From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QTBqbLTPmZY

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

Oh

okay the sukkah tonight is the satay

putana suta the foundations of

mindfulness and thus if I heard on one

occasion the blessed one was living in

the kuru country where there was a town

of the Carew's named Casas Adama where

he addressed the monks thus monks

venerable sir they replied the blessed

one said this monks this is the direct

path for the purification of beings for

the surmounting of sorrow and

lamentation for the disappearance of

pain and grief for the attainment of the

true way for the realization of Nibhana

namely the four foundations of

mindfulness what are the four here monks

a monk abides contemplating the body as

a body ardent fully aware and mindful

having put away covetousness and grief

for the world he abides contemplating

feelings as feeling this translation

says feelings as feelings but we got to

take the S off of that because it's way

too misunderstood so we want to say

feeling as feeling ardent fully aware

and mindful having put away covetousness

and grief for the world he abides

contemplating mind as mine arden fully

aware and mindful having put away

covetousness and grief for the world he

abides contemplating mind objects as

mind objects ardent fully aware and

mindful having put away covetousness and

grief for the world the first part is

the contemplation of the body and it

starts out with mindfulness of breathing

alright

an interesting thing is that the

instructions of mindfulness of breathing

are exactly word for word letter for

letter the same here as it is in the on

upon esata suta the kyon no pasa not

mindfulness of body suit in Ceuta number

62 where the Buddha gives instructions

and mindfulness of breathing so these

instructions are pretty much

standardized through all of the

different kinds of meditation and how

monks does a monk abide contemplating

the body as a body here a monk gone to

the forest or to the root of the tree or

an empty Hut sits down having folded his

legs cross wide set his body erect and

establish mindfulness in front of him

ever mindful he breathes in mindful he

breathes out breathing in lung he

understands I breathe in long or

breathing out long he understands I

breathe out lungs breathing in short he

understands I breathe in short or

breathing out short she understands I

breathe out short the key word to this

part of the instruction is he

understands he knows when he's taking a

long breath and when it short he knows

when the breath is very fine and when

his course he knows when it's subtle and

when it's not he understands it doesn't

say he focuses on he doesn't say he puts

his strong attention only on the breath

it says he understands the breath and

again you want to notice that it doesn't

say nostril tip nostril upper lip or

abdomen or any combination of those you

just understand what the breath is doing

in the

as an omen now he trains thus these are

keywords because this is the actual

instruction in the meditation itself I

shall breathe in experiencing the whole

body in the first edition of the middle

link sayings bhikkhu Bodhi I talked to

him about this he was obliged to put in

brackets of breaths behind experiencing

the whole body that was when Jana Panico

was still alive and Jana Panico was

bhikkhu Bodhi teacher so he felt obliged

to put that in after he anup Annika died

he came out with a second edition and he

took a breath out because it's

misleading if you put a breast behind

experiencing the entire body it implies

that you're focusing very deeply just on

the breath to the exclusion of

everything else which is a form of

absorption concentration but you'll see

in a moment that that is not the case so

when it came out with a second edition

he took that out in every place except

the mindfulness of breathing sista he

forgot to take it out in that one but he

took it out everywhere else he trains us

I shall breathe out experiencing the

whole body he trains thus I shall

breathe in tranquilizing the bodily

formation he trains thus I shall breathe

out tranquilizing the bodily formation

now this is the entire instructions in

the meditation of how to do mindfulness

of breathing I have had many many

discussions with many many monks were

practicing meditation and teaching

meditation and I say well how do you

practice mindfulness of breathing well I

put my attention on my nostril or

her upper lip and I keep my attention

they're very strongly now that doesn't

match the instructions of he trains us

he trains the tranquilizing the bodily

formation on the in breath and

tranquilizing the bodily formation on

the out-breath they're just taking the

breath without the tranquilizing this

last part of the instructions is the

very thing that makes the buddha's

meditation different from everybody else

is teaching all of the brahmanas and

hindus of the time they were doing

breath meditation but they were focusing

just on the breath they didn't put that

extra step of tranquilizing the bodily

formation now what is tranquilizing the

bodily formation means most people

especially in this country when you talk

to them about the body to them the body

is from the neck down and the mind is

from the neck up when in fact the body

is from the top of the head all the way

down now when it says tranquilize the

bodily formation what is talking about

is there is subtle tensions and

tightness in your head in your mind in

your brain you relax on the in-breath

you feel an opening and it calming you

relax on the out-breath you feel an

opening and a calming opening and

calming you're using the breath as the

reminder to relax the tranquilizer

bodily formations now this means also

that if there's any tensions anywhere in

your body if you see that tension you

relax that also relaxing this the subtle

tightness that in your head is also a

tightness in your mind so you're

actually tranquilizing

both the bodily formation and the mental

formation by relaxing

you