Anapanasati - are the 16 considered progressive sequence of steps?

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Try not to overthink it. There is a clear path of progressive steps or progress, yes, but for each meditator it varies somewhat as they each have varied conditions. We don't control what arises, so we can't expect to watch it unfold like a textbook.

The stages or steps occur naturally, without us having to force or think about it, as long as you are doing the one basic thing correctly: observe with wise attention whatever arises, without judgement.

You'll notice each grouping of steps follows a pattern of prescriptive action - this pattern of treatment is the important thing. Apply this pattern to whatever arises, and the Path will unfold before you, eventually without "effort". At first we start with the coarse, and naturally go sublter and subtler as our minds get more still and concentrated. The next thing to contemplate will be waiting for you, and arise on its own. Don't try to seek out an expected experience. Just observe whatever it is as it arises, watch it as it disappears, relaxed, without clinging. Its shockingly simple when it finally clicks. No need to wonder if you're at stage 13 or should I now contemplate the next thing on the to-do list or anything like that, that will just stir your mind up.

The breath is simply our home base, something we can always return to if we wander. Sticking with the breath trains our focus, trains our concentration, trains our resistance, trains us to not cling or push away. It is important to remember that the training of these skills are the key, not what object you use.

Master the method, and the Royal Road to Nibbana will appear. Good luck. May we all become truly free.

Upvote:-1

the first 3 tetrads are about samadhi, ie with the calming of the kāyasankhāra and Cittasaṅkhāra, by relaxing the body and getting piti the usual way the buddha talks about samadhi.

The last tetrad is to reach nibanna, when the person seeks a way to reach the usual letting go, viraga and nirodha while in samadhi, which is exactly this

From AN 9.36 (translated by Bhikkhu Sujato):

‘The first absorption is a basis for ending the defilements.’ That’s what I said, but why did I say it? Take a mendicant who, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption. They contemplate the phenomena there—included in form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness—as impermanent, as suffering, as diseased, as an abscess, as a dart, as misery, as an affliction, as alien, as falling apart, as empty, as not-self. They turn their mind away from those things, and apply it to the deathless: ‘This is peaceful; this is sublime—that is, the stilling of all activities, the letting go of all attachments, the ending of craving, fading away, cessation, extinguishment.’

You cannot kill the saṅkhāras and then calming them, that's complete nonsense.

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OP: Or are they two different techniques?

These are two techniques.

The technique taught by Ven. Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu is the technique taught by Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. This is contemplating on the air element, though some also call it Anapana as it also deals with the breath. Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw also positioned it as contemplating the air element:

Thus we can feel the inward and outward movement of the abdomen. This specific characteristic of vayo dhatu must be thoroughly realized by meditators so that they can destroy the false view of a person, a being or a soul.

Mindfulness Of The Four Elements, Vipassana Meditation Lectures on Insight Meditation by Chanmyay Sayadaw

Actually it was the Buddha who did it, because he taught to observe vayo-dhatu, the air-element included in the 5 aggregates. The rising and falling is constituted of the air-element.

Questions and Answers with Mahasi Sayadaw

Anapana meditation is found in Anapanasati Sutta. This has 16 stages.

Each tetrad relates to particular Sathipattana:

Anapana

With regard to the Satipattana aspect, the sutta also mentions:

(II) When the mindfulness of the in-and-out-breathing is cultivated and often developed, it brings the 4 focuses of mindfulness to perfection.

Anapanasati Sutta

Upvote:1

The 16 dhammas are obviously progressive (sequential) steps -- since the Buddha said Dhamma is taught in a proper sequence (AN 5.159):

  • Calming breathing (kaya-sankhara) leads to rapture (vedana).
  • Calming rapture (vedana) leads to mental (citta) purity.
  • Mental purity (citta) leads to vipassana & nirodha (Dhamma).

How can the 16 dhammas not be progressive?

Also, steps 7 & 8 are experiencing mind conditioner (citta sankhara) and calming mind conditioner (citta sankhara). Feeling (rapture & happiness) is the citta sankhara, per MN 44. Steps 7 & 8 are not "mental activities". Ajahn Buddhadasa expertly explained Anapanasati in his book called 'Unveiling the Secrets of Life: a Manual for Serious Beginners'.

Similar to Ajahn Brahm's book about jhana, Ajahn Buddhadasa's book is the sole only authoritative book on Anapanasati.

In conclusion, Anapanasati is 16 progressive steps, which mirror (but are not exactly the same as) the jhana sequence of steps. Anapanasati is fruition of upacāra-samādhi. Jhana is fruition of appana-samadhi. Yuttadhammo monk teaches Satipatthana Sutta parikamma-samadhi.

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