Two Interrelated Buddhist Meditation Systems: Samadhi and Vipassana
Dong Thang, Dr. Manisha Tyagi
REVIEW JOURNAL PHILOSOPHY & SOCIAL SCIENCE September 30, 2025 DOI: 10.31995/rjpss.2025.v50i02.043 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Samatha meditation |
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that samatha and vipassanā meditation are not separate methods but interrelated parts of a whole, both crucial for attaining complete liberation in Buddhist practice. |
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.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |