Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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| Strength is needed but also ease |
"Serenity and insight," identical with stillness (samādhi) and wisdom (paññā), form the two branches of mental cultivation (bhāvanā) or self-development generally referred to as Buddhist meditation.
(1) "Serenity" (tranquility, settled, calm) is a peaceful, undistracted, undisturbed, unperturbed, and lucid state of mind/heart attained by strong mental attention to a single object.
Although as a distinct way of practice (samatha-yānika), it aims at the attainment of the eight meditative absorptions (jhānas), a high degree of tranquil focus (not necessarily to the level of absorptions) is indispensable for insight (vipassana), too.
Serenity temporarily frees the heart/mind from impurities and inner obstacles and gives it greater penetrative strength. Insight practices without a foundation of purified stillness will tend to be superficial or impossible.
''What now is the power of serenity (samatha-bala)? It is the one-pointedness and undistracted ability of the mind due to [temporary]
- freedom from [sensual] desire (renunciation)...
- freedom from ill-will...
- to the perception of light (aloka-saññā)...
- to non-distraction...
- to the defiling of phenomena...
- to knowledge,
- gladness,
- the Eight Attainments (jhanas),
- the Ten Kasinas,
- the Ten Recollections,
- the Nine Cemetery Contemplations,
- the 32 Kinds of Breathing-Mindfulness...
- the one-pointedness, and
- non-distraction of the mind of one contemplating abandonment (relinquishment) while breathing in and breathing out (ānāpānasati).
"In the first meditative absorption (jhana), it consists of freedom from the Five Hindrances (nīvarana).
"In the second meditative absorption, it consists of freedom from thought-conception and discursive thinking (vitakka-vicara).
"In the eighth meditative absorption (called the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception), it consists of the freedom from perturbation by the perception of the [preceding absorption called the] sphere of nothingness (see anupubba-nirodha), which is no longer agitated and irritated by defilements associated with restlessness nor by the Five Aggregates clung to as self" (Pts.M. 1. p. 97).
(2) "Insight" (vipassanā) is the penetrative understanding by direct meditative experience of the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and impersonality of all material and mental phenomena of existence. It is insight that leads to entrance into the supermundance states of holiness and to final liberation.
''What now is the power of insight?
"It is the contemplation of impermanence (aniccā-anupassanā), of misery (dukkha-anupassanā), impersonality (anattā-anupassanā), of aversion (nibbida-anupassanā), detachment (virāga-anupassanā), extinction (nirodha), abandonment (patinissagga), with regard to
- form (corporeality),
- feeling (sensation),
- perception,
- mental formations, and
- consciousness [the Five Aggregates clung to as self]....
"That in contemplating the impermanency one is no more agitated by the idea of grasping ... no more by ignorance and the defilements associated therewith and no more by the groups of existence: this is called the power of insight" (Pts.M. p. 97).
"Two things are conducive to knowledge: serenity and insight. If serenity is developed, what profit does it bring? The mind is developed. If the mind is developed, what profit does it bring? All lust is abandoned.
"If insight is developed, what profit does it bring? Wisdom is developed. If wisdom is developed, what profit does it bring? All ignorance is abandoned" (A. II, 2.7).
There is a method of meditative practice where, in alternating sequence, serenity-meditation and insight-meditation are developed.
"It is called 'serenity and insight joined in pairs' (samatha-vipassanā-yuganaddha), the coupling or yoking of serenity and insight.
"One who undertakes it first enters into the first absorption. After rising from it, one contemplates the mental phenomena that were present in it (feeling, perception, etc.) as impermanent, incapable of fulfilling, and impersonal [ti-lakkhana, the Three Universal Marks of Existence], and thus one develops insight.
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| Killer yoga instructor, literally: Armstrong |
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