1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,740 Vipassana, samadhi and samatha samadhi, are they all the same? Is Jhana necessary for liberation? 2 00:00:05,740 --> 00:00:09,540 There is no such thing as Vipassana Samadhi or Samatha Samadhi. 3 00:00:09,540 --> 00:00:11,920 There is only Samadhi. 4 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:16,020 And Samadhi the word does not mean 5 00:00:16,020 --> 00:00:22,280 Concentration, that is one of the most ridiculous translations of that term. 6 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:26,480 It means stillness 7 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:28,660 Not concentration. 8 00:00:28,660 --> 00:00:34,500 Concentration is what I was forced to do at school when the teacher was standing over me 9 00:00:34,500 --> 00:00:36,600 "Concentrate!!" 10 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:40,680 And to this day the word has got a terrible meaning for me. 11 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:45,540 Or it was what we did in the Second World War 12 00:00:45,550 --> 00:00:49,320 we had Concentration Camps and sometimes people think my goodness 13 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:54,300 I'm now in a concentration camp because I'm supposed to do concentration meditation. 14 00:00:54,300 --> 00:00:58,040 This is a camp. Oh my god. What have I got myself into? [laughter] 15 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:02,840 This is not a concentration camp, this is a stillness, it's the happy camp. 16 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:07,300 It is much more like Club Med than a concentration camp 17 00:01:07,300 --> 00:01:10,440 It is Club Med. And what do I mean by that? 18 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:15,680 Club Meditation Serpentine. [laughter] 19 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:22,220 So what Samadhi means means stillness you? 20 00:01:22,220 --> 00:01:26,000 You know that last rains retreat one of the 21 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:32,600 people who was staying here for the three months rains retreat which finished recently, a Chinese girl, 22 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:38,520 she told me afterwards 'that's amazing that you keep calling this stillness' because you know 23 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:44,520 she's read the the equivalent of the Pali Sutras, that's called the Agamas in Chinese. 24 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:52,540 So whenever they mentioned the word Samadhi, they never used Chinese words even remotely similar to concentration. 25 00:01:52,540 --> 00:01:59,580 It's the two symbols and I probably got the pronunciation wrong: it's "Shue" and "Guan" 26 00:01:59,580 --> 00:02:06,960 Shue means still, Guan as in Guan Yin means looking over, looking on. 27 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:10,840 Still and mindful. 28 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:17,440 Was the translation used in all of the Chinese texts for the word Samadhi 29 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,900 Nothing to do with concentration. 30 00:02:19,900 --> 00:02:23,120 Still and aware. 31 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,260 It's beautiful to have that sort of confirmation 32 00:02:26,260 --> 00:02:30,780 and once you take the word concentration away that 33 00:02:30,780 --> 00:02:36,040 solves all the problems of what you think this Samadhi is and all of the terrible 34 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:43,160 conflict between Vipassana and Samatha - that is way past its use-by date. 35 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,360 No conflict at all 36 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:48,120 Samadhi 37 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:49,620 still 38 00:02:49,620 --> 00:02:51,330 looking on 39 00:02:51,330 --> 00:02:54,780 Samatha, Vipassana combined 40 00:02:54,780 --> 00:02:58,460 in the one word Samadhi. 41 00:02:58,460 --> 00:03:01,760 So that's what we're doing because when we're still 42 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:04,960 we're mindful, when we're mindful we become still. 43 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:08,080 That simile which I gave in the first evening 44 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:10,820 walking up the hillside 45 00:03:10,820 --> 00:03:13,140 when you go fast you 46 00:03:13,140 --> 00:03:17,320 just can't see, you're not mindful. You're not aware. 47 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:20,960 Things are moving too fast. They don't fully form in your senses 48 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:26,320 When you go slower, you're more mindful, you see more and it's more delightful. 49 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:31,360 When you stop, when you're perfectly still that's when you get the insight, 50 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:36,360 that's when you see things properly and you also get happiness too. 51 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:40,920 So really Samatha, Vipassana and Joy, 52 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:46,100 they go together. I don't know why people keep missing out the joy part. 53 00:03:46,100 --> 00:03:51,020 Because they miss out the joy part they think this is hard work 54 00:03:51,020 --> 00:03:55,000 I'm going to be enlightened. I've really got to work hard. If I'm gonna have insight 55 00:03:55,010 --> 00:03:59,940 I have to really work hard. If I'm going to get Jhanas I have to really work hard. 56 00:03:59,940 --> 00:04:03,280 Many people have been working hard they've got no insights at all. 57 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:06,080 Working hard, no stillness at all. 58 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,440 Working hard, no happiness at all. 59 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:13,140 Going in the wrong direction. 60 00:04:13,140 --> 00:04:21,800 Still, "shue", maybe that's where we get the English word from: "sh.." 61 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:27,040 Is that true? I don't know, any linguist here? Probably not. 62 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,620 And Guan: just looking on. 63 00:04:30,620 --> 00:04:37,760 It's a beautiful word. Now you know what meditation is: be still and just look on, that's Samadhi 64 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:43,160 So that's Vipassana Samadhi, Samatha Samadhi. Samadhi is both. 65 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:47,320 And also Sukha Samadhi, happiness as well. 66 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:57,060 So if you think you have Samadhi but haven't got a smile on your face, I'm sorry, that's not Samadhi. 67 00:04:57,060 --> 00:04:59,419 You may be concentrating 68 00:04:59,420 --> 00:05:06,860 You may be on the outside still just like those guards outside Buckingham Palace, they're so still 69 00:05:06,860 --> 00:05:10,060 but you think they're going to get Enlightened, you think they're in Jhana? 70 00:05:10,060 --> 00:05:13,980 No way - that's total force, total control. 71 00:05:13,980 --> 00:05:18,460 That's not the way to meditate, not like a guard or Buckingham Palace. 72 00:05:18,460 --> 00:05:23,080 The way to be still is to be totally relaxed. 73 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:28,560 Still, I'm just looking on, and happy. That's actually the way. 74 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:35,640 Is Jhana necessary for liberation? Of course it is. There is an Eightfold Path. 75 00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:43,500 The last factor of the Eightfold Path is Samma Samadhi. Samma Stillness. 76 00:05:43,500 --> 00:05:50,300 And that is always every time without exception, hundreds of times in those Suttas, 77 00:05:50,300 --> 00:05:56,180 the word of the Buddha, described as One Two Three Four Jhanas and nothing else. 78 00:05:56,180 --> 00:05:58,240 Just Jhanas. 79 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:03,660 If the Jhana's weren't necessary the Buddha in his great wisdom and compassion 80 00:06:03,660 --> 00:06:07,560 would have taught us a Sevenfold path. 81 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:13,080 But he said an Eightfold Path because every one of those factors is absolutely necessary for enlightenment 82 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:19,000 Jhana is as necessary as your precepts. 83 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:25,840 So sometimes people think well you can cut to the chase: just do meditation and don't keep any precepts. 84 00:06:25,840 --> 00:06:34,640 So they actually do a five-fold path because three of the paths are all about precepts, about your conduct. 85 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:40,120 So no, you can actually do the whole Eightfold Path and then you get enlightened. 86 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:46,020 So yeah, Jhana is necessary for liberation, no doubt about that. 87 00:06:46,020 --> 00:06:53,480 Any arguments? It's really nice to have an argument in the evening really gets people excited 88 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:55,780 Okay 89 00:06:55,780 --> 00:07:01,700 And if you doubt that I'll show you the texts from the word of the Buddha 90 00:07:01,700 --> 00:07:05,960 where it says that specifically without any shadow of a doubt. 91 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:10,820 (next question) When I'm tired, doing meditation bad thoughts come..