meditation types

zenmonkey

I am reading here and learning so much, but I spend to much time looking up words and definitions (usually unsuccessfully, as these lead to new words and such)
Could someone give me a single word or short phrase definition of the following:

Vipassanā, Samatha & anapanasati.

I know they are types of mediation, so I looked them up on Wikipedia but just got more confused as to what is what.

Vipassan is insight meditation I think, but I don't really know what that means. One site said it was just focusing breathing, which I thought was anapanasati.

Something I found said that samatha was object focusing, but the object could be the breath.

Please help my monkey mind

Thanks with Metta

Joshua

Brilliant post, I've been wanting to post the same thing.

Yeah Vipassana is most definitely insight meditation Samatha is concentration meditation and they go hand in hand. If I'm correct I believe Samatha typically is developed first using a specific object of meditation in this case for conventional purposes it you could say Anapanasati is a sub-genre of Samatha for beginners. Later on that would be incorrect to say because Anapanasati is simply a technique whereas Samatha is an entire broad system of meditation. I believe the end result of Samatha is simply to calm your mind absolutely. To use a very common analogy like the waters of a calm lake whose smooth surface is only broken by the occasional ripple.

There's a good chance I'm entirely incorrect

I'd like to add to your question though, what is the proper Pali/Sanskrit term for Tranquil Meditation. It's not Samatha is it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_meditation <- there's some intimidation for both me and you

seeker242

Ānāpāna-sati: Awareness or mindfulness on & by in-and-out-breathing, is one of the most important trainings for reaching mental concentration and the 4 absorptions jhāna.

Samatha: 'tranquillity', serenity, is a synonym of samādhi concentration, cittekaggatā one-pointedness of mind and avikkhepa undistractedness. It is one of the mental properties in 'advantageous consciousness. Cf. foll. and bhāvanā

Vipassanā: 'insight', is the intuitive light flashing forth and exposing the truth of the impermanency, the suffering and the impersonal and unsubstantial nature of all material and mental phenomena of existence. It is insight-understanding vipassanā-paññā that is the decisive liberating factor in Buddhism, though it has to be developed along with the 2 other trainings in morality and concentration. The culmination of insight practice see: visuddhi VI leads directly to the stages of Nobility see: visuddhi VII.

This dictionary is pretty good.

Joshua

omfg that site is the fucking mother load.

seeker242

It's a pretty good Theravada dictionary as it is terms found used in the Pali Canon. However, terms that are found in other sutras have to be found elsewhere.

TheJourney

All I do is focus on the breath. As you said, that seems to incapsulate all the different types. I too would like a breakdown of what the difference is in practice, as in what do you do differently for each type.

Cloud

TheJourney wrote: »

All I do is focus on the breath. As you said, that seems to incapsulate all the different types. I too would like a breakdown of what the difference is in practice, as in what do you do differently for each type.

Here's some info (Google Power!): http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/practices/meditation.htm

BonsaiDoug

Here are a bunch of good meditation articles: http://shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=222

zenmonkey

Thank you to all who helped me answer this question.

I love Google Power!, but you have a better mastery of it than I do, since most of my confusion came from to much googling

I can't believe that with all my googling I never found either of those 2 sites.

With metta

Jeffrey

Jon Kabat Zinn teaches buddhist principles in a stress reduction clinic in a non-secular way...

He actually starts by giving people 3 raisins and eat them slow and mindfully which I tried the guided meditation and I got the idea of mindfulness a little better from the experience..

Then he went into breath meditation

Then awareness of whole body meditation

Then awareness of sound

Then awareness of whatever arises, which I think is like an intro to formless meditation which my teacher teaches..

Then he also taught a body scan technique to relate to and have mindfulness of the body over 45 minutes. I think I consider that meditation.