Shamatha and Vipashyana

Going Beyond a Settled Mind: Vipashyana Once you have gained a stilled and settled state of mind of shamatha, one that is held with great flexibility of mind and exhilaration and ecstasy, just to have this by itself, this single-pointedness of a stilled and settled state of...

Review True sufferings and the true origins of sufferings are the first two noble truths. These are the things that we need to rid ourselves of. There are four aspects that are associated with each of these and, to work with them in meditation, it is necessary to have a clear...

Bodhisattva Vows For practicing the engaged state of bodhichitta and being best able to practice the six far-reaching attitudes, we need to take the bodhisattva vows. This involves refraining from committing the 18 root downfalls and the 46 faulty actions that transgress these...

Shamatha emphasizes stabilizing meditation. Vipashyana emphasizes discerning meditation. A state of vipashyana is pervasive with being a state of the joined pair: stabilizing and discerning meditations.

An analysis of how to remain focused – what are the conducive conditions and deterrents of shamatha meditation. 

In the sutras, Buddha taught four types of objects of focus for practitioners to employ in meditation.

Even non-Buddhists can have valid apprehension of voidness, but not non-conceptional cognition, and thus cannot achieve a true stopping of suffering.

A detailed line-by-line commentary on the shorter of the Ninth Karmapa’s two texts on the Karma Kagyu tradition of mahamudra meditation.

Our meditation practice requires us to first analyze and understand the Dharma in order to integrate it into ourselves.

Through the power of achieving a stilled and settled state of mind and attaining the first level of mental constancy, practitioners can attain certain extrasensory awareness.