Right Mindfulness

Buddhas teaching about an attitude to life and meditation starts with :
"clearly comprehending and mindful, having overcome covetousness and grief concerning the world : this is right mindfullness."(Nyanaponika Thera, the Heart of Buddhist Meditation)

(The MahaSatipatthana repeats this 4 times at the beginning and once at the end in the 7th. step, mindfulness; of the 8fold path)

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: "ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. This is called right mindfulness."

The short form is repeated at the end of every section.

Nyanaponika Thera: "Independant he dwells clinging to nothing in the world"

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: "And he remains independent, unsustained by (not clinging to) anything in the world."

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The actual practice starts with the breathing

"Mindful, he breathes in, and mindful, he breathes out."

But here is a problem. Every translation or version of the satipatthana (also the mahasatipatthana) I have seen (and monasteries I have heard of) advises the meditator to "calm" the breath.

"Experiencing the whole (breath-) body, I shall breathe in," thus he trains himself. "Experiencing the whole (breath-) body, I shall breathe out," thus he trains himself. "Calming the activity of the (breath-) body, I shall breathe in," thus he trains himself. "Calming the activity of the (breath-) body, I shall breathe out," thus he trains himself."

But Buddha certainly never said: "calming". Buddhas attitude was not one of interfering with what happens, but of being "clearly comprehending and mindful - having overcome all grief and covetousness". To try and be calm is covetous ... it is wanting something ...

To tell yourself to be calm is a positive thinking technique... it reminds me of the business man courses "I will be successful and happy and remain cool, calm and collected" it is only a successful way to temporarily trick yourself and others.

When I try to calm my breath it does go calm to a degree ... but when I "LET GO" of my breath and let it find its own way - often there is a large breath in and then sometimes a short retention, or something very uncalm ... and then it relaxes and it calms, ... by itself ...

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Thus, the formular I use is:

"breathing in aware of the in breath
breathing out aware of the out breath
breathing in letting go of the in breath
breathing out letting go of the out breath

breathing in aware of the body
breathing out aware of the body
breathing in letting go of the body
breathing out letting go of the body"

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