WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.740 Vipassana, samadhi and samatha samadhi, are they all the same? Is Jhana necessary for liberation? 00:00:05.740 --> 00:00:09.540 There is no such thing as Vipassana Samadhi or Samatha Samadhi. 00:00:09.540 --> 00:00:11.920 There is only Samadhi. 00:00:11.920 --> 00:00:16.020 And Samadhi the word does not mean 00:00:16.020 --> 00:00:22.280 Concentration, that is one of the most ridiculous translations of that term. 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:26.480 It means stillness 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.660 Not concentration. 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 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:36.600 "Concentrate!!" 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:40.680 And to this day the word has got a terrible meaning for me. 00:00:40.680 --> 00:00:45.540 Or it was what we did in the Second World War 00:00:45.550 --> 00:00:49.320 we had Concentration Camps and sometimes people think my goodness 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:54.300 I'm now in a concentration camp because I'm supposed to do concentration meditation. 00:00:54.300 --> 00:00:58.040 This is a camp. Oh my god. What have I got myself into? [laughter] 00:00:58.040 --> 00:01:02.840 This is not a concentration camp, this is a stillness, it's the happy camp. 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:07.300 It is much more like Club Med than a concentration camp 00:01:07.300 --> 00:01:10.440 It is Club Med. And what do I mean by that? 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:15.680 Club Meditation Serpentine. [laughter] 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:22.220 So what Samadhi means means stillness you? 00:01:22.220 --> 00:01:26.000 You know that last rains retreat one of the 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, 00:01:32.600 --> 00:01:38.520 she told me afterwards 'that's amazing that you keep calling this stillness' because you know 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. 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. 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" 00:01:59.580 --> 00:02:06.960 Shue means still, Guan as in Guan Yin means looking over, looking on. 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:10.840 Still and mindful. 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:17.440 Was the translation used in all of the Chinese texts for the word Samadhi 00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:19.900 Nothing to do with concentration. 00:02:19.900 --> 00:02:23.120 Still and aware. 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:26.260 It's beautiful to have that sort of confirmation 00:02:26.260 --> 00:02:30.780 and once you take the word concentration away that 00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:36.040 solves all the problems of what you think this Samadhi is and all of the terrible 00:02:36.040 --> 00:02:43.160 conflict between Vipassana and Samatha - that is way past its use-by date. 00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:46.360 No conflict at all 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:48.120 Samadhi 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:49.620 still 00:02:49.620 --> 00:02:51.330 looking on 00:02:51.330 --> 00:02:54.780 Samatha, Vipassana combined 00:02:54.780 --> 00:02:58.460 in the one word Samadhi. 00:02:58.460 --> 00:03:01.760 So that's what we're doing because when we're still 00:03:01.760 --> 00:03:04.960 we're mindful, when we're mindful we become still. 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:08.080 That simile which I gave in the first evening 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:10.820 walking up the hillside 00:03:10.820 --> 00:03:13.140 when you go fast you 00:03:13.140 --> 00:03:17.320 just can't see, you're not mindful. You're not aware. 00:03:17.320 --> 00:03:20.960 Things are moving too fast. They don't fully form in your senses 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:26.320 When you go slower, you're more mindful, you see more and it's more delightful. 00:03:26.320 --> 00:03:31.360 When you stop, when you're perfectly still that's when you get the insight, 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:36.360 that's when you see things properly and you also get happiness too. 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:40.920 So really Samatha, Vipassana and Joy, 00:03:40.920 --> 00:03:46.100 they go together. I don't know why people keep missing out the joy part. 00:03:46.100 --> 00:03:51.020 Because they miss out the joy part they think this is hard work 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 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. 00:03:59.940 --> 00:04:03.280 Many people have been working hard they've got no insights at all. 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:06.080 Working hard, no stillness at all. 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:09.440 Working hard, no happiness at all. 00:04:09.440 --> 00:04:13.140 Going in the wrong direction. 00:04:13.140 --> 00:04:21.800 Still, "shue", maybe that's where we get the English word from: "sh.." 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:27.040 Is that true? I don't know, any linguist here? Probably not. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:30.620 And Guan: just looking on. 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 00:04:37.760 --> 00:04:43.160 So that's Vipassana Samadhi, Samatha Samadhi. Samadhi is both. 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:47.320 And also Sukha Samadhi, happiness as well. 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. 00:04:57.060 --> 00:04:59.419 You may be concentrating 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 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:10.060 but you think they're going to get Enlightened, you think they're in Jhana? 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:13.980 No way - that's total force, total control. 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:18.460 That's not the way to meditate, not like a guard or Buckingham Palace. 00:05:18.460 --> 00:05:23.080 The way to be still is to be totally relaxed. 00:05:23.080 --> 00:05:28.560 Still, I'm just looking on, and happy. That's actually the way. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:35.640 Is Jhana necessary for liberation? Of course it is. There is an Eightfold Path. 00:05:35.640 --> 00:05:43.500 The last factor of the Eightfold Path is Samma Samadhi. Samma Stillness. 00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:50.300 And that is always every time without exception, hundreds of times in those Suttas, 00:05:50.300 --> 00:05:56.180 the word of the Buddha, described as One Two Three Four Jhanas and nothing else. 00:05:56.180 --> 00:05:58.240 Just Jhanas. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:03.660 If the Jhana's weren't necessary the Buddha in his great wisdom and compassion 00:06:03.660 --> 00:06:07.560 would have taught us a Sevenfold path. 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 00:06:13.080 --> 00:06:19.000 Jhana is as necessary as your precepts. 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. 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. 00:06:34.640 --> 00:06:40.120 So no, you can actually do the whole Eightfold Path and then you get enlightened. 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:46.020 So yeah, Jhana is necessary for liberation, no doubt about that. 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 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:55.780 Okay 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 00:07:01.700 --> 00:07:05.960 where it says that specifically without any shadow of a doubt. 00:07:05.960 --> 00:07:10.820 (next question) When I'm tired, doing meditation bad thoughts come..