Vipassana, samadhi and samatha samadhi, are they all the same? Is Jhana necessary for liberation?
There is no such thing as Vipassana Samadhi or Samatha Samadhi.
There is only Samadhi.
And Samadhi the word does not mean
Concentration, that is one of the most ridiculous translations of that term.
It means stillness
Not concentration.
Concentration is what I was forced to do at school when the teacher was standing over me
"Concentrate!!"
And to this day the word has got a terrible meaning for me.
Or it was what we did in the Second World War
we had Concentration Camps and sometimes people think my goodness
I'm now in a concentration camp because I'm supposed to do concentration meditation.
This is a camp. Oh my god. What have I got myself into? [laughter]
This is not a concentration camp, this is a stillness, it's the happy camp.
It is much more like Club Med than a concentration camp
It is Club Med. And what do I mean by that?
Club Meditation Serpentine. [laughter]
So what Samadhi means means stillness you?
You know that last rains retreat one of the
people who was staying here for the three months rains retreat which finished recently, a Chinese girl,
she told me afterwards 'that's amazing that you keep calling this stillness' because you know
she's read the the equivalent of the Pali Sutras, that's called the Agamas in Chinese.
So whenever they mentioned the word Samadhi, they never used Chinese words even remotely similar to concentration.
It's the two symbols and I probably got the pronunciation wrong: it's "Shue" and "Guan"
Shue means still, Guan as in Guan Yin means looking over, looking on.
Still and mindful.
Was the translation used in all of the Chinese texts for the word Samadhi
Nothing to do with concentration.
Still and aware.
It's beautiful to have that sort of confirmation
and once you take the word concentration away that
solves all the problems of what you think this Samadhi is and all of the terrible
conflict between Vipassana and Samatha - that is way past its use-by date.
No conflict at all
Samadhi
still
looking on
Samatha, Vipassana combined
in the one word Samadhi.
So that's what we're doing because when we're still
we're mindful, when we're mindful we become still.
That simile which I gave in the first evening
walking up the hillside
when you go fast you
just can't see, you're not mindful. You're not aware.
Things are moving too fast. They don't fully form in your senses
When you go slower, you're more mindful, you see more and it's more delightful.
When you stop, when you're perfectly still that's when you get the insight,
that's when you see things properly and you also get happiness too.
So really Samatha, Vipassana and Joy,
they go together. I don't know why people keep missing out the joy part.
Because they miss out the joy part they think this is hard work
I'm going to be enlightened. I've really got to work hard. If I'm gonna have insight
I have to really work hard. If I'm going to get Jhanas I have to really work hard.
Many people have been working hard they've got no insights at all.
Working hard, no stillness at all.
Working hard, no happiness at all.
Going in the wrong direction.
Still, "shue", maybe that's where we get the English word from: "sh.."
Is that true? I don't know, any linguist here? Probably not.
And Guan: just looking on.
It's a beautiful word. Now you know what meditation is: be still and just look on, that's Samadhi
So that's Vipassana Samadhi, Samatha Samadhi. Samadhi is both.
And also Sukha Samadhi, happiness as well.
So if you think you have Samadhi but haven't got a smile on your face, I'm sorry, that's not Samadhi.
You may be concentrating
You may be on the outside still just like those guards outside Buckingham Palace, they're so still
but you think they're going to get Enlightened, you think they're in Jhana?
No way - that's total force, total control.
That's not the way to meditate, not like a guard or Buckingham Palace.
The way to be still is to be totally relaxed.
Still, I'm just looking on, and happy. That's actually the way.
Is Jhana necessary for liberation? Of course it is. There is an Eightfold Path.
The last factor of the Eightfold Path is Samma Samadhi. Samma Stillness.
And that is always every time without exception, hundreds of times in those Suttas,
the word of the Buddha, described as One Two Three Four Jhanas and nothing else.
Just Jhanas.
If the Jhana's weren't necessary the Buddha in his great wisdom and compassion
would have taught us a Sevenfold path.
But he said an Eightfold Path because every one of those factors is absolutely necessary for enlightenment
Jhana is as necessary as your precepts.
So sometimes people think well you can cut to the chase: just do meditation and don't keep any precepts.
So they actually do a five-fold path because three of the paths are all about precepts, about your conduct.
So no, you can actually do the whole Eightfold Path and then you get enlightened.
So yeah, Jhana is necessary for liberation, no doubt about that.
Any arguments? It's really nice to have an argument in the evening really gets people excited
Okay
And if you doubt that I'll show you the texts from the word of the Buddha
where it says that specifically without any shadow of a doubt.
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