Samatha and Vipassana Meditation

[MrSweatish]

commercial in beginning :P

[108shadow108]

to say you can't get samatha, vipassana or samadhi is totally untrue, if he cant get his knowldge right then why listen to him

[sensibilita]

how can someone talk about 'boring' here? If so, you're not ready for this instruction ... and what violent inner conflicts you have (your strange dreams) .... take it easy, take it slowly, 'dharmasack'!

[dharmasack]

Interesting, this guy does know what he's talking about, but his delivery is so boring that during the lecture I fell asleep; I had three dreams and in each one I blew my brains out...

Someone throw a pie or something! Let's come to life and be happy, it's Buddhanature!

[ruzickaw]

@dharmasack I agree with you. Boring speaking. Most buddhists have weak voices

because of lack of vitality and exercise.

[Roelisc]

@ruzickaw Not exactly. Your untrained mind is seeking these thing's, so naturally you will find them. Why they have subtle tone's is because of their mindfullness, their extremely keen to every moment, and speak softly and calmly, naturally, not engaged, it's just a byproduct of meditation.

[makespeaches]

in meditation it is very important to find a realized master.

i have experienced several things but am not old enough to teach.

i can tell you though that this guy has no idea what he's talking about. (he's very learned from books and history but has little learning from personal experience.) just a heads up.

[johnt49]

you're obviously too young to know that you shouldn't criticize people. This is an enlightened monk you are talking about,have some respect.............john from Hope BC

[makespeaches]

certainly not enlightened in terms of realization of the meaning of relative and absolute.

just listen to his voice, does he sound happy or free from anxiety or free from ideas or like a buddha?

[makespeaches]

he speaks of people being, "not realistic at all," when the orthodox teaching says there is no reality, no teaching, etc. which is not nihlistic, see the Heart Sutra, etc... and this whole video doesn't really say anything useful: he says samatha is brought by emptying the mind which is exactly what the Sudden School of The Sixth Patriarch was against. he says to empty your mind of philosophical ideas yet the whole video he talks of the very same without giving any practical advice, etc...

[Mwaterfall]

In sum the cultivation of concentration is needed with the awareness of bodily sensations and arising thoughts...

We will never and can never comprehend a glimspe of what truth is (reality) through thinking. We have to combine thinking with much awareness of the here and now. Less thought, but more experience should be our motto...

Vipassana is simply being aware of our sensations; Samatha is simply being aware of your breathing. Vipassana needs Samatha in order to be liberating

Peace

[makespeaches]

not even close to correct

[Mwaterfall]

Makespeaches,

My dear teacher, what is then "close to correct"?

[makespeaches]

well, if you type 'define:samatha' or 'define:vipassana' into google, simply, then you don't get the same definitions you've given. you're not even saying the same thing as the guy in this video. although at the same time i agree that vipassana/samatha is a state of awareness with non-attachment from my small experience. i've been taught by a tibetan lama samatha as calm-abiding... so i guess you actually are close, i'm not a lama or anything, i'm just trying to help a bit...

[Mwaterfall]

makespeaches:

so to your understanding, vipassana then deals more with meditation, and samatha deals more with just living? One is an art, the other is a state obtain from such arts and practices?

[makespeaches]

honestly search for "lama gursam"+"shamata"+"ustream" if you want to know what i know, and yes shamata spelled like that.

lama gursam says in the video on shamata that samatha is non-attachment to thoughts and generates awareness and bodily bliss and general good feelings.

the beginning of this, he says, is when people simply watch their breath or when they visualize, and certainly these methods work for me to enter a profoundly different state of peace and bliss.

[makespeaches]

the assumption is that these practices strengthen those areas of the brain and certainly awareness and bliss is nice, bro.

it's certainly worth it and he talks about how it becomes easier and easier to enter this state and be aware, blissful, etc., and thus there must be a change in the brain of the meditator.

from what i've experienced i will say that koans are the best method of vipassana. that the other side which is thought/koan is necessary in order to realize the heart sutra and so on.

[Mwaterfall]

makespeaches,

Thanks for the information.

Note: whatever best method works for you, engage in it. The key is to purify the mind from the dominance of ego (self-centeredness) by being aware of the now with non-reactivity

And awareness of the now entails that you succinctly WILL know the difference between the eternal watcher and impermanence

[makespeaches]

yeah i mean i've had more experiences, as we say 'recently'... and now i understand the eternal watcher and impermanence, where impermanence is the uniqueness of everything and the eternal watcher is putting the moment into context. i relate this to Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces - the journey through the subconscious, the trials that the hero faces, is the eternal watcher, which is to relate and understand various moments, which is samatha/vipassana, is practicing bodhiccita.

[makespeaches]

and I believe i understand his message when he says "primarily samatha is produced by emptying the mind of its thoughts, memories, plans for the future, memories of the past, and an interest in sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches and ideas, so we're emptying the mind even of ideas." which is basically a rejection of the internal world which i just called the "eternal watcher".

[makespeaches]

if we reject the internal world for the world of the senses, then the thoughts will come back again and again, we will speak/act inappropriately precisely because we never reflected on the action in context: how it arised and where it led.

also, if we just live in this internal world alone then we will never act.

i feel very passionate about this because insight into how suffering arises, via the 'internal-s/v' journey, is the only way to not repeat the sin, so to speak.

toactwithbodhic

[Mwaterfall]

makespeaches

We share the same passion and longing for liberation from this "world of sin" or from the ignorance of the limited ego.

makespeaches, bear in mind that we can NEVER combine reflecting on action in context - how it arised and where it led, with action, speaking, and thinking. We would never be human if we failed to act, and we wouldn't be God if we failed to "see"

One aspect of a righteous life deals with witnessing; the other, with thinking. But you cannot do both...

[Mwaterfall]

... both at the same time.

Hence, you must implement and schedule "watching" or "witnessing" in your life. In the very act of pure awareness, you are in the state of divinity. In the very act of doing, thinking, and being a good human being, you are in the state of humanity

This is best explained by the nature of Jesus Christ. It is said, Jesus was fully man, thus, called the "Son of Man." Yet he was fully God, thus, called the "Son of God." Even the message of him dying on the cross..

[Mwaterfall]

...teaches us that we too must die to the "self" that we like Christ may live and attain glorification. There is nothing wrong with action in itself. Rather is "blind reaction" that produces sin.

"Deluded by his identification with the ego, a person thinks, 'I am the doer.' But the illumined man or woman understands the domain of the gunas and is not attached." Gita 3:27,28

[Flutenatic]

Wow, one of the most accurate lectures ive ever heard.