The Anapanasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing
The Anapanasati Sutta — “Mindfulness of Breathing”, discourse 118 of the Majjhima Nikāya — is where the Buddha sets out sixteen steps of breath meditation in four groups of four, then shows how they fill out the four kinds of mindfulness meditation and the seven awakening factors. This page walks the discourse in its own order.
What is the Anapanasati Sutta?
MN 118 belongs to the Majjhima Nikāya, the middle-length collection of the Pāli Canon. SuttaCentral prints its Pali title as Ānāpānassatisutta, with the doubled s — which is why it appears online spelled both ānāpānasati and ānāpānassati. The word joins āna and apāna, in-breath and out-breath, with sati.
What breath meditation is belongs to our guide to anapanasati; this page gives the words and their setting. The discourse states its plan before it starts: breath meditation fulfils the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, those the seven awakening factors, those knowledge and freedom. Bhikkhu Sujato notes that these statements summarise the discourse, each expanded in a section that follows.
Where and when the Buddha gave it
At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in the stilt longhouse of Migāra’s mother in the Eastern Monastery, together with several well-known senior disciples, such as the venerables Sāriputta, Mahāmoggallāna, Mahākassapa, Mahākaccāna, Mahākoṭṭhita, Mahākappina, Mahācunda, Anuruddha, Revata, Ānanda, and others.
The Pali behind the setting is pubbārāme migāramātupāsāde — the Eastern Monastery, and the pāsāda of Migāra’s mother. The roll-call is what stands out: ten elders named, among them Sāriputta, Mahākassapa and Ānanda; Sujato notes the same list at Ud 1.5. Those seniors, the frame adds, were instructing juniors in tens, twenties, thirties and forties — the Saṅgha teaching meditation face to face.
“I am satisfied, monks, with this practice. My heart is satisfied with this practice. So you should rouse up even more energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized. I will wait here in Sāvatthī for the Komudī full moon of the fourth month.”
This is the hinge of the frame. That night is the pavāraṇā, the invitation to admonition that closes the rains retreat (vassa) in place of the usual Uposatha recitation of the monastic code. Then the Buddha postpones. Komudī is the full moon ending the fourth month of the rains, named, Sujato writes, after white lotuses said to bloom then; monks stay on for the kaṭhina. Only a month later, with mendicants arrived from the countryside, does he teach — and first inventories the assembly, from perfected ones down to stream-enterers and through every set of the path, with breath meditation last on the list.
The sixteen steps, in the discourse’s own words
The instruction proper opens with a posture and one sentence of method:
It’s when a mendicant—gone to a wilderness, or to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut—sits down cross-legged, sets their body straight, and brings mindfulness to the present. Just mindful, they breathe in. Mindful, they breathe out.
Sujato renders parimukhaṁ satiṁ upaṭṭhapetvā “brings mindfulness to the present”; Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu has “setting mindfulness to the fore”, noting that the Abhidhamma derives parimukhaṁ as “around (pari-) the mouth” while the Vinaya uses it for the front of the chest. Sujato’s note points at the phrasing: the Buddha does not say concentrate on the breath as an object, but bring mindfulness to breathing as an activity.
First tetrad: the body
Breathing in heavily they know: ‘I’m breathing in heavily.’ Breathing out heavily they know: ‘I’m breathing out heavily.’ Breathing in lightly they know: ‘I’m breathing in lightly.’ Breathing out lightly they know: ‘I’m breathing out lightly.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in experiencing the whole body.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out experiencing the whole body.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in stilling the physical process.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out stilling the physical process.’
Watch the verbs. The first two steps use pajānāti, “they know” — you notice what the breath already does. From the third the verb becomes sikkhati, “they practice like this”, and stays there for the remaining fourteen. Sabbakāya, “the whole body”, is the most argued-over word here: Sujato takes it as the whole of the breath, and records that others read it as the physical body.
Second tetrad: feelings
They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in experiencing rapture.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out experiencing rapture.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in experiencing bliss.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out experiencing bliss.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in experiencing the mental process.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out experiencing the mental process.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in stilling the mental process.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out stilling the mental process.’
Pīti and sukha — rapture and bliss — are the canon’s terms for the gladness and ease of the jhānas. The “mental process” is cittasaṅkhāra, defined elsewhere in the canon as perception and feeling; that is why this tetrad counts as contemplation of feeling. Sujato adds a caveat: rapture is normally said to arise before tranquility, but here the body settles first.
Third tetrad: the mind
They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in experiencing the mind.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out experiencing the mind.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in gladdening the mind.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out gladdening the mind.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in immersing the mind in samādhi.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out immersing the mind in samādhi.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in freeing the mind.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out freeing the mind.’
The object is now citta, the knowing mind, and the steps are frankly interventionist: gladden it, gather it, free it. Samādahaṁ cittaṁ holds the verb behind samādhi, which Sujato leaves untranslated here and glosses as “gathered”, “collected”. His note reads all four steps as focused on absorption — the “freeing” being release from the hindrances, not final liberation.
Fourth tetrad: principles
They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in observing impermanence.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out observing impermanence.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in observing fading away.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out observing fading away.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in observing cessation.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out observing cessation.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in observing letting go.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out observing letting go.’
The register changes: paṭisaṁvedī, “experiencing”, gives way to anupassī, “observing”, and the objects are no longer states but characteristics. Sujato marks this as the turn from serenity to discernment — the first twelve steps develop calm, these four insight (how the two relate). Virāga, he notes, carries both senses at once: dispassion, and literal fading.
How the discourse maps the sixteen steps onto the four foundations
The Buddha now runs the list again, four steps at a time. The hard part is the first two tetrads, where breathing must be shown to count as body and as feeling:
For I say that the in-breaths and out-breaths are an aspect of the body.
That is a definition, not a description. Behind it is kāyesu kāyaññataraṁ, “a certain body among the bodies”: the breath is selected as one aspect of physical existence, in place of the body-parts and postures of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta.
For I say that careful application of mind to the in-breaths and out-breaths is an aspect of feelings.
The feelings clause is stranger — what counts as feeling is not the breath but the careful application of mind to it.
There is no development of mindfulness of breathing for someone who is unmindful and lacks awareness, I say.
For the third foundation the Buddha states a condition rather than listing mind-states as MN 10 does; Sujato observes that breath meditation works with the purified states of deep meditation, not the full range.
Having seen with wisdom the giving up of covetousness and displeasure, they watch over closely with equanimity.
The fourth foundation ends in equanimity (upekkhā), reached through seeing. Each foundation is then shown giving rise to the seven awakening factors in turn — a cascade quoted on the seven factors rather than repeated here.
How the translations differ
The steps are compressed Pali, and English versions diverge enough that two readers can be looking at different practices:
| Pali | Bhikkhu Sujato | Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu |
|---|---|---|
| dīghaṁ / rassaṁ | ”heavily” / “lightly" | "long” / “short” |
| sabbakāyapaṭisaṁvedī | ”experiencing the whole body" | "sensitive to the entire body” |
| passambhayaṁ kāyasaṅkhāraṁ | ”stilling the physical process" | "calming bodily fabrication” |
| pītipaṭisaṁvedī | ”experiencing rapture" | "sensitive to rapture” |
| aniccānupassī | ”observing impermanence" | "focusing on inconstancy” |
| paṭinissaggānupassī | ”observing letting go" | "focusing on relinquishment” |
| satipaṭṭhāna | ”kinds of mindfulness meditation" | "frames of reference” |
Most rows are register, not substance: dīgha and rassa do mean long and short, and Sujato’s note simply prefers the English idiom. One row is a real dispute. On sabbakāya Sujato gives the reading the commentaries take — the whole breath — while recording the other; Ṭhānissaro rejects it, since the next step calls the breath kāyasaṅkhāra, and the Buddha would have signalled a redefinition made in such close proximity. He reads it instead as whole-body awareness, tied to the similes for jhāna. It is the one row where the English changes what you do.
Where else the sixteen steps appear in the canon
MN 118 is the fullest treatment, not the only one. Sujato’s note on the opening line lists the parallels: breath meditation appears partially in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10) and the Kāyagatāsati Sutta (MN 119), in full in the Rāhulovāda Sutta (MN 62), the Girimānanda Sutta (AN 10.60) and throughout SN 54, and in the Vinaya. The tradition, he adds, regards it as the Buddha’s own method, and the most popular meditation to this day.
Read the whole discourse
The Buddha finishes, the monks approve, the text stops — no conversion, no attainment, no question asked. Everything above is one translation, and it passes over the inventory of the assembly and the awakening-factor cascade, so read the discourse whole in Bhikkhu Sujato’s translation on SuttaCentral, public domain (CC0), or compare Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu’s on Access to Insight. For the collection see the Buddhist scriptures; for the practice, anapanasati and how to meditate; for the four fields, the four foundations of mindfulness.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Anapanasati Sutta?
The Anapanasati Sutta is discourse 118 of the Majjhima Nikaya, the middle-length discourses of the Pali Canon. The Buddha gives it at Savatthi on the Komudi full moon, a month after the rains retreat has closed, and in it he sets out sixteen steps of mindfulness of breathing in four groups of four.
What are the four tetrads of the Anapanasati Sutta?
Four groups of four steps. The first takes the breath as body, from heavy and light breathing to stilling the physical process. The second turns to feeling: rapture, bliss, the mental process, its stilling. The third works on the mind itself. The fourth observes impermanence, fading away, cessation and letting go.
When did the Buddha give the Anapanasati Sutta?
On the Komudi full moon of the fourth month, at Savatthi, in the stilt longhouse of Migara's mother. A month earlier, on the night the rains retreat closed, he announced that he would wait there for it, and monks travelled in from around the country to hear him.
Does MN 118 say long breath or heavy breath?
Both render the same Pali. The words are digha and rassa, literally long and short, and Thanissaro Bhikkhu translates them that way. Bhikkhu Sujato writes heavily and lightly, noting that this is the ordinary English idiom for the same thing. Either way the step is the same: you notice the breath, you do not adjust it.
Is the Anapanasati Sutta the same as the Satipatthana Sutta?
No. They are two discourses, MN 118 and MN 10. The Satipatthana Sutta sets out four fields of contemplation with many exercises in each. The Anapanasati Sutta takes one exercise, the breath, and argues that carried through its sixteen steps it fills out all four fields by itself.
Where can I read the Anapanasati Sutta in full?
Bhikkhu Sujato's translation on SuttaCentral is the one quoted throughout this page, and it is dedicated to the public domain. Thanissaro Bhikkhu's translation sits on Access to Insight with his own notes. Both are linked in the sources below, and the discourse is short enough to read in one sitting.