parimukha in breath meditation: case closed

 

Re: An Anapanasati Question

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Post by frank k » Wed Feb 28, 2024 5:05 am

Another problem with the [wrong] literal spatial interpretation of parimukha, which I never saw anyone point out,
is 'pari-mukham satim upatthavetva' is saying the 'establishing of sati' is 'parimukha',
not "the in breath and out breath" is parimukha.

Sati means remembering and applying the Dharma.
If no 'dharma' is explicitly defined, then default value of Dhamma is 4 satipatthana.
Buddha explicitly defines sati = 4 satipatthana in SN 47.2.
In breath meditation context, you could say 'dhamma' = the instructions on 16 steps of breath meditation that sati is being "mindful" of.

Establishing of sati is what we 'parimukha',
we establish remembering and application of the Dharma "in front" [parimukkha],
not establish "breathing at the nose".
Since establishing of sati is not a physical thing, it makes no sense to take 'in front' or 'entrance' as a physical location.
The same use of 'front', 'face', 'entrance' in modern English, old English, every language and culture exists I'm sure.
"Face the facts" (at your nostril?)
'con-front reality'. (at your nostiril? The booger sitting right there?)

It's amazing there can still be any controversy on this.
Even the Ajahn Brahm camp, which has [wrong] views on jhana similar to Vism., don't interpret parimukha for breath meditation as "focus attention at breathing in nostril."

another post noting that the parimukha instruction also appears before instructions to do metta and brahmaviharas

Re: An Anapanasati Question

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Post by frank k » Tue Feb 27, 2024 5:04 am

And what about Brahma realm gods, who don't even breathe or eat food?

How do Brahma gods do metta and other 4 brahmaviharas without watching the breath at their nostril?

So you're saying brahma gods, who don't need to eat food or breathe, suddenly grow a nose, lungs, and start watching a breath at their nose when they do metta and brahma viharas?

case closed

parimukha is not literal, but figurative here. This is absolutely certain, because that term is used in these other meditations that have nothing to do with the nostril.
Do you need to watch the breath at the nose to abandon 5 hindrances? Or do metta? Or watch defilements vanish?

https://lucid24.org/tped/p/parimukha/book/index.html
excerpt
Scriptural evidence; all of the practices below cannot be undertaken when mindfulness is affixed at mouth-nose:
EA17.1, the practice of contemplating on the inconstancy of the five aggregates is described, prefaced by the parimukham expression: “專精一心，念色無常，念痛、想、行、識無常”; “He diligently collects his mind, and contemplates on/brings to his mind that form, feeling, perception, fabrications, and consciousness are inconstant.”
DN25 (iii49), MN39, AN9.40, speaks of the expression “parimukhaṃ satim upatthapeti” as in “overcoming hindrances”
AN3.63, as in the “divine abodes”
AN3.63, as in realizing that one’s defilements have been eradicated
MN91, as in setting the mind on the welfare of oneself and others.
SN54.7: Mahā-kappina was practicing anapanasati, with “parimukhaṃ satim upatthapeti.” He experienced the quaking, or spontaneous tremor of the body as a disturbance. The Buddha instructed him to practice “anapanasati: the contemplation on abandoning, with parimukhaṃ satim upatthapeti”
Ud5.10: “And on that occasion Ven. Cūḷa Panthaka was sitting not far from the Blessed One, his legs crossed, his body held erect, with mindfulness established to the fore…With steady body, steady awareness—whether standing, sitting, or lying down—a monk determined on mindfulness gains one distinction after another. ”
None of the above can be undertaken when attention is affixed at nose-mouth.
Another interesting point: the “early of the early” seem to not include this “parimukha” instruction in the standard meditation formula altogether (Ud21, 42, 43, 46, 60, 71, 77)
Mindfulness is not attention. Mindfulness is remembrance of one’s purpose, directionality, task…:
AN7.63: “Just as the royal frontier fortress has a gate-keeper — wise, experienced, intelligent — to keep out those he doesn't know and to let in those he does, for the protection of those within and to ward off those without…In the same way a disciple of the noble ones is mindful, highly meticulous, remembering & able to call to mind even things that were done & said long ago. With mindfulness as his gate-keeper, the disciple of the ones abandons what is unskillful, develops what is skillful, abandons what is blameworthy, develops what is blameless, and looks after himself with purity. With this sixth true quality is he endowed.”
To say that one should direct one’s mindfulness to a spatial location simply doesn’t make sense. Practitioners have to put the Teaching in front (mukha), i.e. invoke it in mind; It is akin to “gatekeeping” because the act of remembering the Dhamma is both to preserve it and to be preserved by it (śrutidharā). When one does mindfulness of the body, what one does is really not simply directing attention and affixing it to the body, but rather being mindful of body-related issues within the context of appropriate attention (e.g. practicing it with the purpose of preserving bodily ease, preventing bodily fever, and of inducing disenchantment…).