What made the Buddha's illumination or awakening possible was dhyana (ch’an; zen), although even the fourth dhyana is not the highest attainment (cp. D.i.38). The initial method the Buddha used was anapranasmriti (mindfulness of prana/respiration). He gives a detailed exposition of it in the Majjhima-Nikaya (Sutta 118). Depending on how far the student wishes to go with anapranasmriti it can reach the transcendent or it can be deployed psychologically as a means of coping with neurosis.





Finding a teacher who is capable of teaching anapranasmriti which can help us cope with life's ups and downs is fairly easy. On the other hand, finding a teacher who can introduce us to using anapranasmriti to achieve dhyana is certainly much more difficult.





It happened to be the case in China, that even before Bodhidharma set foot in Southern China around 475, there were skilled dhyana teachers (i.e., Zen masters), many of whom were originally from India. They were extraordinary individuals. One notable dhyana teacher was named Buddhabhadra who learned dhyana from the accomplished master, Buddhasena, who resided in Kashmir.





It almost goes without saying, but the introduction to anapranasmriti, in order to achieve dhyana, is much more subtle than just sitting on a cushion learning to follow one’s breath. The commentaries, in fact, paint a more precise picture of anapranasmriti than the one commonly portrayed in modern Buddhist literature as being aware of one's respiration by resting the mind ‘around the mouth’ or on the 'tip of the nose'.





In the more advanced practice, as was probably taught in Bodhidharma’s time, one is mindful (smriti), mindful in the sense of being before or surrounding (pratimukha) respiration, including the nervous system, so that one eventually experiences the whole body (not just parts or sections of it) in front of one’s mind, as it were, being apart from it in the sense of disembodying. This is extremely subtle.



