Samatha — Pali for 'tranquility' or 'calm abiding' — is the practice of training the mind to rest without distraction on a chosen object. In the Theravada classical scheme, samatha is the cultivation that develops the four jhanas (states of meditative absorption) and the four formless attainments. In the Tibetan tradition, samatha (shamatha) is presented as the foundation that must be stabilized before vipashyana can do its work. In every tradition, samatha and vipassana are described as the two yokes that carry the cart of the dharma — neither alone is sufficient.
The canonical object of samatha is the breath (anapanasati), taught at length in the Anapanasati Sutta (MN 118). The instruction is to attend to the breath at the nostrils or at the upper lip, simply noticing it as it comes and goes, without controlling it. When the mind wanders, return to the breath. Wander, return. Wander, return. Over weeks and months, the gaps lengthen. The mind, which has been scattered into a thousand directions by habit, begins to gather. Eventually it rests on the object continuously, without effort. Joy (pīti) arises; happiness (sukha) follows. The first jhana stabilizes. The Buddha described the progression in detail: from the first jhana (with applied and sustained thought, plus joy and happiness) through the second (no applied thought), third (joy fades, equanimity arises), and fourth (only equanimity and one-pointedness remain).
In the Tibetan tradition, the classical samatha instructions are laid out by Asanga's 'Stages of the Bodhisattva' and elaborated by Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo (15th century) in nine stages of mental settling — from initial placement, through stages of intermittent and continuous settling, to taming, pacifying, full pacification, single-pointed concentration, and full equipoise. Each stage is described with characteristic faults and antidotes.
The Theravada commentarial tradition (Visuddhimagga, ch. 3-11) catalogues forty traditional samatha objects: the ten kasinas (colored disks), the ten asubhas (decaying corpse contemplations), the ten recollections (Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, virtue, generosity, devas, death, body, breathing, peace), the four brahmaviharas (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity), the four formless realms, and others. The teacher matches the object to the disposition.
The instructions are simple. The practice is the work of decades.
