Recollect the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha (buddhānussati)
Bring to mind, phrase by phrase, the qualities of the Buddha, his teaching and his community — a meditation that brightens the mind.
Pourquoi ça marche
The recollection of the Buddha uses a fixed formula — “That Blessed One is perfected, a fully awakened Buddha, accomplished in knowledge and conduct…” — followed by parallel recollections of the Dhamma and the Saṅgha. In AN 6.10 the Buddha tells Mahānāma that while a disciple recollects these qualities the mind is not full of greed, hate and delusion; it finds inspiration and joy, the body becomes tranquil, and the mind becomes immersed in samādhi. AN 3.70 likens it to washing a dirty head: the mind becomes clear and joy arises. The practice works through devotion and inspiration rather than through bare observation, which is why the tradition sets it beside insight practice rather than in place of it.
Comment faire
- Learn the formula for the Buddha’s qualities in the Pali (“Iti pi so bhagavā…”) or in an English translation such as the one in AN 6.10.
- Sit, and recite it slowly, pausing on one quality at a time — “perfected,” “accomplished in knowledge and conduct,” “knower of the world” — letting each one register.
- Do the same for the Dhamma (“well explained… inviting inspection”) and the Saṅgha (“practising the way that is good”).
- When the mind brightens or settles, you can rest in that settledness, or move on to your usual meditation.
- In the Thai Forest style, carry the word “buddho” with the breath through the day as a short form of the same recollection.
Données probantes
The method and its intended effects are stated in AN 6.10 and AN 3.70; SN 11.3 presents the same recollection as the Buddha’s instruction for monastics alone in the wilderness. The support is the canonical texts and their continued use in daily chanting; the practice has not been studied in controlled trials. (anecdotal)
Textual and devotional support only. It is a practice of faith and inspiration in the tradition’s own terms, and it is offered here as such, not as a relaxation technique.
Sources
- Sujato, B. (trans.). With Mahānāma (Aṅguttara Nikāya 6.10). SuttaCentral.
- Sujato, B. (trans.). The Banner’s Crest (Saṃyutta Nikāya 11.3). SuttaCentral.
- Sujato, B. (trans.). Sabbath (Aṅguttara Nikāya 3.70). SuttaCentral.
Erreur fréquente
Reciting the formula as a string of sounds while thinking about something else — AN 6.10’s description depends on the qualities actually being brought to mind, so slow down until one phrase at a time lands.
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Plus de pratiques pour Theravāda Buddhism: The Way of the Elders and How It Is Practised
- Go for refuge and keep the five precepts
Recite the three refuges and undertake the five training rules — the act that makes someone a Theravāda Buddhist, renewed every day.
- Practise generosity (dāna) and support the monastic Saṅgha
Give — food to monastics, time, help, the gift itself — in the way the discourses describe, and let the giving train the heart.
- Keep an uposatha day with the eight precepts
On an observance day, live for one day and night by eight precepts, “doing as the perfected ones do.”
- Chant the morning and evening Pali passages and the protective verses
Chant homage, the refuges, the recollections and the paritta verses aloud, alone or with others, the way Theravāda monasteries do each day.
- Dedicate the merit of what you have done to others
Close a sitting, an offering or a good day by wishing that all beings — including those who have died — share in its goodness.
- Practise in the Thai Forest style: “buddho” with the breath, and letting go
Join the meditation word “buddho” to the breath, make the breath comfortable, and let go of what the mind grasps — the way Ajahn Chah and Ajaan Lee taught.
- Find your way into the Burmese insight lineages
Understand the family of modern vipassanā methods that came out of Myanmar — Mahasi noting, and the courses taught by S. N. Goenka in the tradition of U Ba Khin — and choose one to learn properly.
Concepts associés
- Le Noble Sentier Octuple comme cadre de vie pratique
Huit pratiques qui se renforcent mutuellement pour réduire la souffrance et vivre avec plus de clarté
- La méditation vipassana, rendue pratique
Intuition, équanimité et l'approche du scan corporel pour se libérer de la réactivité
- Ānāpānasati: The Sixteen Steps of Mindfulness of Breathing
Breath meditation as the discourse lays it out: a path from calming the body to letting go
- Śūnyatā: Emptiness and the Two Truths in Madhyamaka
Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way: why nothing has a fixed essence, and why that is not the same as nothing