Steps 1 to 4, Stilling the Body

The first four steps of Anapana practice involve nothing more than "knowing" the breath and "experiencing" the body, which then lead in Step 4 to a "stilling" of "reactive movements of body". These descriptions suggest a style of meditation we may call "mindfulness of the body".

Here are the first four of the sixteen steps with which we begin Anapana practice.

1. When breathing in a deep breath one knows, “I’m breathing in a deep breath;”
when breathing out a deep breath one knows, “I’m breathing out a deep breath.”

2. When breathing in a shallow breath one knows, “I’m breathing in a shallow breath;”
when breathing out a shallow breath one knows, “I’m breathing out a shallow breath.”

3. One trains oneself, “Experiencing the whole body I’ll breathe in;”
one trains oneself, “Experiencing the whole body I’ll breathe out.”

4. One trains oneself, “Stilling reactive movements of body I’ll breathe in;”
one trains oneself, “Stilling reactive movements of body I’ll breathe out.”

Notice the role of the breath in these four steps. Steps 1 and 2 involve knowing each breath as an exercise in itself. When we move on to Steps 3 and 4, and all the other steps right up to Step 16, we don't lose our awareness of each breath, but it is no longer the main focus of what we're doing. All these later steps involve some form of training as we learn to experience something, or as we allow our growing experiences to lead us into further benefits of the process.

In Steps 3 and 4 we'll train ourselves to "experience the whole body" while still aware of in-breaths and out-breaths. That experience will then lead us to a bodily stillness. As we develop that stillness we don't lose either the awareness of breathing, or the whole-body experience.