What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
SarathW
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What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by SarathW »

What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?
Assuming, Samatha meditation is the kamma what will be its fruit (Vipaka)?
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DooDoot
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

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I never read in the suttas about "samatha meditation". Can someone quote please. But I have read "samatha" is a vipaka of "samadhi".
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by mikenz66 »

DooDoot wrote: Thu May 31, 2018 9:59 am I never read in the suttas about "samatha meditation". Can someone quote please. But I have read "samatha" is a vipaka of "samadhi".
“These two things play a part in realization.
“Dve me, bhikkhave, dhammā vijjābhāgiyā.
What two?
Katame dve?
Serenity and discernment.
Samatho ca vipassanā ca.
...
https://suttacentral.net/an2.21-31/en/sujato#31
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DooDoot
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by DooDoot »

mikenz66 wrote: Thu May 31, 2018 10:05 am “These two things play a part in realization.
“Dve me, bhikkhave, dhammā vijjābhāgiyā.
What two?
Katame dve?
Serenity and discernment.
Samatho ca vipassanā ca.
...
https://suttacentral.net/an2.21-31/en/sujato#31
OK. Thanks. A vipaka (fruit) of samatha is greed is given up (since the mind attains contentment).
What is the benefit of developing serenity?

Samatho, bhikkhave, bhāvito kamatthamanubhoti?

The mind is developed.

Cittaṃ bhāvīyati.

What is the benefit of developing the mind?

Cittaṃ bhāvitaṃ kamatthamanubhoti?

Greed is given up.

Yo rāgo so pahīyati.
However, I don't read the term "samatha bhavana" (tranquility mediation) in the above sutta.

Below, samatha is a vipaka of concentration.
"Any view belonging to one who has come to be like this is his right view. Any resolve, his right resolve. Any effort, his right effort. Any mindfulness, his right mindfulness. Any concentration, his right concentration: just as earlier his actions, speech, & livelihood were already well-purified. Thus for him, having thus developed the noble eightfold path, the four frames of reference go to the culmination of their development. The four right exertions... the four bases of power... the five faculties... the five strengths... the seven factors for Awakening go to the culmination of their development. [And] for him these two qualities occur in tandem: tranquillity & insight.

MN 149
Last edited by DooDoot on Thu May 31, 2018 10:19 am, edited 6 times in total.
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by mikenz66 »

Yes, but I guess "samatha/vipassana meditation" is just a shorthand way of saying "development of samatha/vipassana".

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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by DooDoot »

mikenz66 wrote: Thu May 31, 2018 10:09 am Yes, but I guess "samatha/vipassana meditation" is just a shorthand way of saying "development of samatha/vipassana".
Sure, but where is the term "samatha/vipassana bhavana" found in the suttas? :shrug:
Mendicants, there are these four ways of developing immersion (concentration/samadhi) further.

Catasso imā, bhikkhave, samādhi bhāvanā.

https://suttacentral.net/an4.41/en/sujato

There is a way of developing immersion further that leads to pleasant abiding in the present.

There is a way of developing immersion further that leads to gaining knowing and seeing.

There is a way of developing immersion further that leads to mindfulness and clear comprehension.

There is a way of developing immersion further that leads to the ending of defilements/outflows.
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by Dhammanando »

DooDoot wrote: Thu May 31, 2018 10:10 am Sure, but where is the term "samatha/vipassana bhavana" found in the suttas? :shrug:
Samatha-bhāvanā and its synonym samatha-kammaṭṭhāna are mainly commentarial terms, though the former does occur once in the Piṇḍapātapārisuddhi Sutta in the uncompounded genitive form samatha-vipassanānaṃ bhāvanāya.

More common in the suttas are expressions involving the verb bhāveti from which bhāvanā derives:

samathaṃ bhāveti - develops samatha.

samathapubbaṅgamaṃ bhāveti - develops samatha first.

samatho bhāvito - samatha [that is/has been] developed.

samatho bhāvetabbo - samatha should be developed.

samathaṃ bhāvayato - of one developing samatha.

bhāvehi samathaṃ - Develop samatha!


Other sutta expressions include:

samathanimittaṃ yonisomanasikārabahulīkāro - one who makes much of proper attention to the samatha sign.

cetosamathamanuyuttā viharatha - Dwell devoted to mental samatha!

samathaṃ paṭipādesiṃ - I practised samatha.

cetosamathe yogo karaṇīyo - devotion with regard to mental samatha is [something] to be done.

ajjhattaṃ cetosamathaṃ anuyuñjati - he pursues mental samatha internally.

paccattaṃ samathaṃ labhāmi - I personally obtain samatha.
Yena yena hi maññanti,
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.


In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by Dhammanando »

SarathW wrote: Thu May 31, 2018 9:53 am What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?
If samatha is developed to the point of appanā-samādhi, the vipākas are (1) rebirth in a Brahmā realm and (2) the form-realm resultant consciousnesses (rūpāvacara-vipākacitta) that arise while dwelling there (and which cannot arise in any other realm).

If samatha development falls short of appanā-samādhi, the types of vipāka will be the same as those produced by sense-sphere great wholesome consciousnesses on any occasion of doing something meritorious.
Yena yena hi maññanti,
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.


In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
(Sn. 588)
SarathW
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by SarathW »

appanā-samādhi,
Thank you Bhante.
I think you meant at least first Jhana.
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by robertk »

SarathW wrote: Fri Jun 01, 2018 2:21 am
appanā-samādhi,
Thank you Bhante.
I think you meant at least first Jhana.
===============

The Thirty-one Planes of Existence

https://accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sagga/loka.html
Appana-samadhi includes the first jhana.
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by SarathW »

Appana-samadhi includes the first jhana.
Thanks.
If you look at the link it include first Jhana minor and medium.
What are they?
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by Dhammanando »

SarathW wrote: Fri Jun 01, 2018 3:08 am If you look at the link it include first Jhana minor and medium.
What are they?
It should be ‘inferior’, not ‘minor’.

In the commentaries each jhāna is called inferior (hīna) if the yogi has just attained it, ‘medium’ (majjhima) if it’s been developed to a limited extent, and ‘superior’ (paṇīta) if it’s been mastered. Each of the three leads to rebirth in a successively higher Brahmā realm.
Yena yena hi maññanti,
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.


In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by DooDoot »

Dhammanando wrote: Thu May 31, 2018 1:44 pm More common in the suttas are expressions involving the verb bhāveti from which bhāvanā derives....
Thank you Venerable Dhammanando for this excellent informative post.
Dhammanando wrote: Fri Jun 01, 2018 1:32 amIf samatha development falls short of appanā-samādhi, the types of vipāka will be the same as those produced by sense-sphere great wholesome consciousnesses on any occasion of doing something meritorious.
Is this dismissing neighbourhood-concentration (upacāra-samādhi) as mundane or simply overlooking it?
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by Dhammanando »

DooDoot wrote: Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:58 am Is this dismissing neighbourhood-concentration (upacāra-samādhi) as mundane or simply overlooking it?
It's classifying it as a sense-sphere consciousness rather than a form-sphere one.
Yena yena hi maññanti,
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.


In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
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DooDoot
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Re: What is the Vipaka of Samatha meditation?

Post by DooDoot »

Dhammanando wrote: Fri Jun 01, 2018 5:04 pm form-sphere one.
OK, Venerable Dhammanando. Thank you, again. I suppose that is reasonable.

So now I ask the eternal unanswered question. Why is 'rupa jhana' called 'rupa' jhana?

I have heard it proposed that 'rupa' here refers to 'nimitta' ('mental images of light'; lit 'forms'). However my personal guess is 'rupa' is related to the calming processes of the physical body (passambhayaṃ kāyasaṅkhāraṃ, which initially generate one-pointedness, rapture & the jhana). For example, this physical calming (samatha) surely ends with the 4th jhana, where SN 36.11 says:
Having attained the fourth jhana, inhalation and exhalation have ceased (niruddho)... stilled (vūpasanto)... tranquilized (paṭippassaddho)

SN 36.11 https://suttacentral.net/sn36.11/en/sujato
There is always an official executioner. If you try to take his place, It is like trying to be a master carpenter and cutting wood. If you try to cut wood like a master carpenter, you will only hurt your hand.

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