[You can read Buddhadharma‘s review of Breathing Mindfulness: Discovering the Riches at the Heart of the Buddhist Path by Sarah Shaw here. ]
Breathing mindfulness has become the most popular method of meditation internationally over the last hundred years. But it is hard to work out anything about its history, and it remains very difficult to find out more about the methods and styles of practice that have changed so many people’s lives. Breathing mindfulness traditions, like so many others, are often unrecorded and private. Historically, people who practice what we now call “Southern Buddhism”—meaning, roughly, the Buddhisms of South and Southeast Asia—did not talk much about their practice. Some methods were not written down. For a number of reasons—which will be explored in this book—only now do we know more about the varieties of practice that used to flourish, some of which have come into the international sphere. But it is all still largely undocumented.
I have met many people in other traditions as well as mine who would like to know how their practice fits into a larger picture. Others, who do not meditate at all, just want to find out about the character and style of the Buddhisms of these regions without feeling that there is “only one” method. It was a puzzle to me that I had never found an account of the various different breathing practices nor a record of the one I practice. After quite a few years, I did find some. But many of them said I should definitely not be practicing some of the techniques, such as calm (samatha), that I found so necessary and helpful!
This book hopes to give a general historical survey of some varieties of breathing mindfulness and how they apparently developed. Breathing mindfulness is the most popular practice in Southern Buddhism. This is the meditation said by Pali commentaries to have been undertaken by the Buddha on the night of his awakening. According to the suttas, after following mortifications, he remembered spontaneously finding the first jhana as a child, having been left under a rose-apple tree at the plowing festival. This is a meditation still practiced today. The Buddha said that remembering this had been the basis of his understanding of the middle way.
“The breath is always there, somewhere, and we can always be aware of it in different ways.”
Breathing mindfulness brings about the balance of mindfulness and calm, so that various routes can then be undertaken. As a way of obtaining calm (samatha), it operates through development of the nimitta (mental image) to take the mind to the meditation the Buddha found as a child and used as the basis for his awakening. It can then be used as the basis for formless meditation. Right jhana, which can be a basis for that, is described as a lucid, alert, and deeply contented peace that envelops mind and body: a refreshing and restorative absorption inextricably linked to mindfulness and wisdom. Some methods place considerable emphasis on this state. There are, however, insight methods as well. Because the breath is always moving—so it partakes of impermanence (anicca), has unsatisfactory elements (dukkha), and is not owned—it can also act as a constant reminder of nonself (anatta). So it allows meditation on the three signs that lead to insight as well as calm. Most meditations include some elements of both.
The breath is always there, somewhere, and we can always be aware of it in different ways. This book explores variations in the background and understanding of these practices, from method to method. Calm methods tend to work with feeling (vedana), in finding the flow and softness of the breath. They often link breathing practices to careful differentiation of lengths of breath in a manner based on The Sutta on Breathing Mindfulness. Mantra, visualization, and chanting, as well as meditation on the four elements, support the breathing mindfulness practice in some methods, particularly those where there is a strong esoteric element. Insight methods might place more attention to noticing the breath as a means of changing how one perceives the world (sanna) as well as investigating the three signs and how the mind’s constructings and labelings create the world for us in various ways. They all find their first principles in the sutta. Other theory systems, such as Abhidhamma, the canonical philosophical and psychological system, are also applied in all kinds of ways.
All these approaches based on the breath are felt to lead to awakening. The divine abidings of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity are found throughout and practiced before, after, or during the breath meditations. Underneath this is the breath. It can weave in all these approaches and, if handled with care, tends to cure problems and imbalances that might arise in any one person. The Buddha describes concentration based on this meditation as “peaceful and sublime, an ambrosial pleasant dwelling.” He compares such deep meditation to a welcome burst of a rain cloud after the dirt and heat of the hot season. A breathing practice can refresh by its inherent balance, whatever style you do.
Most practitioners enjoy the fact that there are other kinds of practice than their own. It still sometimes happens, however, that people are told by someone that they are doing the “wrong” method! This has been said to me, not just in some books, but in meditation centers I have visited, in Manchester, London, Bangkok, and Colombo. I thought this was just because I did a samatha practice. (As we shall see, these have been less esteemed by some.) Yet I am assured by various people who do various insight systems that they have had comparable experiences. So why this anxiety to lead people away from systems that are seen as less good and even less Buddhist? It was a puzzle for me for years. If someone is happy with their method, it is not a good idea to try and convert them to another. People new to the subject feel bemused by this lack of a broad perspective in what they read and hear. The Buddha was very careful in his instructions to his followers, asking them to give a suitable teaching only on request, at the right time, for the right person. So why this insistence and standoffs between methods of practice?
The answer to the mystery seems to me to arise from a misapprehension of the early roots of Buddhism. The Buddha taught to, and needed to, address many different kinds of people. In this book, I suggest that the very variety of methods, approaches, and theory systems associated with breathing mindfulness practice is a sign of its health. It was implicitly sanctioned by the Buddha himself. Again, the Buddha adapted his teachings according to the person and sanctioned many different practices as part of the Buddhist path. He taught people according to their temperaments and adjusted his teachings to fit the person’s needs; he accommodated variety constantly, clearly aware that different people needed different things. Sometimes, it seems, he made up a meditation on the spot to suit a particular person. Different traditions emerged almost immediately, a reflection of this potential for diverse seeding.
The breath itself is always new, replenishing, and endlessly restorative. It sorts out most problems on its own, with the right attitude of friendliness and respect. Different systems tend to evolve to ensure this happens for the people concerned. I feel the Buddha taught what was needed by particular people at a particular time. The various methods around now are simply a reflection of this sense of working with people’s needs and characters.
It seems important to have an overview. How did different traditions, methods, and techniques emerge? How can we step back and look at them all? Many books on this subject, understandably, promote one method. This is good, but it is also good to appreciate and respect other styles as well. The forest helps us here: it offers a precise metaphor for the varied approaches to breathing mindfulness and the kind of people who do them. We need apt variety and can enjoy it. The Sutta on Breathing Mindfulness, which we will explore in this book and which is the canonical Buddhist text on breathing mindfulness, shows how this practice, and Buddhist principles, can take root in new places and be endlessly adaptable. Breathing mindfulness has been, and remains, the main form of practice in Southeast and South Asian Buddhism. There has been some deforestation, as we shall see, but the variety and potential of the breathing mindfulness traditions are still there to some degree.
The intention of this book is not to give an intensely academic analysis. Scholarly specialties are necessary for close scrutiny but can also be limiting: the high-resolution needs of the discipline involved can lose a rounded sense of the overall. I hope to give a feeling of what it is like just to walk through the forest, sensing the textures, feel, and atmosphere of the terrain. It seems interesting just to encounter the traditions of practice, look at some of the figures from the past and present, and find out about some styles of practice that have shaped those that people do now. Throughout, I explore how and where various approaches evolved historically, and what we know about their ground cover and soil as well as their deep roots; all the methods here find some ancient validation but also have real freshness, and sometimes innovation, apt for our ever-changing, living breath. Information is sometimes scanty, but we can sense the fuller landscape. I hope the references help people who would like to find out more about any one system.
South and Southeast Asian Buddhisms are known now as Theravada. Buddhism has many creative tensions affecting approaches to practice. The ancient distinction between the Theriya tradition—which gave rise to what we call Theravada now—and the Mahayana tradition offers one major example. Perhaps in contrast to Buddhisms in other regions, what we now call Theravada schools regard breathing mindfulness as offering a complete path to awakening. Their methods provide the focus of this book. Most Buddhisms work with the breath, however, and understanding something of these varied emphases enriches our practice, whatever system we follow. The practice of breathing mindfulness is perhaps Buddhism’s greatest gift to the world. It is fascinating to see its many varieties. I hope people who are practitioners feel that their method is fairly shown, and that people who know little about the subject find it is one they would like to investigate more.
From Breathing Mindfulness: Discovering the Riches at the Heart of the Buddhist Path by Sarah Shaw. © 2025 by Sarah Shaw. Reprinted in arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boulder, CO
