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Preface to the Anapanasati Sutta 1
The preface to the Anapanasati Sutra was written around the first half of the third century, certainly before the year 229 because the text refers to Luoyang as the Capital. Anapana is the Great Vehicle of the Buddhas used to save living beings; it is the method of breathing in and breathing out (Anapana) to guard the mind, in which Sati (Guarding the Mind) means grasping the mind in the present moment. This Sutra has been circulated in Vietnam since the beginning of the third century through the commentary of Zen Master Tang Hoi, demonstrating the early combination of Theravada meditation sutras and Mahayana thought in Giao Chau. Tang Hoi is the First Patriarch of the Vietnamese Zen school, who went to Eastern Wu to teach the Way, established Kien So Temple, and organized the first ordination ceremony.
Anapana consists of six categories, called the Six Wondrous Dharma Doors, aimed at treating the six sense organs:
- Counting: counting the breath from one to ten.
- Following: following the breath; wherever the breath goes, the mind follows.
- Stopping: making the mind stop and become calm.
- Looking Deeply: looking deeply into the self-nature of dharmas.
- Returning: returning to see that the subject and object of observation are one.
- Purifying: transforming afflictions and attaining clarity.
The six sense organs include the internal eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, and the external form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and wrong perceptions. The mind of living beings is entered by wrong perceptions just as the ocean receives water from rivers, filled with all kinds of seeds that have neither form nor sound. In the time of a finger snap, the mind can undergo 960 shifts of thought; in one day and one night, the mind undergoes 1.3 billion thoughts. The method of practice begins with settling the heart, tying the mind to the breath, and counting to attain the first dhyana.