Contemplating the Stream of Sounds through the Breath-Based Recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti)

This method involves reciting the Buddha's name while taking deep breaths, with the recitation flowing in rhythm with the breath. When you inhale deeply and fill your lungs, then as you exhale, slowly recite "A-mi" while breathing out; as the breath is fully exhaled, "A-mi" is completed. Then inhale fully again, and as you exhale once more, recite "tuo-fo" while breathing out; when the breath is finished, "tuo-fo" is also completed.

With each inhalation, draw the breath down to the dantian. When the dantian is full of qi, it will flow throughout the whole body. One stream of qi will flow from the dantian down to the huiyin area, then from there to the weilü point, and sequentially upward to the lower back, the back, the Dazhui point, and the shoulder blades, and then to the arms, hands, and head. At this point you will feel that the whole body is filled with qi; the lower back, back, and shoulders feel very comfortable; the back is straight, the shoulders are settled downward, the arms are soft, the breath is calm and gentle, and the mind is utterly still. At the same time, the breath filling the chest cavity flows slowly, and the mind opens up accordingly, boundless and vast, feeling as if the mind could embrace the entire void.

After the dantian is full of qi, slowly exhale upward from the dantian, passing through the navel, chest cavity, lungs, trachea, throat, mouth, and nasal cavity. The airflow of the recitation also passes over the tongue and teeth. The sound stream and airflow vibrate each part in sequence, and the body has strong tactile sensations. When the breath-and-recitation practice has brought the mind to stillness and the tactile sensations are distinct, you can then engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the tactile sensations in each location. The method of contemplation is the same as that of contemplating the breath and so forth. Contemplating in stillness, the tactile sensations wherever the sound stream and airflow reach are all perfectly clear, and ultimately one can realize the emptiness of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha).

Some people contemplate the white tip of the nose and gradually perceive smoke-like vapor; with eyes closed they can see the breath at the nose tip appearing as smoke, resembling a granular state, and occasionally with eyes closed they can see the scenery around the body as if suspended in granular form, the scenery seeming ethereal and insubstantial, with a somewhat unreal feeling. This feeling is close to the truth, drawing near to the truth. With such a level of contemplative practice, it will not be too difficult to realize the truth.

If one contemplates tables, chairs, walls, and so forth as being composed of particles, contemplating them as illusory, to the point of forgetting the former feeling that objects are real, then in meditative concentration the body may pass through these objects without obstruction. But once one again becomes aware that objects are real, the objects become obstructions once more. Thus the mind's firm attachment to objects obstructs all of one's actions, causing blockage and impenetrability everywhere. Correct cultivation is to realize the illusory nature of dharmas and remove attachments; then body and mind will be unobstructed in all directions, able to ascend to heaven and descend into the earth as if moving through empty space.