# Shamata Vs Vipashyana Shamata means *calm abiding*. The purpose of shamata is to cultivate a state of peace and tranquility in the mind. Any practice explicitly for the purpose of calming the mind down can be considered a form of shamata. Quintessential Shamata practice involves returning to the object of meditation (usually the breath) over and over to calm the mind. It is often said that the purpose of shama, the purpose of cultivating a calm, peaceful mind is in order to practice vipashyana. Vipashyana means *clear seeing*. The purpose of vipashyana is to cultivate wisdom and understanding of the mind. Any practice explicitly toward this end can be described as a type of vipashyana. Quintessential vipashyana practice often involves asking a question and attempting to resolve it. The standard one is "who is the self that is meditating?". %% ## Useful Links Tags: - #topic/meditation - #topic/spirituality/meditation - #topic/spirituality/buddhism Created: [[2021-06-06]] Related: - [[21-7-2019-How-to-cut-through-suffering]] References: - Map: %%