Ānāpānasati as a Full Path Training (MN 118)
MN 118 is a complete practice system. Treat it as your primary meditation text.
Explain the 16 steps as training across body, feeling, mind, and dhammas; run a practice plan that tracks hindrances and stability.
Core Teachings
Key concepts with source texts
The sutta explicitly connects breath training to the awakening factors (bojjhaṅgā) and liberation. Don’t reduce it to relaxation.
From the Source Texts
""Mindfulness of breathing, when developed and cultivated, fulfills the four establishments of mindfulness... fulfills the seven factors for awakening... fulfills true knowledge and liberation.""
Commentary
That’s the claim. Your job is to test whether your practice is developing these factors.
Do 21 days: 20 minutes/day. Track: hindrances present? breath continuity? bodily ease? mental unification? After, compare day 1 vs day 21 with notes.
Study Materials
Primary sources with guided reading
MN 118 — Ānāpānasati
Primary meditation blueprint in the canon.
Additional Resources
Strong body-based concentration framing, supports samādhi without fantasy.
Write your thoughts before revealing answers
Consider these points:
- •What happens when concentration becomes identity/status?
- •What do the texts treat as the real goal: bliss or dispassion?
- •How does virtue and restraint stabilize the base so you don’t force?
Your Thoughts
Writing your thoughts first will deepen your understanding
Bridge notes help connect the resources and show how they relate to the learning outcome.
AI-generated notes synthesize the lesson outcome and resource summaries. Human-reviewed before publishing.
MN 118 claims mindfulness of breathing fulfills what sequence of trainings?