Buddhism

====Meditation and insight====
{{See also|Four Noble Truths#Substituting "liberating insight"|l1=Meditation and insight|Yoga|l2=Yoga|}}
[[File:Farsari Daibutsu.jpg|thumb|''[[Kamakura Daibutsu]]'', [[Kōtoku-in]], Kamakura, Japan]]

In the Pali canon, the Buddha outlines two meditative qualities which are mutually supportive: ''[[samatha]]'' (Pāli; Sanskrit: ''śamatha''; "calm") and ''[[vipassanā]]'' (Sanskrit: ''vipaśyanā'', insight).{{sfnp|Bodhi|2005|pp=269–270, 440 ''n''. 13}} The Buddha compares these mental qualities to a "swift pair of messengers" who together help deliver the message of ''nibbana'' (SN 35.245).{{sfnp|Bodhi|2000|pp=1251-1253}}

The various Buddhist traditions generally see Buddhist meditation as being divided into those two main types.{{sfnp|Welch|1967|p=396}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/theravada.html|title=What is Theravada Buddhism?|access-date=17 August 2013|work=Access to Insight|archive-date=21 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821040134/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/theravada.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Samatha is also called "calming meditation", and focuses on stilling and concentrating the mind i.e. developing samadhi and the four ''dhyānas''. According to [[Damien Keown]], ''vipassanā'' meanwhile, focuses on "the generation of penetrating and critical insight (''paññā'')".{{sfnp|Keown|1996|pp=106–107, context: Chapter 7}}

There are numerous doctrinal positions and disagreements within the different Buddhist traditions regarding these qualities or forms of meditation. For example, in the Pali ''Four Ways to Arahantship Sutta'' (AN 4.170), it is said that one can develop calm and then insight, or insight and then calm, or both at the same time.{{sfnp|Bodhi|2005|pp=268, 439}} Meanwhile, in Vasubandhu's ''Abhidharmakośakārikā'', vipaśyanā is said to be practiced once one has reached samadhi by cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness (''smṛtyupasthāna''s).<ref>De La Vallee Poussin (trans.); Pruden, Leo M. (trans.) ''Abhidharmakosabhasyam of Vasubandhu''. Vol. III, page 925.</ref>

Beginning with comments by [[Louis de La Vallée-Poussin|La Vallee Poussin]], a series of scholars have argued that these two meditation types reflect a tension between two different ancient Buddhist traditions regarding the use of ''dhyāna,'' one which focused on insight based practice and the other which focused purely on ''dhyāna''.{{sfnp|Bronkhorst|1993}}<ref name="buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de">Anālayo. [https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/briefcriticism.pdf "A Brief Criticism of the 'Two Paths to Liberation' Theory"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200321164937/https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/briefcriticism.pdf |date=21 March 2020 }} JOCBS. 2016 (11): 38-51.</ref> However, other scholars such as Analayo and Rupert Gethin have disagreed with this "two paths" thesis, instead seeing both of these practices as complementary.<ref name="buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de"/>{{sfnp|Gethin|2001|p=xiv}}