Samatha-vipassanā
Buddhist meditation practices
Samatha (Pāli samatha Sanskrit: śamatha शमथ; Chinese: 止; pinyin: zhǐ), "calm," "serenity," "tranquility of awareness," and vipassanā (Pāli vipassanā; Sanskrit: vipaśyanā विपश्यना; Chinese: 觀; pinyin: guān; Sinhala: විදර්ශනා), literally "special, super (vi-), seeing (-passanā)", are two qualities of the mind developed in tandem in Buddhist practice.
In the Pāli Canon and the Āgama these qualities are not specific practices, but elements of "a single path," and are "fulfilled" with the development (bhāvanā) of mindfulness (sati) and meditation (jhāna) and other path-factors. While jhāna has a central role in the Buddhist path, vipassanā is rarely mentioned separately, but is usually described along with samatha.
The Abhidhamma Pitaka and the commentaries describe samatha and vipassanā as two separate techniques, taking samatha to mean concentration-meditation, and vipassanā as a practice to gain insight. In the Theravāda tradition, vipassanā is a practice that seeks "insight into the true nature of reality", which is defined as anicca ("impermanence"), dukkha ("suffering, unsatisfactoriness"), and anattā ("non-self"): the three marks of existence. In the Mahayana traditions vipassanā is defined as insight into śūnyatā ("emptiness") and Buddha-nature.
In modern Theravāda, the relation between samatha and vipassanā is a matter of dispute. Meditation-practice was reinvented in the Theravāda tradition in the 18th–20th centuries, based on contemporary readings of the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta, the Visuddhimagga, and other texts, centering on vipassanā and "dry insight" and downplaying samatha. Vipassanā became of central importance in the 20th century Vipassanā movement which favors vipassanā over samatha.
Some critics point out that both are necessary elements of the Buddhist training, while other critics argue that dhyāna is not a single-pointed concentration exercise.
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