Samatha

Samatha (Pāli), (Sanskrit: शमथ, śamatha) is the Buddhist practice (bhāvanā) of the calming of the mind (citta) and its 'formations' (saṅkhāra). This is done by practicing single-pointed meditation most commonly through mindfulness of breathing. Samatha is common to many Buddhist traditions. It may be accomplished by concentration on a meditation-object.

The semantic field of shi and shama is "pacification", "the slowing or cooling down", "rest". The semantic field of né is "to abide or remain" and this is cognate or equivalent with the final syllable of the Sanskrit, thā.

The Tibetan term for samatha is shyiné (Wylie: zhi-gnas). According to Jamgon Kongtrul, the terms refer to "peace" and "pacification" of the mind and the thoughts.

In modern Theravada, liberation is thought to be attained by insight into the transitory nature of phenomena. This is accomplished by the establishing of mindfulness, which is then being used for insight (P: vipassanā; S: vipaśyanā) practices, inquiry into the nature of the object, resulting in wisdom (P: paññā, S: prajñā). According to the Theravada tradition, samatha refers to techniques which assist in the calming of the mind. Samatha is thought to be developed by samadhi ("concentration"), which is thought to be the ability to rest the attention on a single object of perception. One of the principal techniques for this purpose is mindfulness of breathing (Pali: ānāpānasati). Although the four jhanas involve a heightened awareness, samatha meditation and jhana are often considered synonymous by the Theravada tradition. Samatha is commonly practiced as a prelude to and in conjunction with wisdom practices.

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