Dharma Talk April, 2009 John Corbaley

Samatha and Vipassana

Janet has spoken several times in the last few months about the mechanics of meditation. She has given some good information about samatha and vipassana, the calm and insight which comes into play during periods of mental practice. As you may know, Janet’s knowledge and skills in this area come from what is known as Vajrayana teaching, the wisdom of Northern Buddhism as it is practiced in Tibet, Northern India, Mongolia, and those places where Tibetan teachers have traveled to spread their knowledge.

 

The knowledge and skills I have gained over the years comes from what is known as Theravada teaching, the wisdom of Southern Buddhism as it is practiced in Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, and other places where teachers from those countries have traveled.

 

There are small nuances of difference between these two schools of teaching. Neither of them is inherently better than the other; the difference between them could be viewed mostly as a difference in perspective more than anything else. Personally, I think getting a divergence of views about teaching matters can be very beneficial, especially when discussing something like meditation. Sometimes learning ‘the one right way’ to do something can be limiting, when clearly there is no one right way which is better for anyone, particularly when it comes to meditation.

 

Today, I wanted to share what I have learned through study and experience about the interaction between the practices of samatha and vipassana, their occurrence and their use in meditative practice. One example I have found helpful I learned from a teacher many years ago. He taught about samatha and vipassana using the simile of a flashlight in his explanation of them.

 

He said imagine that you are in a huge dark cave. You have a small flashlight in your hand, and you turn it on. The beam coming from the flashlight is a column of light which, when you point it here and there, illuminates areas of the cave wall and ceiling. You can see quite clearly a small area where the flashlight is pointing. This is like the concentrated, calm focus of samatha.

 

During the samatha practice using the breath or a mantra, or some other device, the mind becomes concentrated. With repeated practice, some practitioners can achieve a great deal of concentrated focus which is signaled by appearance of a nimmita, a sign, called the acquired sign, a visual image which replaces the breath as its object of focus. The breath becomes silky. Concentration takes on an ease and lightness. This is the calm of samatha. With increased concentration, comes the more subtle counterpart sign which signals the stage of access concentration, called this because it is the entry or access point to the jhanas, the absorption states of more advanced concentration. Where samatha is gradually replaced by vipassana, as the mind shifts focus from an object, concept or sign, to reality itself.

 

Theravada teaching provides very specific instruction on achieving and maintaining this mental focus. The hindrances present themselves: desire, aversion, sloth, worry, and doubt. For each hindrance, a unique strategy is presented which relies on the power of absorption contained in the samatha practice. Sayadaw U Pandita is a renowned Theravada teacher and meditation master. He describes each antidote: for desire, the antidote is one pointedness of concentration.

 

For aversion, the antidote is the rapture and joy which comes along with deep concentration. For sloth, the jhanic factor of vitakka or aim helps open and refresh the mind. For worry, the deep comfort which arises allows the mind to watch both the pleasant and the unpleasant arise and pass away without aversion. For doubt, the jhanic factor of vicaara, or continuous attention--rubbing--allows the mind to maintain focus. 

 

Now, back to the flashlight. You’ve turned it on and pointed it around to illuminate points here and there on the cave wall. You focus on small concentrated areas with the focus of samatha. Now you take the flashlight, and carefully set it down on its base so that it’s pointing straight upward. If you step away a few feet from it, you begin to see, rather than points here and there, the entire cave dimly illuminated. As your eyes adjust, you gradually see more and more of the entire cave. You can appreciate the wholeness of the entire cave, not just parts of it here or there.

 

This is like the perceptual experience of vipassana. You can experience the rising and falling of phenomena in the moment, as mental events arise and pass away. You can experience the transitory nature of all phenomena. The dharma seals of impermanence, dissatisfaction, and egolessness become real as they are applied to your direct experience. This is the insight of vipassana. You will hear discussions about samatha, and vipassana as approaches to meditation. Sometimes you will even come across talk of a comparing nature; is one ‘better’ than the other? More necessary, more advanced? I don’t think any teacher with experience will draw these comparisons. Both are a necessary part of meditation.

 

Some insight meditation teachers favor what is known as a ‘dry vipassana’ approach which skips over samatha practice and goes right for vipassana without giving attention to calm focus. This method may work for some people. Many people, specifically Americans, report that they have difficulty with a concentration practice, and I think this is where the dry vipassana approach came from. Perhaps people were getting stuck in their meditative practice, having problems with samatha, and the teacher, seeing the futility getting stuck, says ‘try this.’ I think this method has value for those practitioners who experience problems with concentration.

 

The skillfulness of the teacher using this approach would be to know when to reintroduce concentration practice after the practitioner gains some skill with insight, and can then go on from there to increase the ability to achieve calm focus. In the long run, I think this is necessary. The Buddha gave a lot of emphasis to concentration practice in his direct instruction to his Bhikkhus. He clearly knew the value of samatha in the pursuit of nibbana. He taught the importance of the jhanas, the absorption states, in developing an appreciation of nibbana. These jhanas, absorptions states, are attainable with the application of samatha, concentration practice. I will close with a quote from the Vinaya Pitaka, in which the Buddha describes his use of the jhanas on the night of his enlightenment:

 

Unflinching vigor I have stirred up, clear mindfulness I have aroused, my body impassible, calm, my mind concentrated and one-pointed…I aloof from the pleasures of the senses, entered into the first jhana…rapturous and joyful. By allaying discursive thought, I entered into the second jhana…By fading out of rapture…and entered into the third jhana…By getting rid of joy and suffering, I entered into the fourth jhana…

 

With the mind thus composed I directed my mind to the knowing and recollection of my former lives, one, two, fifty, a thousand or a hundred thousand, the knowledge I gained in the first watch of the night….in the second I gained knowledge of the deceasing and arising of beings.

 

With the mind thus composed…immovable, I directed my mind to the knowledge of the extinction of outflows…This is suffering, this its arising, this its stopping. I understood as it really is. When this was known to me, my mind was freed from sense pleasures, becoming, speculative view and ignorance. In freedom the knowledge came to be: I am freed; and I comprehended that birth was destroyed.

 

This was the third knowledge attained by me in the third watch of the night; ignorance was dispelled, knowledge arose, darkness was dispelled. light arose even as I abided diligent, ardent, self-resolute. This Brahmin, was my third successful breaking forth, like a chick’s from the egg-shell (Conze, 1995. Buddhist Texts Through the Ages, pp. 60-62).

 

April 26, 2009.  John L. Corbaley, M.S., M.A.