Samatha and Vipassana meditation: aims and differences
In Buddhism, meditation is more correctly understood as development (bhāvanā) and refers to two different forms of meditation taught there:
- Samatha meditation (the development of calm, samatha-bhāvanā)
- Vipassana meditation (the development of clear seeing, vipassanā-bhāvanā).
Samatha meditation (samatha-bhāvanā)
Samatha meditation is also called calm meditation and leads to the so-called absorptions (Buddhist jhāna; the identical term samādhi from Yoga is more widely known).
For a Buddhist, however, an intermediate state after emerging from absorption is more valuable. Unfortunately, this state is not entirely without danger for an unstable psyche (see iddhis and siddhis). It can be used as the starting point for insight meditation and can lead to considerably faster progress than so-called “dry” insight meditation—that is, without first attaining an absorption through calm meditation.
Samatha is practised by concentrating on a single point. Objects of concentration may include coloured discs or, more commonly in the West, the sensation of air flowing beneath or inside the nose while breathing. The aim is to achieve a kind of freezing or one-pointedness of the mind through concentration.
What do you see: two faces or a vase?
Vipassana meditation (vipassanā-bhāvanā)
Vipassana meditation is also called insight meditation and likewise leads to “absorptions”. Here, however, the meditation object is not an ordinary object such as a coloured disc. The object is called Nirvana or Nibbāna and cannot be attained through concentration alone.
Access to Nirvana arises through a completed state of detachment called equanimity regarding formations. A special absorption attained in this way is called path (magga), fruition (phala) or sometimes emptiness.
When the path is attained for the first time, the whole mind changes fundamentally as a result of this experience. All previous experiences and insights are revised and reassessed in the light of what has newly been experienced. A mind restructured in this way is then called enlightened or awakened. Awakening is the goal of insight meditation.
Vipassana is practised by trying, through training, concentration and mindfulness, to remain as close as possible to the origin of the present experience—in other words, to switch off the mental process of recognition or at least interrupt it quickly.
An example may clarify this. The mind normally tries to compare sensory impressions with what is already known and thereby understand their meaning. The eye itself cannot actually recognise a chair; it registers only colour and brightness. Nevertheless, when we look at a chair, we see a chair. This is due to a partly unconscious process of recognition.1
If we succeed in interrupting that recognition process, we experience the so-called truth or impermanence appearance. We no longer experience the familiar world, but the original sensory data from which we derive or construct our entire familiar world with the help of recognition.
The purpose is not to turn an ordered world into a disordered, apparently chaotic one, but to experience the general characteristics of this original sensory material thoroughly.
This leads to a kind of “unpleasant surprise” that sets in motion the otherwise impossible process of detachment and thereby makes awakening—the restructuring of the mind—possible.
“And what do I gain from enlightenment?”
You know with absolute certainty from your own experience that, fundamentally, you are not actually touched by birth, death or any other phenomenon. What follows from this? One example: it means the end of every kind of existential fear and gives you the freedom that results from it.
“How long will it take?”
The good news is that you do not have to sit in a cave for twenty years. The period traditionally attributed to the Buddha ranges from seven days to seven years. With consistent practice under monastery conditions, however, the impermanence appearance may be reached in about a month. The duration of the subsequent process of detachment depends on one’s own capacity for insight.
- More detailed theoretical information about Vipassana meditation
- Instructions for Vipassana meditation
1 Reversible images such as the one above allow us to observe consciously how this recognition process works. The mind cannot decide what it recognises and alternates between one meaning and the other.
Through concentration, the mind can also settle on one interpretation. In the same way, special training can make it possible to recognise “nothing” at all. That would be the first aim of Vipassana meditation.
Incidentally, when the untrained ordinary mind cannot recognise anything from the outset, it initiates a mental search in an attempt to connect the unknown with something familiar. Children often make a game of this by trying to recognise a face or animal in a cloud.
This inward turning additionally induces a light trance with reduced critical judgement. Advertising uses this, for example, to influence the networking of neurons in relation to the advertised product.
Example: “Are you still living, or are you already at home?” Which neuronal association rings a bell and has unfortunately been successfully wired into your mind?