Cattāri Brahmavihārā

The idea of staying with the breath through the course of one’s daily life is a teaching that can be traced directly back to the Satipatthana Sutta and which is the especial focus of the group with whom I have practiced for the better part of the last ten years. In our gruop this form of quotidian breath awareness is often called natural meditation but is a skill which has largely eluded me. And, yet, I may have had a small breakthrough last night and I wanted to jot down my ideas before they are lost in a thousand other fantasies and resolves.

The practice of young the meditation word “Buddho” and coordinating it with the breath should be pretty familiar with anyone trained in the Thai Forest tradition of the Theravada. In short, you mentally recite “bud” in the in or out breath and “dho” on the following one. This gives the mind a little more purchase especially during those times when the breath seems too subtle or is otherwise distracted. I have experimented with this technique and had limited success but last night I was reading about silent japa recitation and it occurred to me that I could also use buddho as a form of buddhanussati in tandem with the breath. Doing so at least gives an unquiet mind a little more to hold onto while also helping it to attend to something more wholesome. As it stands, I have only been experimenting with this approach for the past twenty four hours but it holds promise and I can think of many worse ways to pass the time.