Mastering the Core Teachings of Buddha - An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book

Insight practices are designed to penetrate the Three Illusions of permane nce , sati sfactorines s and separate self so as to attain freedom. (N.B., the illusion of satisfactoriness has to do with the false sense that continuing to mentally create the illusion of a separate, permanent self will be satisfactory or helpful, and is not referring to some oppressive and fun-denying angst trip). Insight practices (various types of vipassana, dzogchen, zazen, etc.) lead to the progressive stages of the progress of insight. Insight practices tend to be difficult and somewhat disconcerting, as they are designed to deconstruct our deluded and much cherished views of the world and ourselves, though they can sometimes be outrageously blissful for frustratingly short periods.

Concentration states are basically always some permutation of great fun, extremely fascinating, seductive, spacious, blissful, peaceful, spectacular, etc. There is basically no limit to how interesting concentration practices can be. Insight practice stages and revelations can also be very interesting, but are not potentially addictive the way concentration states and side effects can be. Insight practices tend to be hard work most of the time even if that work is just surrendering to things as they are.

One of the factors that actually adds to the confusion is that the concentration state terminology (jhanas) is used in the original texts to describe both the progressively more sophisticated concentration states

Concentration vs. Insight

and also the progress of insight, with little delineation of which was which. This was solved to some degree a few hundred years later when the stages of the progress of insight were articulated in the canonical commentaries, but the original problem was not mentioned. It was only in the second half of the 20th Century that the problem was sorted out to some degree by the Burmese, and I will delineate the vipassana jhanas later.

To try to keep this clear in a way that the old texts simply don’t, whenever I refer to jhana without mentioning whether I mean samatha or vipassana jhana, I always mean samatha jhana, a stable state produced by concentration practices. When I refer to those jhanas produced by insight practices, I will always call them vipassana jhanas.

Concentration practices develop concentration but they don’t develop wisdom. The problem is that concentration states can easily fool people into thinking that they are the end goal of the spiritual path because these states can become so blissful, spacious, and even formless, and thus can closely match some imprecise descriptions or expectations of what awakening might be like.

However, concentration practices can be very helpful and are very important. Without at least some skill in concentration practices, insight meditation is virtually impossible. There is an esoteric debate in the ancient commentaries about some students who got enlightened without even attaining the lowest of the concentration states (the first jhana, explained later), practitioners called “dry insight workers,” but I wouldn’t bank on this being a common occurrence. Luckily, insight practices themselves can simultaneously develop concentration and insight, though the dangers of being seduced by concentration states can lie in wait there as well. In short, you must master the first jhana as a minimum basis for beginning the progress of insight, but this is all that is required for enlightenment.

So long as one is very clear about what is concentration practice and what is insight practice, which may not be as easy an understanding to come by as some might think, concentration practice beyond the first jhana can be helpful to the insight practitioner. All of the concentration states stabilize the mind, obviously, and this has four primary benefits.

First, just a movie camera that is shaking wildly will not be likely to 134

Concentration vs. Insight

produce a clear or intelligible movie, so a mind that won’t stay settled on an object will not clearly perceive the ultimate truth of it. Second, as concentration states cultivate deep clarity and stability on content, they are very useful for promoting deep and healing psychological insights.

Put another way, if you want to bring up your stuff, do concentration practices.