Reading guide
A plain restatement, confirmed by direct comparison
Confirmed by direct comparison to SN 54.1, this discourse's own text is identical in substance: the same opening frame (wilderness, tree-root, or empty hut; sitting cross-legged; mindfulness established), the same closing step (observing letting go), and, by clear implication of the “…pe…” elision, the same complete sixteen steps in between.
Why a plain version follows a framework-mapped one
This project's own observation: following SN 54.2's own explicit mapping onto the seven awakening factors, this discourse's own title suggests a deliberate return to the bare formula itself — confirming the practice's own basic recitation stands independently of any doctrinal framework layered onto it.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, when mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated it’s very fruitful and beneficial. And how is mindfulness of breathing developed and cultivated to be very fruitful and beneficial? It’s when a mendicant—gone to a wilderness, or to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut—sits down cross-legged, sets their body straight, and brings mindfulness to the present. Just mindful, they breathe in. Mindful, they breathe out. … They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in observing letting go.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out observing letting go.’ Mindfulness of breathing, when developed and cultivated in this way, is very fruitful and beneficial.”
Self-check quiz
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