Written by Jen Liu

“Shamatha is both a complete practice in itself, and it is the foundation for an entire spectrum of meditation techniques held within the Buddhist tradition. By finding that little dot of attention and working with it to stabilize and condition the mind, we cultivate a more fertile ground in which other awakened qualities like clarity, equanimity, and compassion can grow.”

There is a vast array of meditation techniques to explore in the Buddhist tradition, each offering an opportunity to train different aspects of the mind and heart. But a common thread of most, if not all, of those techniques is the practice of shamatha, or "calm-abiding" in Sanskrit.

During shamatha meditation, we work with repeatedly and gently placing our awareness on our breath so as to stabilize the mind, become familiar with the sensation of being in the present moment (and, by extension, being away from it), and discover the tranquility that naturally emerges when the mind is given a chance to settle and slow down.

This practice of placing our attention on an object is the same principle by which we hold the image of a loved one in our mind's eye during loving-kindness meditation, or sit with a certain question or concept during contemplation meditation. During walking meditation, the object of our calm-abiding awareness is the sensation of the bottoms of our feet making contact with the ground. Zooming the lens out even further, as we take our practice off the cushion and into our everyday lives, this way of working with our awareness is also how we learn to really just be with the dishes while we are doing the dishes!

When we talk about aspiring to have more "mindfulness" in our lives, we are describing something quite similar to the one-pointed awareness that shamatha meditation helps us develop — in other words, our ability to stay with the task at hand and work in sync with our mind instead of being dragged around by it. In this way, shamatha is both a complete practice in itself, and it is the foundation for an entire spectrum of meditation techniques held within the Buddhist tradition. By finding that little dot of attention and working with it to stabilize and condition the mind, we cultivate a more fertile ground in which other awakened qualities like clarity, equanimity, and compassion can grow.

This week, try incorporating the practice of shamatha into an off-the-cushion moment in your life and notice any change in your experience. It could be while sitting in traffic, folding laundry, waiting in line… or if you really want a challenge, during a heated argument. Your breath is always there for you to use as an anchor of mindfulness, and it can be said that the time we spend practicing on the cushion is really just training for us to be able to access that place while navigating the less predictable moments of our everyday lives.