Two Interrelated Buddhist Meditation Systems: Samadhi and Vipassana

Buddhist teachings hold that human desires and worldly pursuits cause suffering, and freedom is achieved through ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom. The two meditation techniques—samatha (calm) and vipassanā (insight)—are not separate but interrelated parts of a whole practice. Samatha tames and masters the mind, providing a foundation of concentration; vipassanā then eradicates deep mental impurities, leading to wisdom, spiritual liberation, and freedom from suffering and rebirth. In Western culture, these are often separated, but in Buddhist training both are crucial for complete liberation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Human desires and worldly pursuits are sources of suffering for individuals and society. The Buddha, time and again, taught that our freedom lies in our hands, more specifically in the boundaries of our minds. The heart of Buddhist practice to achieve freedom is a life of ethical conduct (sîla) and the practice of concentration (samâdhi) and wisdom (paññâ). The two meditation techniques to achieve concentration and wisdom are samatha and vipassanâ meditation. Although in Western culture, they are often separated by the popular focus on mindfulness or concentration meditation mainly, these two meditation techniques are not two separate methods. In Buddhist training for freedom, they form two interrelated parts of a whole, both crucial to attaining complete liberation. They are the methodical effort to tame and master the mind and to develop its capacity for calm and insight. Vipassanâ is a path to wisdom, spiritual liberation, and the pursuit of freedom from the bondage of mental impurities, suffering, and repeated rebirth. Having achieved the foundational ground of concentration with samatha meditation, one can eradicate the deepest level of mental impurities with vipassanâ meditation.