Patterns in the language

One way to understand what the Sixteen Steps are actually saying is to look at how their language varies and unfolds. See the various patterns that emerge in it.

What we know

Steps 1 and 2

There is one obvious change from the language of Steps 1 and 2, to the language of all the other steps. Steps 1 and 2 both speak of something "one knows". If we're aware of our breath, then when we breathe in we know we're breathing in; when we breathe out we know we're breathing out. These two steps are not about controlling the breath. All they ask of us is to be aware of the breath, whatever it may be like. It's something to be known, but that's all.

Deeper and more shallow breaths

Notice that not all breaths are the same. The difference between Step 1 and Step 2 is that some breaths are deeper than others. If you've been exercising before sitting down, or even just walked upstairs, you'll notice your breaths are deeper. Once you've been sitting still for some time your need for oxygen becomes minimal and your breaths will become more shallow, shorter and with longer pauses between them, perhaps smoother and finer too. Yet even then, no two breaths are ever exactly the same. There's no need to make them the same. Even when the breath has become slow and shallow, you may notice the occasional deeper breath. Simply know each one for what it is, whether deep or shallow.

What we train to experience

Steps 3 to 16

None of this is any mystery. You don't have to do anything to discover it. When you're aware of your breathing you simply know when you're breathing in or out, and whether it's a deep or shallow breath. But then the language changes. From Step 3 all the way to Step 16 we don't simply know the things that are mentioned. Rather, we train ourselves to experience something while we continue to be aware of what the breath is doing. These later steps help to give direction and focus to our training. They guide us through various phases that the mind will pass through.

"One trains ... 'I will breathe ...'"

So in Step 3, for example, "One trains oneself, 'Experiencing this whole body, I'll breathe in … I'll breathe out.'" This means that early in the process we extend our awareness to the whole body, but without losing our awareness of breathing. Each of these steps expresses a new intention. That's why the language changes from the present to the future. Instead of "I am breathing in (or out)" it becomes "I will breathe in (or out)" while doing something else as well. So in Step 3 we intend to experience the whole body while we continue to know we're breathing in and out—and we train ourselves to do just that. How we might train ourselves is something we'll explore in Steps 1 to 4.

Experiencing and observing

The word "experiencing" is an important word in this text. It occurs five times. In the final four steps it changes into the similar word, "observing". I think though that there's an important difference between the two words. To observe is something we do primarily with our eyes, though not exclusively so. To experience is something that involves all our senses, and which affects us personally. We can observe things more at a distance, but what we experience is happening to us.

What we train to experience

What we train to experience is "the whole body" in Step 3, "heart-and-mind" in Step 9, as well as "an enhanced body-sensitivity", "well-being" and "reactive movements of heart-and-mind" in Steps 5, 6 and 7. These are all felt, personal experiences.

The words "experiencing" and "observing" in these steps sometimes change into another word. In Steps 4 and 8 we find "stilling". In Steps 10, 11 and 12 we find "gladdening", "composing" and "liberating". These are aspects of the experience we come to in Step 9, our deepening experience of the heart, the deepest part of the mind.

What comes to stillness, or to freedom

A series of four stages

These expressions and the way they change help to point us to four distinct phases in the process envisaged by this text. The sixteen steps can be arranged in four groups of four. Notice the way each of these four groups culminates in a some form of stilling or of release.

• Step 4: "Stilling reactive movements of body …"
• Step 8: "Stilling reactive movements of heart-and-mind …"
• Step 12: "Liberating heart-and-mind …"
• Step 16: "Letting go …"

Body and mind affect each other

Here we have a series of stages, each one going deeper. In a psychological training like this, we might not think that the way we're sitting is relevant. Actually body and mind are not separate from each other. Each affects the other. Stilling the body turns out to be a first step towards stilling the mind. If it takes time to work through Steps 1 to 4, don't resent that time. It isn't a distraction from the deeper work we may wish to do. It's actually a means towards that work. As we still the body, we begin to still the mind too.

Stilling and liberating heart-and-mind

Stilling heart-and-mind and liberating heart-and-mind are treated as two different stages. Again, the first one is a means towards the second one. If the mind is jumping about, reacting to some memory, or some current issue, we can't begin to heal issues of which we're not conscious at this time. First we need to bring current reactivity to stillness. If that takes time, perhaps the whole of today's practice, then again don't resent that time. It's a means towards whatever deeper work may need to be done. It takes one more issue away from the healing to come.

When heart-and-mind are liberated from whatever psychological issues may once have restricted them, then the letting-go will follow naturally. In Step 16 that means letting-go of whatever has come to an end in life.

Reactive movements

Steps 4 and 8

Steps 4 and 8 show that "reactive movements" are an important concept in these steps. I've translated saṅkhāra in this way because I think it is useful to us when we practise Anapana and bring first the body and then heart-and-mind to stillness.

How we're conditioned

However saṅkhāra might be better translated as "conditioning factors". It's a double-edged word. It can mean both what we are conditioned by, and how we are presently conditioned. It's the way our minds have been conditioned, by all the experiences we've passed through in life, which has set the pattern for how we react to events, people, language and everything life holds now. Our habits and our reactions come from our conditioning.

How can we change?

Yet we don't have to react in line with our earlier conditioning. We remain free agents, but that conditioning, and the habits and reactions we've developed as a result of it, is very powerful. It's very hard to go against it. How can you change the way you react, when it happens so fast that you've already reacted before you have chance to realise what's happening? It happens before you can think about it or choose to do otherwise.

Undoing our conditioning

That's where we discover the genius of the Anapana practice. What we can't do directly, we can do indirectly. Through the gentle and persistent practice of mindfulness, developed step-by-step, day after day, we can slowly start to influence what lies deep within the mind, and heal whatever damage may have been done there in the past.

Becoming free

Through the sense of ease or well-being we develop as a result of mindfulness of the body, we can start to undo the conditioning. We can become free agents once more. We can develop new habits, as we sit in an unconditioned state. This leads us to the liberation of Step 12. After that we no longer react as once we did. We discover a new-found dispassion in Step 14, and a new-found ability to let go of what we might once have clung to in Step 16.