Samadhi or Vipassana? What Are They and What Should I Practice?

So you’ve been meditating for a little while and you’ve come across these terms samadhi and vipassana. Let’s understand exactly what they mean and how they relate to your practice. 

Think of samatha and vipassana as two different modes of meditation. They achieve different results, concentration and insight respectively. Importantly, the Buddha spoke about needing both in order to gain liberation. 

Samadhi means concentration. It refers to meditation that is single-pointed and focused (concentrated) such as breath and mantra meditation. In these meditations, the meditator attempts to keep the object of meditation in their focus, without letting the attention deviate. Think about how in your breath meditation you are focussed and intent on watching the breath. There is a discrete object of meditation. 

As a meditator develops this concentration, they reach deeper and more stable states of consciousness. Here, it can feel like the body becomes electric and energised, and time starts to fly by. One may even enter what is known as jhanic meditation, where one becomes “absorbed” in meditation and the surroundings. These are extremely profound and elevated states of concentration associated with supreme bliss and equanimity. Samadhi is associated with samatha (calm) because as the mind becomes stable, it wanders less, so one doesn’t feel pulled in all directions. 

Samadhi meditation pre-dates the Buddha’s enlightenment and many techniques were known even then. The Buddha was well versed in samadhi meditation and was readily able to enter jhanic absorption. Importantly though, he realised that concentration alone was not the key to enlightenment. He needed insight as well. 

Vipassana means insight. These days, the term is most well known from the School of Vipassana Meditation (the Insight School), but it is not a term that is specific to that school. We speak of insight as insight into the fundamental aspects of reality, namely impermanence (annica), non-self (anatta) and unsatisfactoriness (dukkha). This means to see through our constructs (mental narratives) that blind us to how life actually is. It is achieved by contemplating the body (rupa / form), feeling tone (vedena), mind (citta), and dhammas (aspects of experience). When we achieve vipassana, we get those ‘aha’ moments that we’re after as we see past our own BS and into reality more clearly. 

Vipassana is sought with a much more open mode of attention. I often talk about the difference between a spotlight of attention that follows its target (samadhi), and a floodlight that sees a whole scene that experience moves through (vipassana). It’s more like seeing the entire scene at a play as opposed to concentrating on a single actor. You have to take a step back and really open your awareness up. You have to take your ‘foot off the gas’. Common techniques include body contemplation (such as those taught by the School of Vipassana) and, open awareness / just sitting, and exercises contemplating the impermanent nature of things. 

Now, if you want to become enlightened you need to develop both! This is what the Buddha realised on the night of his enlightenment. As he sat under the Bhodi Tree, he developed intense concentration (samadhi), then contemplated aspects of his experience and gained perfect insight into reality (vipassana). When he did this, he saw through all his conditions–all his karma–and he became enlightened. Sounds easy!

The development of both samadhi and vipassana is critical. Sometimes there is a tendency to lean toward vipassana meditations (especially body contemplation) as a core practice, because we are allured by the promise of insight. But I often come back to something a teacher and very experienced meditator told me on retreat: You need an ocean of samatha to develop a drop of vipassana. I think this is very good advice. 

In my experience, my vipassana meditation always benefits from periods of intense samadhi. Sometimes I will go for several months only concentrating on the breath around the nose for one to two hours daily with the intention of developing strong samadhi to aid vipassana. I aim to be absolutely resolute and diligent in this practice, because I know that the more I can develop concentration, the deeper I can pierce the field of insight and the better equipped I’ll be to identify and retain that insight. When the Buddha achieved his enlightenment he developed concentration to the fourth jhana–an intense feat that took years of practice–then turned his mind to vipassana. Concentration is key. 

As lofty as the Buddha was in his own practice, for us non-enlighteneds he kept things pretty simple. He recommended a method of meditation that employs both samatha and vipassana: mindfulness of breathing. The mindfulness of breathing technique is beautiful because it is both concentrated on the breath and brings in subtle body contemplation (the breath and its sensations). With this technique one can develop concentration and insight with enough profundity to achieve significant personal development. If you never do anything else, just focus on the breath. 

If you want to learn more about the development of samadhi, sign up for one of my 201: Exploration of Anapanasati courses. In this course we learn how to develop deeper concentration with the breath. In the future I’ll be working on a vipassana specific course as well, though I highly recommend the 10-day Vipassana retreat at Dhamma Medini as well. In the meantime, consider contemplating the impermanent nature of your body and your experience. 

Go well.