Question: Dear respecting master, I used to practice Samatha meditation for a long time, now I start with Vipassana. I have heard that Samatha a method naturally leads to Vipassana as a new stage of mindfulness. Is it right? I want to know your opinions about this. Thank you Sayadaw!

” Samatha is like a meditation retreat; Vipassana is like a full-time meditation center. A meditation retreat is to give meditators a taste of Dhamma or doing good deeds. Most people cannot destroy their ignorance and attachment only by practice in meditation retreats. Besides most people cannot go to meditation retreats for five, seven, or ten days continuously. Most meditation retreats are not concerning to everyone. So these retreats are helpful to reduce our ignorance and attachment. This is controlling our Kilesa or disease of the mind, Kilesa is greed, anger, and delusion. A full-time meditation center is changing the life and the mind often for people who meditate there. It is concerned with most of the people to go and stay and practice any time easily without limit in the meditation centers. Because there is no limit in the meditation centers, it is easier for meditators to detach from limits by staying and doing good deeds all the time. Doing good deeds all the time by staying at the meditation center will fully change the whole life and mind if we are able to do it, it can change our life and mind to be opposite with laypeople.

Samatha is just destroying the effects, not the causes. The causes of Kilesa are doing, staying at home with our family, and working only for family, protecting only our family. Even if we are able to do for the others, we will not do it because most people are not doing like this for the others. Even if we can keep precepts, we will not do it. Even if we can give, we rarely give what we have to the others. If we cannot abandon all these mistakes of a layperson, we can never be free from Kilesa. If meditation retreats are enough, I will never open a full-time meditation center for sure because it is really difficult, I have to take many responsibilities all the time. But It’s great. Samatha is not Vipassana, a meditation retreat is not a full-time meditation center, it will not change naturally if we don’t change. If we don’t emphasize to open a full-time meditation center, we will never be able to do so. If we don’t emphasize to open a meditation retreat, we will never do it. Both are difficult but both are necessary.”