Samatha-vipassanā

A Buddhist meditation approach that cultivates tranquility (samatha) and insight (vipassanā), either together or in sequence.

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Samatha: A Buddhist meditation practice that develops tranquility, concentration, and steadiness of mind. It names the tranquility cultivated within this paired approach.
Pāli Canon: The collection of scriptures preserved in the Theravāda Buddhist tradition. Its discourses present tranquility and insight as related forms of meditation.
Dry insight: A Theravāda meditation approach that develops insight without first cultivating deep absorption. It contrasts with approaches that establish tranquility before insight.
Anapanasati: A Buddhist mindfulness practice centered on attending to the breath through successive stages of training. Breath practice can develop both calm and insight, depending on its use.
Vipassanā: A Buddhist meditation practice that develops insight into experience and its changing, unsatisfactory, and impersonal character. It names the insight cultivated alongside or after tranquility.
Buddhaghosa: A fifth-century Theravāda Buddhist commentator traditionally associated with the Visuddhimagga. His manual systematized meditation paths involving concentration and insight.
Paṭisambhidāmagga: A Pāli canonical treatise on analytical knowledge and Buddhist practice. It presents tranquility and insight as intertwined rather than strictly sequential.
Satipaṭṭhāna: A Buddhist framework for cultivating mindfulness of body, feeling, mind, and mental phenomena. Its contemplations offer structured ways to investigate experience.
Jhāna: A series of meditative absorptions marked by increasingly refined states of concentration. Concentration and absorption can provide a basis for insight practice.
Visuddhimagga: A fifth-century Theravāda treatise by Buddhaghosa on Buddhist doctrine and meditation practice. It describes distinct approaches that develop tranquility and insight.