is anapanasati just relaxing?

Fenix

Is anapanasati just relaxing and nothing else? Should a beginner do other meditation techniques or practice on the basics? what other main meditations are there?

jll

How do you define relaxing? Listening to music? A chat with an old friend?

Fenix

How do you define relaxing? Listening to music? A chat with an old friend?

being devoid of tension?

BuckyG

Hi Fenix :buck:

Is anapanasati just relaxing and nothing else?

Heck no!

Should a beginner do other meditation techniques or practice on the basics?

The Buddha's Shoulds: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/meditations4.html#shoulds

what other main meditations are there?

Guided Meditations:
http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1835/

A Guided Meditation:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/guided.html

Basic Breathe Meditations Instructions:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/breathmed.html

Keeping the Breathe In Mind:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/inmind.html

Frames of Reference:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/frames.html

The Breath: A Vehicle for Liberation:
http://www.audiodharma.org/series/16/talk/1843/

:buck:

newtech

relaxing yoked with insight.

BuckyG

:buck:

Should a beginner do other meditation techniques or practice on the basics?

Upasika Kee said:

"The first requirement when you come to practice is that you need to be the sort of person who loves the truth — and you need to possess endurance to do what's true. Only then will your practice get anywhere. Otherwise, it all turns into failure and you go back to being a slave to your defilements and cravings just as before."

Source: Pure & Simple.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/kee/pureandsimple.html
:buck:

Glow

Anapanasati is actually a pretty comprehensive meditation on the qualities of impermanence, the impersonal nature of this world (anatta or not-self), and unsatisfactoriness (dukkha or suffering). You're meant to "breathe with" all elements of experience, and so come to see the "not always so" nature of all things. Like the breath, they don't belong to you, and aren't yours to keep. Relaxation is a necessary step (because, if you're caught up in anxiety and yearning, you won't be in a position to observe things without mucking them up and complicating them with thinking or stirring up further reactivity), but it's much more than just that.

There's a very good exposition on the Ananasati Sutta by Buddhadasa here: http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Books3/Bhikkhu_Buddhadasa_Anapanasati_Mindfulness_with_Breathing.htm