The Related Suttas Collection 54.5

1. One Thing

Fruits (2nd)

“Bhikkhus, 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 bhikkhu—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 establishes mindfulness around the opening (of the nostrils).

Just mindful, they breathe in. Mindful, they breathe out. …

They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in watching, again and again, letting go.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out watching, again and again, letting go.’

Mindfulness of breathing, when developed and cultivated in this way, is very fruitful and beneficial.

When mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated in this way you can expect seven fruits and benefits. What seven? You attain enlightenment early on in this very life. If not, you attain enlightenment at the time of death. If not, with the ending of the five lower fetters you’re extinguished in between one life and the next … you’re extinguished upon landing … you’re extinguished without extra effort … you’re extinguished with extra effort … you head upstream, going to the Akaniṭṭha realm … When mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated in this way you can expect these seven fruits and benefits.”