Over the course of the last hundred years, breathing mindfulness has become the most popular method of meditation around the world. Yet its history remains largely unrecorded. In her new book, Breathing Mindfulness: Discovering the Riches at the Heart of the Buddhist Path, scholar Sarah Shaw provides a historical survey of some of the methods of breathing mindfulness and how they developed.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Shaw to discuss how breathing mindfulness is linked to the seven factors of awakening, the central role of joy in meditation, why the tradition of samatha, or calm, meditation has been marginalized and suppressed, and what we can learn from thinking about traditions of breathing mindfulness as part of a vast ecosystem.