Introduction

Meditation practices are typically described under the headings of Samatha meditation or Vipassanā meditation, where samatha is usually translated as calm abiding or tranquility meditation, and vipassanā as insight meditation. In the 1960s, confusion was sown when the Burmese Vipassanā school of Mahasi Sayadaw taught that only a limited level of concentration – access concentration, rather than fully developed jhāna – was necessary for the complete development of insight and, ultimately, enlightenment. As a result, samatha and vipassanā for a while came to be mistakenly regarded as separate traditions, when in fact they are closely interrelated and interdependent.

Also, historically, and for centuries, the samatha component has always been taught creatively, and has been heavily influenced by the particular bent and skills of different teachers. There are also cultural differences to suit different temperaments, so that in Tibet visualisation is strongly emphasised; in Japan emptiness and the blank wall or koan is developed; while in the Yogāvacara traditions of SouthEast Asia and the Khmer Empire, syllablles, yantra, invocation and the “wax-taper practice” are characteristics. All these more esoteric features gave amunition to the so-called “Reform” movement that exploded in 1950s-60s in Thailand to the detriment of established samatha teaching in many temples.

The description that follows is of the core features of samatha-vipassanā, that should be familiar to practitioners no matter what different cultural traditions they may have trained in, although they are here described by someone trained in the Thai-Cambodian tradition.

Ānāpānasati

Mindfulness of breathing, or ānāpānasati, was the main form of samatha meditation taught by the Buddha, and it is a core meditation practice found in all the main Buddhist traditions. In it, samatha is developed progressively to the four rūpa jhānas (form or fine-material absorptions), and to the four arūpa jhānas (formless absorptions), while Insight develops in a completely natural way alongside.

In the West, generally, samatha meditation is only relatively recently becoming better understood. Even in some Buddhist countries, a degree of wariness is often apparent around the “magical” side of Buddhist practice associated with the jhānas, which can lead to these practices being played down, or even restricted in being taught. This was aggravated during the “Reform” period of the 1950s-60s, described later, but samatha meditation has of course survived, and is again attracting renewed interest as the central heart of Buddhist meditation.

The term jhāna is central to samatha practice. Etymologically it has two roots: the first “to think or meditate”, and the second to “burn up” (opposing states, or the hindrances to insight) (see Glossary & Sources, Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga). Thus jhāna is not just still, it is a powerfully active state. Other forms of meditation to develop jhāna, used for specific character types, take different objects than the breath as the focus to develop attention. These include the kasinas, such as a disk of earth, a colour, water, or fire, or an opening onto space, among others. Visualisation of the Buddha is also a popular practice, as is metta, or loving-kindness practice.

While the full development of Ānāpānasati is sometimes seen as daunting, a simplified samatha practice known as Bu-ddho is popular in Southeast Asia. Bu-ddho is a very faith-based practice where the two syllables Bu and Ddho are mentally linked to the in and out breath. Concentration and jhāna develop relatively easily for some meditators using this practice, but often with only limited discrimination between the different jhāna stages. The full development of the jhānas in Ānāpānasati is described in great detail in texts such as the Visuddhimagga and the Vimuttimagga (see Glossary & Sources), and parallel Tibetan texts. However, the detail is sometimes off-putting, and in fact many in the past have believed that jhāna can only properly be developed in seclusion, ideally in a monastic setting.

Many people when they first take up meditation are discouraged to find how little control they have over their minds. Intrusive thoughts, distracting thoughts, sensory distractions, mental “chatter”, over-excitement, dullness, sleepiness etc. This is “normal”, and is the first stage in developing attention, by giving attention to a meditation object such as the breath. The achievement of jhāna may seem a long way away, but these first steps are the most important, and with patience and encouragement the meditation practice will steadily deepen towards more peaceful and concentrated states, leading to the jhānas.

Attention

Much of the development of samatha may be described as the development of attention, with an increasingly subtle awareness of feeling and perception. The obstacles to developing attention, such as those mentioned above, are described in the Buddhist texts as the “hindrances”. The language is Buddhist, but the principles behind the hindrances could equally be described in psychological terms, and related to everyday difficulties in maintaining attention, and “interest” in whatever tasks we may be doing. In psychological terms, a familiar example of a problem with attention is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children, characterised by a mix of overstimulation, a need for continued stimulation, and boredom.

The breath as an object of attention is unique, in being always with us. From the first breath when we come out of our mother’s womb, to the last, when we die. Mostly it goes on in the background, unconsciously, never ceasing, but it can be made the focus of conscious attention whenever we choose. It is also intimately linked to our emotional mental state, as is well known to anyone working in mental health. The inhibited breathing of someone deeply depressed is completely different to someone overcome by rage, or in a manic phase of bipolar disorder, or to someone in a delusional psychotic state, or to someone struggling with obsessive compulsive disorder.

Yet despite its central role in our lives, it is at first not a very exciting or interesting object to pay attention to in meditation. In fact it may seem dull and boring. Hence the ease with which our attention wanders, seeking something more interesting, that has more feeling; it is feeling that gives us a sense of continuity, a sense of self. Hence also the reason why other meditation objects such as a colour Kasina, or an image of the Buddha, are initially easier to grasp and to have interest in.

However, it is just this simplicity and neutrality of the breath that gives Ānāpānasati its potential to develop attention fully, through understanding and mastering the hindrances, and developing willpower. Those who persist with Ānāpānasati also find the breath becomes increasingly interesting, increasingly subtle, and even magical in bridging life and death, and is intricately linked to consciousness itself, and the sense of self.

The nimitta

To help the meditator link his/her attention to the breath, the preparatory stages typically progress from mentally counting during the in and out breaths, to following the breath continuously in and out without the need for numbers, to finally fixing the attention on the sensation of touch of the air at the nostril or upper lip. By this stage the meditator is better able to resist distraction, the meditation practice becomes more settled, and becomes more of an internal process of being content with oneself.

As the meditator continues to attend ever more peacefully to the sensation of touch of the air, the breath becomes more subtle, and the meditator’s attention becomes in turn more sensitive and subtle. At this stage the meditator will “sense” his attention deepening by certain “signs”, which is the usual translation of the pāli word nimitta. The nimitta is the mark or sign, for that particular meditator, that characterises his or her awareness and its intensity, or concentration. For example, in everyday life joy and happiness may be accompanied by a sense of lightness of body and mind, sometimes tears, and sometimes a prickling of the fine hairs on the arms or head. These are the signs of joy and happiness. In breathing mindfulness, the nimitta is the sign of a deepening attention to the breath, and of a turning away from dependence on outer sense objects. The sign may be tactile – such as a sense of touch across the face, or, even more subtly, simply a sense of the mind touching the experience itself. But it may also for some meditators be visual – like a diffuse light, a colour, sometimes a tiny point of light, or clear and bright like the full moon.

The arising of a nimitta is a significant stage for a meditator. Without giving attention to the details of the nimitta – i.e. resisting the urge to label or “re-cognise” it – the meditator settles his or her attention onto the nimitta in order to further deepen their meditation towards more complete absorption, i.e. jhāna. The nimitta acts as a guide (see also the nimitta and neurofeedback).