Ānāpānasati: mindfulness of breathing
Ānāpānasati means mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing. It is the practice nearly every Vipassana course opens with, and the one experienced meditators keep returning to. It is simple to describe and takes years to exhaust.
On this page
The instruction, in full
Sit. Let the breath be natural — you are observing it, not managing it. Rest attention where the breath is most clearly felt: usually the rim of the nostrils, or the small area between the nostrils and the upper lip. Know when the breath is long. Know when it is short. When attention wanders, notice that it has wandered, and bring it back without comment.
That is the whole instruction. Everything else is detail about how to keep doing it.
Why the nostrils, and not the belly
Both are taught. The Theravada lineages that feed most Vipassana courses favour the nostril area because it is a small, specific target, and a small target sharpens attention faster than a large one. Watching the belly rise and fall is easier and calmer; watching the touch of air at the nostrils is finer work and builds more concentration.
If you cannot feel anything at the nostrils at first, that is normal and it is not a failure of the practice. Keep attention in the area. The sensitivity develops.
Posture
Upright, and sustainable. A straight spine keeps you alert; the rest is negotiable. Cross-legged on a cushion works if your hips allow it. A chair works. Kneeling on a bench works. Choose the position you can hold for the length of the sit without needing to move, because moving to relieve discomfort is the exact habit the practice is training you out of.
Eyes closed. Hands wherever they rest without effort. If pain becomes genuinely sharp rather than merely unpleasant, adjust — this is training, not endurance sport.
What usually goes wrong
Four things, in roughly this order. You control the breath instead of watching it — the fix is to let it be uneven and boring. You get frustrated at wandering — but noticing the wandering IS the moment of mindfulness, so each return is a repetition, not a failure. You get sleepy — usually a sign of too little light, too much food, or too little sleep, not of poor practice. And you chase pleasant states that appeared once and expect them back — the most reliable way to prevent them from returning.
How long, and how often
Twice daily is the traditional shape, morning and evening, and it works better than one long sit because it keeps the practice near the surface of the day. Ten to fifteen minutes is a real session if you actually do it every day; an hour once a week is not.
Length grows on its own as concentration does. On the Vipassana.Life course, sits open at around ten minutes in Part 1 and lengthen across the five parts — five days of foundation, then twenty-five days of sustained breath work, before any body scanning begins.
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The Vipassana.Life course is free, self-paced, and supported by dāna. No account is needed to begin.