First I realized that the Buddha’s teachings were for me a homecoming. It all rang true, and so familiar.
Then I saw with clear vision the path the Buddha pointed out was truly walked by meditating. Not by more reading, or by thinking about meditating, or thinking about what you’ve read, but by actually sitting down and meditate.
And with these certainties now alive, I knew that I had to discover—if at all possible—what kind of meditation the Buddha himself practiced, especially as he gained enlightenment.
It took less looking than I had anticipated, for it soon grew very clear: the Buddha practiced the mindfulness of breathing: Anapanasati.
Ana means in-breath, Pana means out-breath, Sati means mindfulness. Anapanasati, then, is the meditation of mindfulness of breathing.
Once I was satisfied (and I was and am) that this was indeed the form of meditation the Buddha not only practiced during his enlightenment, but also preferred for the remainder of his life, it was, for me, then the matter of tracking down as faithful and instructive guides to the practice as possible.
Ideally, and this is mentioned often, you practice with an experienced and knowledgeable teacher. Granted, but I do not have an experienced and knowledgeable teacher within reach, and I do not want to limit my practice to times when I might be able to attend retreats; so, for me it became a matter of finding my teacher in the written word—and, from Larry Rosenberg, the spoken as well.
The Anapanasati Sutta is of course available in the translations of the Pali Canon; but when it came to actually sitting down, I needed the elaborations of experience, and here is where I found them.
Ulf Wolf