How Long does Anapana Practice Take? (1)

There are two questions in this. One is, How long does it take to work through all sixteen steps, and gain the full benefit of the practice? The other is, How much time do I need to devote to this practice, each day or each week?

How long does it take to learn the practice?

There's really no answer to this question. We're all very different, some of us have experience of other forms of meditation while others don't, and our opportunities for practice will vary. This is like embarking on an adventure, the Anapana Adventure, and the thing about any adventure is that it's open-ended. We don't know where we'll end up until we get there, nor do we know how long it will take us. Yet I want to give you a reasonable expectation. It won't last for ever. And as we progress in this adventure it will take us to a place we'll be able to recognise and value.

Where will this adventure take us?

That place has a name, a name that may surprise you. You'll recognise it when your mind (and emotions) are set free from all the forms of reactivity they have developed through life. The name of this non-reactive place is nirvana. It isn't far away. It may take you a few months, or a few years at the most, but it's a place accessible to you, once you learn to find your way through the Anapana process.

What is the route we must take?

This process has different phases, and each one calls for a different approach. So even if you do have previous meditation experience, it's unlikely you've learned each of these approaches. If possible, try to come to each of these as if it's a new start. Even if you have done something similar before, you may find the exercises here are subtly different.

Be in no hurry

There are sixteen steps in the Anapana text, but not all of them are something we "do". Some of the steps mark out the results of what we have "done". Why have I written 'do' in inverted commas? Because we don't actually do anything. The Anapana text is explicit. What we "do" is to experience something. Yet each step is a training. We may have to train before we learn how to experience what a step asks of us. We may also have to train to experience the result of prior steps.

Regard each training as an adventure in its own right. Allow it to take as long as it will. Be in no hurry. Allow the adventure to unfold in its own time. Trying to hurry will only be counter-productive. Yet don't hold back either. You will have to learn to be your own teacher, to know when to move forward and when to hold back.

Sometimes you might even need to take a break from Anapana. My own training involved diversions into other types of meditation, other types of retreat, the wisdom of other teachers. Yet I always came back to it with a sense of relief and of coming home. This practice has a clear route through it, a manageable number of steps, and each step involves a realistic advance upon the previous ones.

Be prepared to spend anything from a few days to weeks, even to months, on each step before moving on. The steps are all very different. Time is not "of the essence" in our practice. Deeply experiencing what each step asks for is what really matters.

Your adventure

Sometimes it surprised me, in where it took me, and in how it asked me to go there. But slowly I made progress, and when I did that progress was clear, tangible and satisfying. I hope your own progress through the Anapana Adventure may also be tangible and satisfying. I've written this website to offer what help and guidance I can, but the adventure will be all your own.