“Rosenberg illuminates this meditative path in clear enlivened writing. A guide worthy of consulting many times.” —ForeWord “A book of delicious simplicity and revolutionary wisdom. These are some of the clearest teachings on mindfulness you will find.” —Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart “Reading this book is like having a warm, wise friend take you by the hand to guide you through the Buddha’s classical instructions, making them truly accessible. It is a treasure for both beginning and advanced students.” —Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Faith ABOUT THE BOOK Freedom from suffering is not only possible, but the means for achieving it are immediately within our grasp—literally as close to us as our own breath. This is the 2,500-year-old good news contained in the Anapanasati Sutra, the Buddha’s teaching on cultivating both tranquility and deep insight through full awareness of breathing. In this book, Larry Rosenberg brings this timeless meditation method to life. Using the insights gained from his many years of practice and teaching, he makes insight meditation practice accessible to modern practitioners. LARRY ROSENBERG is founder and resident teacher of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a guiding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. Sign up to learn more about our books and receive special offers from Shambhala Publications. Or visit us online to sign up at shambhala.com/eshambhala. Breath by Breath The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation Larry Rosenberg with David Guy Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn Shambhala Boston 2012 Shambhala Publications, Inc. Horticultural Hall 300 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115 www.shambhala.com © 1998 by Larry Rosenberg The poem “Zazen on the Mountain” by Li Po is from Midnight Flute: Chinese Poems of Love and Longing, translated by Sam Hamill (Boston: Shambhala, 1994). Reprinted by permission of the translator and publisher. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Library of Congress catalogues the previous edition of this work as follows: Rosenberg, Larry. Breath by breath: the liberating practice of insight meditation/Larry Rosenberg; with David Guy; foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn.—1st ed. p. cm. eISBN 978-0-8348-2346-4 ISBN 1-57062-335-X (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 1-57062-350-3 (pbk.) ISBN 1-59030-136-6 (Shambhala Classics) 1. Meditation. 2. Ānāpānasmṛti. I. Guy, David. II. Title. BL627.R67 1998 97-29041 29l.4′35—dc2l CIP To my beloved parents, Anna and Nathan Rosenberg. They gave me everything they had. Contents Foreword Acknowledgments A Note on Terminology Introduction: Finding My Way 1. Breathing with the Body 2. Breathing with Feelings 3. Breathing with the Mind 4. Breathing with Wisdom 5. The Condensed Method: Breathing with the Way Things Are 6. Breathing with Daily Life 7. Breathing into Silence Appendix: The Anapanasati Sutra Glossary Bibliography Resources E-mail Sign-Up Foreword This book is the product of an ongoing spiritual odyssey on the part of the author that I have had the privilege to observe and, from time to time, share in over the more than thirty years that he and I have been what we fondly refer to as “Dharma brothers.” It is a journey of exploration that has never deviated—even in the most difficult and painful of times—from the target that Larry Rosenberg set for himself early on: the deepest personal encounter with the heart of wisdom practice, whatever the source; the deepest drinking in of what such practices had to offer; and the uncompromising embodiment of that understanding in the domain of ordinary living in the secular world. Now, in this touching and poignant book, he speaks with authority, passion, and his own inimitable brand of Brooklyn Jewish humor, on the practice of meditation at its most basic and its most exquisite. Larry has chosen to structure his teachings here based on the Anapanasati Sutra, a text that has been commented upon time and time again throughout history in Buddhist circles, much as the Torah has occasioned generations of commentary and insight in the Jewish tradition. This text constitutes the basic meditative instructions of the Buddha, and so serves as a fundamental vehicle for gaining insight into the core teachings of Buddhism. As with all great classical texts, each teacher’s interpretation, whether primarily scholarly or practical, is colored by his or her unique perspective and voice. Each individual who tackles the task tends to bring out different facets of the basic message. In recent years, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (Mindfulness with Breathing) and Thich Nhat Hanh (Breathe, You Are Alive) have contributed important interpretations of this sutra. Now Larry, who has studied with both of these teachers, as he himself explains, brings his own remarkable gifts to the task of using the teachings of the Anapanasati Sutra to make the practice of insight meditation come alive for the reader/practitioner. Breath by Breath is more than one more in a long line of venerable and valuable commentaries on this text. Larry’s treatment illuminates the sutra’s essence and its practical utility in a wholly contemporary Western idiom, making it tangible, compelling, and immediately relevant for anybody who is seriously interested in developing a personal meditation practice. Here the four-by-fourfold framework of the sutra itself serves as a loom on which the author skillfully weaves, in front of the reader’s very eyes, the tapestry of mindfulness meditation practice in all its simplicity, fullness, and depth. When the tapestry is complete, the loom of the sutra has fulfilled its purpose. What we are left with is an understanding of the practice in its exquisite simplicity, its precisely defined detail, and its transformative power, as well as a way to keep it vital and fresh through our own growing passion and appreciation for the path of inquiry it invites us to explore. The ability to evoke an impact of such magnitude, whether in speech or in writing, is a sign of a great teacher. The depth of Larry’s understanding is apparent in his approach to the breath as a complete vehicle for the cultivation of mindfulness, compassion, and wisdom. His clarity is complemented by his commitment to keep things simple and demystified, and by his easy-going and delightful sense of humor. All shine through on virtually every page of this book. Larry is not kidding around, simple and humorous as this book may appear to be in places. The cultivation of mindfulness is ultimately a matter of life and death, not in a scary way, but in the sense that we are always at risk, in every moment, for missing what is deepest and richest in our lives, the texture of the tapestry itself. We might say (every pun intended) that the richness lies right beneath our noses in any and every moment. This book is an invitation to recognize that richness through our own daily inner work on ourselves, culminating in an uncompromising and accurate intimacy with our minds, our bodies, and our breathing, guided by the sutra, a precious intimacy that can serve as a door to awakening and freedom. Meditation is a lifetime’s work. It usually deepens as we arrive incrementally at degrees of understanding—we often think we understand some aspect of practice or life; then, after more practice, it is not uncommon to find our understanding to be more encompassing and deeper, or perhaps totally different from what it was before. The Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, reflecting the meditation practice itself, is truly limitless in its implications and importance. For this reason, Breath by Breath merits reading over and over again in its entirety, as well as dipping into here and there frequently, as both a reminder and a guide to practice. It is commonly said that the ancient peoples of the north have many words to describe the subtleties of what we refer to merely as “snow,” and that those of the forest have hundreds of words for shades of green. Anybody who meditates knows that the same might be said of the breath. Each breath moment is its own universe. In meditation, we come to know something about this terrain in ways that open doors, that bring us back to our senses, that refine our hearts, that help