Samatha: Calm abiding Meditation
Samatha generally is taught at the beginning of relationship as calmness or peace is the objective of meditation. One starts with a few instructions regarding posture, breathing and eye focus. Meditation is meant to be enjoyed but just sitting anywhere for a period of time produces discomfort in the mind. Meditate with vigour and the perfection of vigour.
Be generous especially to yourself as calming oneself is essential to mental and physical health. Generosity has perfection as does ethics, patience, vigour and concentration leading to wisdom of going beyond the generally held views (bonds) of mundane existence.
This leads Samatha Meditation to more and more instructions till one becomes involved in Mahamudra, the great gesture (by hand). The essence of this is to relax the mind so that one is aware with naked insight without support. Support is usually considered false images but means deluded awareness with insanity.
Depending on one’s ability and circumstances MahaMuDra can lead to enlightenment faster than any other method but support is necessary as food, clothing, medicine and shelter are very important in mundane existence so all people like to boast or complain regarding how much support one needs or gets.
Support involves images or pictures as the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words has truth. As images arise in one’s mind they produce emotional discomfort and that is why using images in meditation is an antidote. Just as any substances in wrong quantities can produce the opposite effect, the use of images in meditation produces great debate.
This is why it is good to find teachers that you can relate to over a long period of time as a compass to your aspirations.
Please review the next section Meditations Using Pure Mental Images with an open mind as possible.
Samatha, peace and being at rest are all connected. Being at rest is involved in Vajrasattva meditation. To attain to complete enlightenment one needs to realize why the Vajrasattva meditation is the way to realizing any meditation. Vajrasattva is the way and is connected to the Holy Spirit in Christianity but the Bible relates Jesus (the Messenger) as the way. This causes problems.
Vajrasattva is referred to with a qualifying term of Heruka which some relate to "blood drinker", a misunderstanding. Blood is mostly water necessary for life in this universe of dualistic fixation. When one attains to enlightenment water become amrita "that which is immortal" causing the confusion.