Exercise 5, Training ourselves to experience pīti

Step 5: A Reminder

Our purpose is to practise Step 5 of the Anapana method. Here's a reminder of what Step 5 says.

5. One trains oneself, "Experiencing pīti I'll breathe in,"
one trains oneself, "Experiencing pīti I'll breathe out."

There are three things in what this step says.

1. It involves a time of training. We can't immediately achieve what this step asks of us.
2. It involves an experience. We feel pīti in the body.
3. It involves continuing to know each in-breath and out-breath.

Recapping what we've learned about pīti

What we've learned in the last few pages explaining Step 5 is:

• The "enhanced sensitivity" (pīti) of Step 5 is a physical sensation, that may vary in strength and duration but is felt in the body.
• It leads to a feeling of ease, contentment and well-being.
• Initially it takes some skill and effort to develop this enhanced sensitivity, and to encourage it to spread around the whole body.
• The first stage of this practice, involving "intentions and attention," may be called "First Jhāna". It is the first stage of Jhāna practice.
• This first stage is not an absorption. We remain conscious of our breathing, of sounds and so on.
• This differs from the understanding of Theravāda Buddhism, which regards "First Jhāna" as a state of absorption in which the mind becomes "one-pointed".
• The value of this Jhāna practice is that it "consumes" the mental conditioning that fuels our reactivity.

How to practise Step 5 and develop an experience of pīti

What this step involves is still part of mindfulness of the body, but Step 5 is both more detailed and more intense than Step 3. It leads to what Buddha-ghosa described as "pervading pīti," a sensation felt in all parts of the body, often quite strongly. This step is actually one of the most demanding of all the Anapana steps, and we should approach it willing to take our time to build up the skills required to undertake it. I suggest that our training for Step 5 can involved three parts.

Learning a mindful body-scan

First, learn how to move awareness around the body to build up a whole-body mindful awareness of the body. At this stage, don't worry about whether you are experiencing pīti or not. Build up your awareness of whatever sensations you can feel in each part of the body, using the practice of verbal guiding which will be explained below. As you do this, the pīti will in fact appear, but there is no need to identify it.

When I learned this mindful body-scan, I had no idea what it was developing. I simply practised it as a stand-alone exercise for months before I realised the practice was itself the first stage of Jhāna meditation, and the sensations I was developing were the arising of pīti.

Continue to practise experiencing pīti,
using verbalised intentions for as long as you need to

Second, begin to focus on the experience that develops in each part of the body. Use the same verbal guiding as before, but adapt it so that you can develop the sensations of pīti that you feel in the whole of the body.

This stage will build up your own skills in using the body-scan, and becoming able to develop a strong sense of pīti.

Learn to work through the scan in the same order,
without verbalising each intention.

We can still have intentions without spelling them out in words. We probably undertake many intentional actions throughout each day without verbalising them.

At this third stage the body-scan will proceed more by visualising each part of the body in turn while the felt sensations of pīti develop within each of those parts. Slowly we build up a whole-body experience of pīti without using a single word, though we can always go back to the verbal guiding of the first two stages if we find that necessary or useful.

A mindful body-scan

This is the body-scan we'll use in the first two stages of our training, and which remains a useful fall-back even when we've developed it and are able largely to relinquish the verbal guidance in the third stage.

Always work through Steps 1 to 4 before starting on this body-scan. It will help to have the overall whole-body awareness of Step 3 and the body-stillness of Step 4 as you begin with the scan.

As you sit in the stillness of Step 4, notice whether sensations of any kind arise anywhere on your body. In time you'll find that the enhanced body-sensitivity, or pīti, will arise naturally from the awareness and the stillness of those two steps.

Head, neck and shoulders

The face

I find it helpful always to begin the body-scan with the face, even if sensations of pīti have already appeared spontaneously elsewhere in the body. The face is a very sensitive area, and it is usually possible to detect sensations of some kind on the face. At the same time it is not too large for us to bring our awareness to the face as a whole, nor too small, which would make the scan proceed too slowly.

Verbalise your intention to bring awareness to the whole of the face. I do this by thinking to myself the words "This whole face," but any similar words will do. The words focus the mind on where it is you wish to hold your awareness at this time.

At first I suggest you continue to focus your attention on the whole face for the space of three unhurried breaths. That period of time is usually about right for all the sensations to appear, and then we can move on to the next step in the scan. Using the breath to time each part of the body scan also helps us to maintain our ongoing awareness of each in-breath and each out-breath. However, there is no magic about three breaths, and with experience you will know when less time, or more time, would be helpful.

For example, if sensations on the face don't appear until the final out-breath, then why not continue for a further three breaths so that you can really experience those sensations?

You may find it easier to move your awareness around the face as you seek to become aware of any sensations you're able to feel there, rather than to maintain a static awareness of the whole area, but do whatever you find works best.

The face and both sides of the head

Then expand your awareness to cover a larger area. In this case you could say to yourself, "This whole face and both sides of head." Continue to be aware of whatever sensations you found on the face, but seek to include any sensations on the ears and the areas around them on both sides of the head.

Do this for the same three unhurried breaths, and then move on again.

The face, both sides and top of the head

Then expand your awareness again. This time say something like, "Face, both sides and top of head."

I found the most difficult part of the whole body-scan for me was moving my awareness up above the hairline and to the very top of the head. I remember practising this move over and over one afternoon. I could develop a strong awareness of sensations on my face, but when I tried to include the top of my head I could feel very little.

Eventually I realised that there was no reason why sensations on top of my head should be identical to those on my face. What I had to do was simply to feel whatever sensations were present. They were different from those on my face, but they were no less real.

The face, both sides, top and back of head – this whole head

From the top of the head we can move down to the back of the head, saying or thinking to ourselves something like "This whole face, both sides, top and back of head." That helps the mind focus on that whole, larger area of the body. Again, for the space of three unhurried breaths we seek to bring awareness to that bigger area and feel whatever sensations we can detect anywhere in it.

By now our intention has grown very long. We need to shorten it before we move on, and we can do so by using words like "This whole head." Then wait for another three unhurried breaths while continuing to detect and feel those sensations in the same bigger area.

If you manage to get this far the first time you work with this body-scan exercise, you'll have done well, and you'll probably be getting quite tired. If you judge that enough is enough for now, then bring the exercise to an end, but sit quietly for a short time. If possible, try to maintain your awareness of the areas you have scanned during this time.

Before you bring this practice to an end, try to maintain the enhanced sensitivity of the whole head without creating any new intentions. Relax and just enjoy whatever sensations have arisen. As you do that you may find a small smile appears on your lips. It will feel good, just to enjoy this enhanced sensitivity. When that happens the well-being appears, and you may smile at the feel of it. Have you noticed that statues of the Buddha sitting in meditation usually have a small enigmatic smile? This is often the effect of Jhāna practice.

Then bring your practice to an end in the usual way.

The neck

Once we're able to bring attention to the whole head, we can start to include the neck as well.

I found the neck to be the most difficult part of the whole body to work with. I could develop my experience of the head well, but for a long time I could feel nothing at all around the neck. If you find an area of the body is completely dead to you, then bring awareness to it for the usual three unhurried breaths and then move on again. It's better to keep the scan moving than to get stuck on one area.

In time I realised that the neck was too large an area for me to work with. I now break it up into the back of the neck, back and both sides of the neck, back, both sides and front of neck (or throat). I also find it helpful to bring awareness slowly down from the very top of the head, over the back, sides and front of the head, and then continue on down to the back, sides and front of the neck.

The shoulders

Once you're able to maintain awareness and feel sensations throughout the whole head and neck, expand your awareness again to "This whole head, neck and shoulders." By shoulders I mean the tops of the shoulders, enough to join the neck to the upper arms.

Our intention is starting to become rather wordy again. There is no obvious name to cover "head, neck and shoulders". What I do is to name this area, "the first quarter" (of the whole body), and then move on to the next quarter. You can name it whatever you like, so long as you come to really associate that name with this portion of the body.

Again, you may like to bring the scanning to an end at this point, until you're ready to expand your awareness further.

Arms and hands, legs and feet, and the torso

Having learned to bring awareness to the whole of the first quarter of the body, you're ready to develop this exercise further. Use the same approach to expand the area of awareness down both arms, down both legs and then around the whole torso. There's no particular importance in moving down from head to feet except that if we start with the face and keep expanding awareness into adjacent areas it's inevitable that we'll travel in a downwards direction.

I don't need to give you detailed instructions for this process. The precise order in which you go and the words you use to express your intentions can vary, and probably will vary over time as you become aware of what works best. What I will give are a few suggestions for maintaining a growing and unified experience.

The four quarters

I find it helpful to work through the whole body in four stages. These are the head, neck and shoulders (the first quarter, as above), the arms and hands (the second quarter), the legs and feet (the third quarter), and the whole torso (front, sides, back and seat – the fourth quarter).

Left and right sides

One point I find helpful is not to separate left and right sides of the body. If I'm bringing awareness to the two sides of my head, I can bring it to both sides simultaneously. The same is true for both arms, both hands, both legs and so on. This helps to unify our sense of the body. Don't split it into separate experiences unnecessarily.

Bigger and smaller areas

How big an area should you cover at each step? Too large an area may be difficult to focus on at first; if so it helps to break it down into smaller areas and then build up awareness of the whole large area, as we did with the head. Then maintain the larger awareness as you move on to new areas. For example, I don't start with "both arms" but with "upper arms" followed by "lower arms".

Some days I need to remind myself of the extent of these areas. On those days I may specify "upper arms, from shoulders to elbows". That helps to extend my awareness over their whole length. And sometimes I need to extend my awareness around their circumference as well as along their length. If so, I add another option: "upper arms ... from shoulders to elbows ... down the fronts and backs, the insides and outsides ..." It's all about judging how fast or slowly you need to go, how broad or detailed you need to be at first.

Once you've opened up sensitivity of your upper arms you can proceed with "upper arms ... and lower arms ...", and expand the lower arms too if necessary. Finally you integrate all sensations into "arms and hands", or to "second quarter". You can take the same approach, if you need to, with the legs too.

The torso

Why do I jump from hands to thighs? I do so because I still find it quite difficult to feel the enhanced sensitivity on the torso. By going to the extremities of the body first (head, arms and hands, legs and feet) the sensitivity pervades and unifies the whole extent of the body, and then I find it easier to fill in the gap I've left, and find some sensitivity on the torso.

Exercise 5, Experiencing pīti, summary

• Work unhurriedly through Exercises 1 to 4. The more thoroughly you go at this stage, the better you're prepared for Exercise 5.
• Continue to sit and enjoy the threefold awareness and the stillness of Exercise 4. Notice whether any sensations appear spontaneously anywhere on your body. Don't grasp at them; let them come in their own time, and let them go again if they don't remain.
• After a time focus awareness on "this whole face", then for the space of about three unhurried breaths bring awareness to the whole face, noticing whatever sensations may arise. If nothing arises, just maintain the awareness of the face.
• Expand awareness to "this whole face and both sides of head". Still aware of any facial sensations, let your awareness include the two ears and both sides of your head, picking up whatever sensations arise there. Again, if nothing arises, maintain awareness of this whole new area for three unhurried breaths.
• Repeat this process, expanding awareness to "this whole face, both sides and top of head", then to "this whole face, both sides, top and back of head".
• Repeat the last step, simplifying your intention to "this whole head". Continue to be aware of all the sensations that have arisen during the exercise so far. Relax and just enjoy whatever sensations have arisen.
• If that is enough for today, bring your practice to a close. Otherwise, continue by expanding the area of awareness further.

Once you've learned the body-scan, if all goes well, it may take twenty to thirty minutes to work all the way to "this whole body". At first you may need to go more slowly. Even with experience it may take much longer some days, especially if the mind is easily distracted that day. When you become distracted, return to and repeat the last step you had got to. Just let go of the distraction with no fuss. You will probably find it easier to let go of distracting thoughts when you're busy experiencing the growing mass of sensations.

When you bring the exercise to an end and start to get involved in other things the enhanced sensitivity will quickly die away.