Two Interrelated Buddhist Meditation Systems: Samadhi and Vipassana

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.