Samatha-vipassanā
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Samatha (Pāli) or śamatha (Sanskrit) is a set of meditation practices designed to enhance sustained voluntary attention, and culminates in an attention that can be sustained effortlessly and for hours on end [1]. Samatha is a subset of the broader family of Samadhi ("tranquillity" or "concentration") meditation practices[2]. Buddhists consider meditation to be an act of concentration on a particular object or idea, sometimes in conjunction with inquiry into the nature of the object, as with "wisdom" (or Prajñā) practices such as vipassanā ("insight") or Dzogchen[3]. Therefore, meditation from other religious traditions are sometimes referred to as a variation of samatha meditation that differ in the focus of concentration; such as breathing, scriptural passage, mantra, religious picture, a rock, body (as a representation of death), and so on. In this sense, samatha is not a strictly Buddhist meditation.
For Buddhists, it is commonly practiced as a prelude to and in conjunction with "wisdom" practices[4]. Traditionally, in Buddhist meditation there are 40 objects of meditation, although the breath as an object of meditation enjoys the widest popularity in contemporary society. Mindfulness of breathing or ānāpāna meditation which accompanies the Buddhist doctrine of rising and falling, can be used for both Samatha and Vipassanā Meditation. Samatha can include other Samadhi practices, as well.
Within the Tibetan tradition, Samatha practice progresses along ten carefully articulated stages, leading, in the tenth stage, to an exceptional state of meditative absorption or concentration[5] called the first jhāna (Sanskrit: dhyāna) which is often translated as state of tranquillity or bliss. Thus, it furthers the right concentration aspect of the Noble Eightfold Path.
Śamatha is commonly used in Tibetan Buddhism and various branches of the Pure Land tradition.
See also
External links
- Buddhist Meditation in the Theravada tradition
- How Meditation Works
- The Samatha Trust
- Buddhanet Main Page
- Buddhanet Meditation E-Books
Notes
- ^ Wallace, A: 'The Attention Revolution', Wisdom Publications, 1st ed., 2006, p.6
- ^ Wallace, A: 'The Attention Revolution', Wisdom Publications, 1st ed., 2006, p.131
- ^ Wallace, A: 'The Attention Revolution', Wisdom Publications, 1st ed., 2006, p.164
- ^ Wallace, A: 'The Attention Revolution', Wisdom Publications, 1st ed., 2006, p.164
- ^ Wallace, A: 'The Attention Revolution', Wisdom Publications, 1st ed., 2006, p.6