are worth a thousand words and usually survive the butcheries
of translation. This is the Buddha's failsafe mechanism to show that as
a lathe worker fixes his attention one-pointedly with his chisel on a
single spot while the wooden spindle is in ceaseless motion, the
meditator does likewise at the "entrance spot" while the breath
continuously flows past. Basically all the commentaries have managed to
preserve this notion in the "simile of the saw", but unfortunately the
mouth as location is overlooked by the time of the Visuddhimagga.
All of this does not mean that there is only one way to attain serenity
using the breath. If someone has developed a technique that issues in
jhana and which does not follow the explicit instructions that is fine
too. Whatever works."