How you balance samatha and vipassana in your practice

This was a mini-thread running through the Static/Dynamic Jhana thread.
Just curious: What approach have you taken to balancing samatha and vipassana?

One practitioner on these boards did samatha-only for three years before turning to vipassana relatively recently.

Others do vipassana-only, as in rapid noting, or a vipassana-only that employs no labels.

cmarti mentioned doing vipassana in the morning and samatha at night--but was particular about not mixing the practices and only doing samatha at night. Nikolai mentioned doing kasina practice, but just until he felt concentration had built enough to engage with vipassana.

Kenneth talks about the importance of knowing, in the moment, what practice to do.

I've experimented with doing samatha for an hour, then turning to vipassana for an hour.

WWBD?

"Kenneth talks about the importance of knowing, in the moment, what practice to do."

Kenneth's approach is closest to mine.

Florian (MonkeyMind) gave an explanation of this elsewhere (the old DhO, I believe) that really made sense to. He more or less said that samatha and vipassana like to ends of a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum, the object is solid, smooth, stable, and on the other end it's vibratory, changing, arising and passing. One may learn to adjust their attention according to whatever situation arises by applying the right blend of concentration and investigation.

This takes some time. But once you get the hang of practicing across the entire spectrum, it really comes in handy.

~Jackson

Banthe Gunaratana is a really cool teacher, and I find him one of the most balanced in terms of integrating Samatha and Vipassana. I was a bit surprised when he used this annology, but it is a really good one (albeit macho). He described the use of the two practices as being like a soldier in a battle. Vipassana is the battlefield, whereas Samatha is the fortress. To be effective, you can use one as a ground to engage, and the other as a staging ground to regroup for future campaigns.

"Banthe Gunaratana is a really cool teacher, and I find him one of the most balanced in terms of integrating Samatha and Vipassana. I was a bit surprised when he used this annology, but it is a really good one (albeit macho). He described the use of the two practices as being like a soldier in a battle. Vipassana is the battlefield, whereas Samatha is the fortress. To be effective, you can use one as a ground to engage, and the other as a staging ground to regroup for future campaigns.-Mark VanWhy"

Beautiful metaphor! You gotta love Bhante G.

"Banthe Gunaratana is a really cool teacher, and I find him one of the most balanced in terms of integrating Samatha and Vipassana. I was a bit surprised when he used this annology, but it is a really good one (albeit macho). He described the use of the two practices as being like a soldier in a battle. Vipassana is the battlefield, whereas Samatha is the fortress. To be effective, you can use one as a ground to engage, and the other as a staging ground to regroup for future campaigns."

I thought love was the battlefield.
No wait--that was Pat Benatar.
So engaging on the battlefield without any fortress/staging ground means you get picked off (embedded) by the enemy (objects of awareness)?

"Banthe Gunaratana is a really cool teacher, and I find him one of the most balanced in terms of integrating Samatha and Vipassana. I was a bit surprised when he used this annology, but it is a really good one (albeit macho). He described the use of the two practices as being like a soldier in a battle. Vipassana is the battlefield, whereas Samatha is the fortress. To be effective, you can use one as a ground to engage, and the other as a staging ground to regroup for future campaigns."

After 4 months of jumping around with my beginning introduction to vipassana practice, sort of absorbing an overview of the practice and trying out little things here and there, I'm finding a pull towards samatha practice right now on the cushion, and vipassana in my daily life off the cushion. It's pretty cool so far. The hindrances/distractions/tones now sort of name themselves at times when they come up during samatha practice and mostly flitter away in between the breaths without taking center stage...at times, I'm not all focused and following the breath 100% of the time. Anyway, I'm so new at all this that I really am just in awe of seeing every little thing that arises and passes away and playing around with the balance and seeing how different days have different experiences in both samatha and vipassana...and how they play together. The right medicine as always is whatever works and whatever works is whatever is happening right now. Right?

"After 4 months of jumping around with my beginning introduction to vipassana practice, sort of absorbing an overview of the practice and trying out little things here and there, I'm finding a pull towards samatha practice right now on the cushion, and vipassana in my daily life off the cushion. It's pretty cool so far. The hindrances/distractions/tones now sort of name themselves at times when they come up during samatha practice and mostly flitter away in between the breaths without taking center stage...at times, I'm not all focused and following the breath 100% of the time. Anyway, I'm so new at all this that I really am just in awe of seeing every little thing that arises and passes away and playing around with the balance and seeing how different days have different experiences in both samatha and vipassana...and how they play together. The right medicine as always is whatever works and whatever works is whatever is happening right now. Right?"

Sounds like you're making great progress. You probably have a lot more concentration available off the cushion so that, in those moments when you remember to pay attention to phenomena as they arise and pass, you can actually do so with a lot of brightness and immediacy. Staying present off the cushion--aye carumba. This is a biggie for me!