Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Watching the Breath with Bare Noting
Rest attention on the natural breath and, with each in- and out-breath and each passing state, ‘note accurately’ what is happening while inwardly registering ‘this is not I, not mine, no Self herein’ — so attention steadies and clinging to a fixed self loosens.
Bennett’s breath-noting: Sit still; let the breath be natural and just watch it in and out. As each sensation, feeling, or thought arises, note it plainly — “this is breath, this is tension, this is a thought” — and inwardly recollect: “This is not I; this is not Mind; there is no Self herein.” Let each arising pass; return to the breath. Let the loosening of “me” open into compassion.
What it is
This is Allan Bennett’s own teaching of mindfulness of breathing joined to bare noting — the practice he carried back from Burma as the monk Ananda Metteyya and taught in his London lectures of 1919-1920.
Unlike a pure calming breath practice, Bennett’s instruction has two moving parts at once: you rest attention on the natural breath, and as each breath and each passing sensation, feeling, or thought arises, you “note it accurately” — register plainly what is happening — while inwardly holding the recollection that none of it is a fixed self: “This is not I; this is not Mind; there is no Self herein.” This is his practical form of satipaṭṭhāna (the foundations of mindfulness) and sammasati (right mindfulness).
The aim is not just a quiet mind but insight: by watching experience arise and pass without claiming it as “me” or “mine,” the habitual clinging to a solid separate self loosens, and (in Bennett’s view) compassion naturally follows.
The Method
Faithful to Bennett’s teaching (paraphrase with short attributed phrasing):
- Sit steady and find the breath. Settle into a stable posture and let the breath be natural — do not control it, only observe it. (Bennett distinguished this watching from the deliberate pranayama he also practised.)
- Rest attention on the in- and out-breath. Know the breath coming in as coming in, going out as going out. The breath is the anchor to which attention keeps returning.
- Note accurately whatever arises. As sensations, feelings, and thoughts appear, register each one plainly — “noting accurately” is Bennett’s rendering of right mindfulness. Don’t analyse or story-build; just acknowledge this is breath, this is tension, this is a thought.
- Apply the recollection of not-self. With the noting, hold the inner refrain Bennett gave: “This is not I; this is not Mind; there is no Self herein.” Each arising is seen as a passing event, not the property of a fixed “me.”
- Let arisings pass; return to the breath. Don’t grasp the pleasant or push the unpleasant; watch each state rise and fall, then come back to the breath.
- Let the fruit be compassion. Bennett warned that meditation cut off from this not-self understanding can feed the ego; held rightly, the loosening of self opens into mettā and care for others. (Sourcing note: “noting accurately” and “this is not I; this is not Mind; there is no Self herein” are attributed to Bennett’s satipaṭṭhāna lectures; the breath-anchor is canonical ānāpānasati as he transmitted it. Short quotation, not full reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Allan Bennett (1872-1923), Golden Dawn magician and Crowley’s early mentor, travelled to Ceylon and Burma, trained in yoga and Buddhist meditation, and was ordained the Theravada monk Ananda Metteyya — one of the first Englishmen so ordained and a key early transmitter of Buddhist practice to Britain.
He emphasised samatha (tranquillity) and the brahmavihāras, but framed mindfulness through satipaṭṭhāna — “noting accurately” while recollecting not-self — in his London lectures (1919-1920) and The Wisdom of the Aryas (1923).
This practice is his rendering of the Buddha’s ānāpānasati for a Western audience.
The Traditions' versions
The breath-anchor plus bare noticing is the spine of Buddhist mindfulness; Bennett’s distinct accent is welding the noting tightly to the not-self recollection from the very first sitting: - The Buddha’s canonical ānāpānasati (16 steps) — the full source form Bennett transmitted.,
- Satipaṭṭhāna — the four foundations — the framework Bennett used.
- Mahasi noting / mental noting — modern systematisation of “noting accurately.”,
- Self-inquiry “Who am I?” — a different route to the same loosening of a fixed self.
- Vivekananda’s witness of the mind — watching arisings without identifying.
Common refinements
Controlling the breath. This is watching, not pranayama — let the breath be natural; the moment you steer it, you have changed the exercise.
- Turning noting into commentary. “Noting accurately” is a light bare label, not an inner essay. If you are narrating, you have left the breath.
- Forcing the “no-self” idea. Don’t argue yourself into anattā; just keep releasing the reflex to claim each arising as “mine,” and let the loosening happen.
- Bypassing into detachment. Bennett’s caution: mindfulness severed from compassion can harden into cold withdrawal or feed the ego — let the practice soften you toward others, not away from them.
- Grasping pleasant states. Calm or absorption will come and go; cling to them and you re-create the very clinging the practice dissolves.