Tranquillity: letting body and mind become still

Calm the body first, then the mental activity — so effort and joy can settle into ease.

Perché funziona

SN 46.51 gives the fuel for tranquillity (passaddhi) as tranquillity itself, “of the body and of the mind,” wisely attended to: noticing calm where it already exists lets it spread. MN 118 builds the same move into the breathing instructions — “stilling the physical process,” then later “stilling the mental process.” In the sequence, tranquillity follows joy and is what allows concentration: “when the body is tranquil and they feel bliss, the mind becomes immersed in samādhi.” It is one of the three factors the Fire discourse prescribes for a restless mind.

Come farlo

1. Find one place in the body that is already at ease — the hands, the belly, the face — and rest attention there for a few breaths.
2. Let each out-breath invite the body to soften a little further, as MN 118’s “stilling the physical process” suggests.
3. Once the body is quieter, notice the pace of thinking and let it slow the same way, without pushing thoughts out.
4. Rest in whatever stillness is present before moving to anything else.

Prove scientifiche

The fuel for tranquillity is stated in SN 46.51; the stilling of the bodily and mental processes is part of MN 118’s sixteen steps; and SN 46.53 places tranquillity among the factors that settle a restless mind. Support is textual and practitioner-based. (anecdotal)

Not studied as such. On a sluggish, heavy mind the Fire discourse says tranquillity is the wrong thing to develop — it can deepen dullness.

Fonti

• Sujato, B. (trans.). Nourishing (Āhārasutta, Saṃyutta Nikāya 46.51). SuttaCentral.
• Sujato, B. (trans.). Mindfulness of Breathing (Ānāpānassatisutta, Majjhima Nikāya 118). SuttaCentral.
• Sujato, B. (trans.). Fire (Aggisutta, Saṃyutta Nikāya 46.53). SuttaCentral.

Errore comune

Using tranquillity on a mind that is already drowsy — the discourse is explicit that calm, concentration and equanimity are the wrong time when the mind is sluggish, like throwing wet grass on a small fire.