Mindfulness of Breathing: Counting (video)

Why do we count the breaths in meditation? Early Buddhist origins

(Doug's Dharma, Sept. 13, 2021) For many of us meditation involves a practice of counting the breaths. But it wasn't originally practiced that way. Let's look at the development of the practice of counting breaths through some of its earliest written descriptions. Then we'll consider why the practice may have originated.

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✅ Video mentioned: The Five Hindrances to Meditation [previously "meditation" meant "meditative absorption"]: "Armies of Māra"

✅Books mentioned:

• Mindfulness of Breathing by Ven. Anālayo (Windhorse, 2019), pp. 231-233.
• The Path of Freedom (Vimutti-magga) pp. 159-160.
• Vimuttimagga and Visuddhimagga: A Comparative Study by P.V. Bapat
• The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) by Ven.  Ñāṇamoli (trans.), pp. 271 ff.
• Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam by Leo Pruden (trans. of De La Vallée Poussin)

✅ Other literature mentioned:

• Ven. Anālayo's “How the Steps of Mindfulness of Breathing Decreased from Sixteen to Two,” in Illuminating the Dharma: Buddhist Studies in Honour of Venerable Professor KL Dhammajoti, Toshiichi Endo (ed.), (Centre of Buddhist Studies, U. Hong Kong, 2021)
• Ven. Anālayo, “The Treatise on the Path to Liberation (解脫道論) and the Visuddhimagga”
• “Mindfulness of Breathing in the Dhyāna Sūtras” by Florin Deleanu

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:17 When Counting Began
• 03:01 The Vimuttimagga
• 06:35 The Visuddhimagga
• 13:13 Abhidharmakośabhāsyam
• 14:56 Why counting may have developed
• 18:46 Problems with counting

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