Calm and Insight

Samatha and Vipassanaare conducive to vijjâ or special higher knowledge and wisdom. The benefit of the well-cultivated samatha or calm meditation is the fully developed mind while the great profit of the perfectly well-developed mind is the elimination of attachment to sensual pleasures, the potent lustful desire for sexuality/sensuality or râga. The benefit of the well-cultivated vipassana or insightful wisdom is the completely developed wisdom while the uprooting of ignorance, the lack of realization of four noble truths, known in Pali as “avijjâ,” is the great profit of the thoroughly well-developed wisdom. The thorough and inseparable practice of both samatha and vipassana, the eternally married dharmas, will lead to the complete knowledge of that which needs to be known, which are the five aggregates of attachments. This practice is conducive to the utter eradication of that which needs to be uprootedly eradicated, which are avijjâ or ignorance and bhava-tanhâ or craving/thirst for existence or becoming. In addition, the practice of samatha and vipassana is to be made exceedingly flourishing, abundantly grown, and completely developed. Ultimately, it is the irreversible forward movement toward the experiential realization of the dharmas needed to be fully realized, which are the two forms of immeasurable freedom technically known as cetovimutti or emancipation through the perfectly well-cultivated mind (samadhi) and paññâvimutti or emancipation through impeccable wisdom.